Blog | Page 16 of 20 | Original Shave Company

How Edwin Jagger Made Their Footprint In The Art of Wet Shaving

Born and operated in Sheffield, England, Edwin Jagger is a preeminent male grooming brand. Since 1988 this family owned business has held firmly to integrity, inspired design and quality as their cornerstones.

In the past 20 years, Edwin Jagger has grown from a small local company to a globally recognized brand. They produce products for delivery to every area of the world, including special commissions by luxury brands in the U.S. and Great Britain for design of exclusive wet shaving products.

Edwin Jagger Safety Razor Gold DE89BA11Gbl — Edwin Jagger Wet Shaving Razor

Edwin Jagger’s following has grown largely because of the amount of attention and care the founder, Neil Ernst Edwin Jagger, has invested in the product line. He designs each implement and product with the meticulousness also applied to the manufacturing process. Edwin Jagger has become a well-established example of traditional British style. Together with state-of-the-art design, modern production and renowned Sheffield craftsmanship heritage, the brand exemplifies Sheffield, England and the art of grooming.

Known for bringing high quality and style to the wet shaving experience, Jagger’s line includes shaving brushes, razors, soaps, creams, lotions and accessories. Beard products like beard oil and beard shampoo are also part of the collection, for those who prefer to not go 100 percent clean-shaven.

Razors

Edwin Jagger is widely known for razor quality with exquisite design. The brand’s home of Sheffield, England in South Yorkshire is regarded for its steel craftsmanship, as it has been since the 1800s. This craftsmanship is reflected in the traditional quality of the razor line.

The brand knows when to provide convenience to customers and likewise, when to not reinvent the wheel. So many of the line’s razors use Gillette® Fusion® ProGlide™ and Gillette® Mach 3® blades, such as the handsome Fusion Razor R35711F.

Brushes

Edwin Jagger Shaving Brush - Pure Badger 81P27 — Edwin Jagger Wet Shaving Brush Made of Pure Badger

The brand’s shaving brushes are also very popular. Only the highest quality badger hair from the species Meles Meles will do, so the company has eight resident badgers that supply freshly cut hair after their own luxuriously pampering shampoo and conditioning. For over 200 years badger hair has been used for shaving brushes due to its water absorptive quality. This absorption provides rich, foamy lather when used with quality shaving soap or cream.

The brushes also lift and soften beard hair in preparation for shaving. Using a badger hair brush like the Pure Badger 81P26, shave quality is top notch, facial skin is improved and the shave just feels great.

Edwin Jagger Shaving Cream Cooling Menthol SCCMT — Edwin Jagger Wet Shaving Cream

Shaving Cream and Soap

Natural ingredients and organic plant derivatives are used to create the brand’s shaving creams and soaps. The line features a variety of cream and soap options, such as traditional hard soaps, premium creams and aftershave lotions. Each of the soaps and creams lather luxuriously with subtle fragrance of aloe vera and sandalwood. One such favorite is the Sandalwood Shaving Cream Bowl.

Shaving Accessories

Hand crafted soap bowls and wood, metal or porcelain shaving dishes are featured as part of the renowned English line. Shaving collections such as the safety blade set are extremely popular for men who want to add luxury and tradition to their shaving experience.

Posted on April 15, 2016October 23, 2017 by Sean Mason

The History of Col Conk and His Shaving Empire

Colonel Ichabod Conk, or Col. Conk as he is simply known, is a legendary figure among those who love a quality shave. Today’s Col Conk is a line of namesake-inspired shaving products. Yesterday’s Col Conk was a dapper gentleman who found himself inspired by love, looking good and smelling great.

History of Colonel Ichabod Conk and His Shaving Empire

Colonel Ichabod Conk was said to have been dapper and velvety-voiced, a man with legendary status due to his comings and goings which eventually led him to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Colonel Conk was made a pauper by the Civil War, like many men and women of that time. Rather than giving up to his lost comforts, he chose to travel to New Mexico and settle in Albuquerque, still very much the wild, wild west. He lived there for awhile before becoming acquainted with a lady who owned several barber shops in the growing but dusty town. If ever there was a place that men needed help with a shave, it would be out west.

It could be said that Colonel Conk married “up” in status, but marrying the shave shop owner was the best thing he ever did for himself and generations of men who love his products. Colonel Conk’s wife spent her days shaving men’s faces. One has to wonder whether Colonel Conk joined her to learn a new trade, earn his keep, or keep his eye on his new darling’s heart and status. Whatever his reason for picking up his first shaving mug and razor blade, this is when his real history began.

Colonel Conk became very good at a close shave, thanks to his wife’s introduction to the art. He helped his wife in both shaving of customers and accounting for the amassing fortune. Colonel Conk’s fiery spirit soon led to the idea of packaging the shaving products he and his wife used every day for sale to men all over the dusty, dirty west. Colonel Conk seems to have made it his personal mission to ensure the cowboys, pioneers, gunslingers, merchants, railroad men and gentlemen of the wide-open frontier looked as dapper as men from big cities of the east.

Col Conk started building his sales empire with shaving products and other toiletries. The business grew and expanded until he passed away in 1898. Sadly, Col Conk’s shaving empire died with him.

Col Conk Reincarnated

Colonel Conk lives on, however. His shaving name and likeness brand today’s Col Conk line of glycerine shave soap, lotions, beard care, mugs, brushes, aftershaves, balms and so much more.

To emulate the clean shaven, dapper style of Colonel Ichabod Conk, now all you have to do is visit the Original Shave Company. There, you will find a full array of Col Conk products, like the original proprietary glycerine shaving soap, pre-shave oil and handsome gift sets.

Posted on April 14, 2016October 23, 2017 by Sean Mason

The History of Dovo and the Medieval Heritage in Every Blade

The History of Dovo and the Medieval Heritage in Every Blade

Solingen, Germany, a city in the Rhineland region of the country, is the home of DOVO Straight Razors. DOVO Steelware was started there in 1906 to produce razors using the talents of local steelworkers in the town renowned since the Middle Ages for its metalworking craftsmanship and quality.

Born in the City of Blades

It is fitting that quality shaving razors are from Solingen, as the town has been called the City of Blades since Medieval times. When knights in shining armor defended castles, forts and ladies in Northern Europe, their swords and knives came from this village. In those days, a Solingen blade was considered quite fine and one of few worthy of being used by a knight.

In Solingen, swordsmithery was such a highly regarded art and business that Medieval swordsmiths swore a guild oath to never take their sword crafting secrets outside of the village. This oath lasted from the 5th century until the 1700s, when a group of Solingen swordsmiths broke their oaths and started making swords and knives in Shotley Bridge, England.

This story sounds almost mythological when considering human nature. After all, 1300 years is a long period during which to keep a secret among many men. Still, the story is proven real through recent discovery of blacksmith smelters over 2000 years old, found in and around the town.

Swords bearing the Solingen mark have been unearthed in places like the British Isles and other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The swords were so prized that they were very actively traded throughout the European continent. Even today, knives and blades from Solingen are considered prized.

Such secrets are hard to keep and, as proven later in the 18th century, holding onto the well kept heritage of Solingen became more difficult as time became modern. In the 15th century, what was inside Solingen became contained behind a fortification. What was outside could be kept out using these walls, especially considering the availability of fine swords from which the town flourished.

Modern Days Keep the Heritage Alive

Some bladesmen from the home village where DOVO razors were born migrated to America in 1736. Rather than taking their swordsmithing secrets abroad, these honorable men left that heritage behind for a new one in the New World. Descendants of these immigrants later became the founders of Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing, makers of Studebaker cars.

In 1906, a new type of blade was in fashion. No longer were swords carried by military men or gentlemen. The Edwardian era brought fashion and style to Solingen. With those concepts came shaving using a locally crafted razor made in the same quality as swords and knives of the Medieval era.

In Wald, a village near Solingen, DOVO Steelware started producing open razors. Bladesmithing began in a forge and grinding shop opened by the founders of a new shaving razor company, two men by the last names of Dorp and Voos. Thirteen employees started crafting the blades still made today, using the same craftsmanship of their 2000 year swordsmithing heritage.

Men who love a great quality shaving blade continue turning to razors from Solingen, where knights and gentlemen have sought the best blades in the world for well over 2000 years. Most popular are DOVO Shavette Razors and their professional quality replacement blades.

Posted on April 13, 2016October 23, 2017 by Sean Mason

Choosing The Perfect Mens Shaving Kit Built To Please

Women fill their bathroom cabinets, drawers and countertops with treasures of personal care and beauty. In recent years, men have become more personally attuned, seeking to take care of their appearance, almost as much as females. Men’s shaving has again become a very personal time of attention paid to oneself in the mirror, a time of introspection, self-pampering and grooming.

Part of the mansome revolution involves change in the quality of shaving materials and even the shaving process, itself. In decades past, men gave up “old fashioned” implements like safety razors, shaving brushes and foaming cups for quicker processes to just get them out the door.

Now, men enjoy the art of shaving. They enjoy warm shaving cream foamed in a cup, brushed onto the face with the finest boar’s bristle brush. They enjoy the difference a safety razor makes and taking extra time to ensure the best, closest and most self-attentive shaving process. Heck, men even enjoy the swishing of water that rinsing a double-edged razor provides between strokes. This is time to think, clear one’s head and self-indulge.

Along with the romanticization of shaving today as in the Victorian era comes the enjoyment of putting together one’s own mens shaving kit. Your men’s shaving kit is your own answer to a female’s makeup bag, the male version of self-indulgent moments of grooming. Just as much as you deserve self-indulgence, you deserve a well put together mens shaving kit.

What Your Mens Shaving Kit Must Include

There are five primary items to include within your own mens shaving kit. Those are:

Preferred Razor

Choosing the perfect razor for your mens shaving kit comes down to deciding the type of shaving experience you prefer. You may still wish to go with modern convenience of a Fusion razor or a Mach3. You may prefer the vogue, experience and close shave of a safety razor. Or maybe you are a real, old-school shaving aficionado, opting for a sling blade.

Shaving Brush

Perhaps the most fun to be had in shaving is the brushing on of foam. Quality bristles feel so great against the skin and start the shaving process elegantly and timelessly. Synthetic brushes work great for people who want the experience but not the animal bristles. Badger bristle brushes are available in several forms, including pure, best, super, or silver tip.

Pre-Shave Gel, Oil, Lotion or Tonic

Pre-shave skin preparations do exactly what they imply. That is, they prepare the skin and hair for the shaving process. By taking this extra step, your shave will be smoother, closer and more of a complete process. No men’s shaving kit is complete without pre-shave.

Shaving Cream or Soap

Whether you prefer shaving cream or shaving soap, brushing it on provides the full, enriching experience that your grandfather enjoyed each morning.

After Shave Balm, Lotion, Gel or Tonic

Once shaving is complete, nothing wakes your skin up from its warmed shaving pleasure like a good application of after-shave. Of course, your partner loves the fragrance on your skin just as much as you love the tingling that hurts so good.

Other items precious to any mens shaving kit are a quality zippered bag to contain all of your chosen shaving routine implements, a favorite shaving mug for your cream and brush, and a razor stand for the bathroom counter. If putting together your own shaving kit is a bit overwhelming, have no fear: This process is easy, thanks to Original Shave Company and our Bundle & Shave selection process.

Posted on April 11, 2016October 23, 2017 by Sean Mason