Razors, Brushes, and Soaps, Oh My! The sixth annual Big Shave Event will take place in the fall of 2020. This is the second year in a row that the event is located in Chandler, Arizona as The Big Shave Southwest. Officially, it’s an expo that features vendors and information about traditional shaving. What I realized by attending last year is that it’s so much more than a simple expo.
You’ll find safety razors, straight razors, shaving brushes, shaving soaps, shaving creams, aftershaves, and aftershave balms (most of which are actually lotions). Us bearded folk don’t get left out either. The traditional shaving world is full of great beard oils, balms, and waxes. You’ll also find alum, star jelly, scuttles, and a bunch of other weird grooming stuff that I swear I didn’t make up.
But most importantly, you’ll find people; a rather eclectic, yet tight-knit, group of vendors, artisans, Youtubers, podcasters, volunteers, and (somewhat) regular people like me who all share an affinity for traditional shaving methods.
What Is Traditional Shaving?
Maybe you’ve seen the advertisements for the Micro Touch One or you’ve stumbled across the Van Der Hagen safety razors on the shelves at Walmart or Target. That’s how most traditional shavers get started. You may also have heard traditional shaving referred to as wet shaving. I prefer the term traditional shaving. I consider any form of shaving that involves water to be wet shaving. My definition of traditional shaving is using tools and techniques that were popular before the rise of the multi-bladed cartridge razor.
There’s a growing population of men (and sometimes women) who have chosen to revisit the traditions of our grandfathers. We got tired of spending an entire paycheck on cartridge razor refills and canned goo. We were no longer satisfied shaving at light-speed just to get it over with and getting terrible shaves just to extend the life of our expensive disposables.
It’s possible to slow down and turn shaving back into a pleasurable ritual rather than a bothersome chore. Many of us have even decided to turn traditional shaving into a hobby. It’s a hobby that might seem odd to those outside of the club, but it can be quite addictive.
Traditional shaving can seem daunting to a newbie who has been using cartridge razors and gel from a can their entire life. Aren’t those razors dangerous? Do those razors even work? Isn’t more blades always better? Will I cut myself and die of blood loss the first time I try this? Do I need a brush? Badger, Boar, or Synthetic? Soap or Cream? Which razor should I buy? What about blades? What in the world is an alum block? Is this guy really going to play 20 questions right in the middle of his post? So many unknowns.
The Traditional Shaving Community
Web sites like Damn Fine Shave, Badger & Blade, The Shave Den, The Shaving Cadre, exist to answer these questions. At least, that’s what I thought at first. Each of those forums (and many others) have thousands of members who have made the switch from modern cartridges to the less expensive double-edge, single-edge, or even the deadly and fearsome straight razor.
As I started my journey into traditional shaving, I found myself spending more time than I ever would have imagined on those forums, probing the depths of the rabbit hole that I had stumbled into. What I discovered was that the forums don’t really exist for information sharing. The forums are a place for community, where you just happen to be able to find all of that other information as well.
As I began participating in that community, I started making online friends. I got personalized answers to my questions, and plenty of suggestions any time I ran into a problem. I received gifts from people I had never met in person. In the shaving world, we call those gifts PIFs, which stands for Pay It Forward. It’s one of the ways we welcome new people into the community.
Every once in a while, we get the opportunity to come together at events like The Big Shave Southwest. We get to shake hands, have a meal together, maybe share a beer or a cigar. The Big Shave Southwest isn’t really about the products, the shaving competitions, the live podcasts, YouTube filming, or anything else that happens there. Just like the forums aren’t really there for knowledge.
The Big Shave Southwest is about getting to spend time with other people who share this affinity for traditional shaving methods. When I attended last year, I got to meet people that I had spent years getting to know online. It created a really special family-type atmosphere that I wasn’t expecting. It was like a reunion with a few hundred people that I’d never met but still felt like I knew somehow.
What Does Shaving Have to Do With Wisdom Or Discipleship?
So, why am I writing about shaving on a web site that primarily deals with Biblical topics? Well, for one thing, it’s my web site, so I get to write about whatever I want. But more importantly, I think we can all learn a lesson or two from my experience with the traditional shaving community and The Big Shave Southwest.
This community is always looking for new members (Evangelism). Anyone is welcome to join us (Inclusion). In fact, converting new people from their cartridges to a safety razor is one of our favorite things to brag about on the forums (Proselytism). None of us claim to be experts, but we’re all willing to share the things we’ve learned so far (Discipleship). We enjoy giving gifts to other members of the community (Generosity). The only rule in most forums is kindness (Love). These are characteristics you wish for in any community, and my friends in traditional shaving exhibit them regularly.
I especially want to highlight the generosity of the traditional shaving community. This is one of the most benevolent groups of people I’ve ever had the pleasure to be a part of. Most of the vendors in this community are small business owners, not wealthy CEOs. Most of the forum members found traditional shaving as a way to save money (though that doesn’t always happen once you turn it into a hobby). Yet I’ve seen unbelievable generosity from both vendors and forum members over the years.
Traditional shavers really seem to enjoy raising money for a good cause. I’ve seen fundraisers, auctions, and raffles with proceeds benefiting things like breast cancer, colon cancer, and rare health conditions like Prader-Willi Syndrome. One artisan donates portions of their proceeds to autism research, first responders, veterans, and victims of violence.
I recently saw this community’s spirit of giving at work a little closer to home. In late 2019, just a few days before Christmas, a well-known brush maker lost his home in a house fire. Derek Wheeler, the owner of WildWestBrushworks, is local to my home state of Arizona and was the maker of last year’s Big Shave Southwest event brush. Less than a day after Derek broke the news about the fire, someone from the community had set up a GoFundMe page. Shortly after that, vendors began to offer generous gifts to contribute to a raffle to encourage more people to give.
Over the next two weeks, I watched this online community of people, most of whom had never met Derek and probably never done business with him, give sacrificially to help his family in their time of need. It didn’t matter that it was Christmas, a time when most people don’t have a lot to spare. We ended up raising over $10,000 for Derek’s family. In addition to the money, people donated shaving gear to help Derek replenish all of his lost equipment. In fact, many of the raffle winners donated their prizes as well.
Come Join Us at The Big Shave Southwest
These are the people I get to spend time with during The Big Shave Southwest. Generous, kind, fun-loving people who happen to share the enjoyment of a common hobby. We could all use more community like this. Especially those of us who attend church. It’s an unfortunate reality that many people go to church seeking community, and many fail to find it there.
Learn some lessons from my friends in the traditional shaving world. Be kind. Practice generosity. Welcome newcomers. Experiment and try new things. Find other people who love what you love. Share the things you love with others, without an agenda. Take some risks. Say yes to more events and activities that will bring you into close relationships with others.
The Big Shave Southwest is coming back to Chandler, Arizona later this year. The event was scheduled for March 28th, 2020, but due to the recent Coronavirus pandemic, it has been postponed until the fall. The event itself is free to attend, but there are also a handful of social activities on the days leading up to the event. Come out and see what this fanatical, fun, friendly group of people are like and learn a little bit about this hobby we enjoy so much.
Budget some cash and pick up some new gear to give the hobby a try. There’s even a sizeable PIF table at the event, so pick up a few things for free. Get a straight razor shave from a professional barber. Or just stop by and watch a live YouTube filming or Podcast recording. Get your caricature painted, and chat with some volunteers and vendors.
Be bold and join us on one of the day trips leading up to the event. You know you want an excuse to bail on work for a few days anyway. To stay informed on the new date, day trip offerings, and other news about the event, sign up for the newsletter on The Big Shave Southwest website, or subscribe to The Big Shave S’West Facebook Group. Come enjoy the merchandise and the activities, but most of all, remember to enjoy the people.
