Our goal at Rough and Tumble Gentleman is to be your best resource for all things wet shaving, but we know that one website is never enough. Men who take shaving seriously love to research and learn about this fascinating technique, so there’s no such thing as too much knowledge. To help you expand your understanding (or get you started if you’re a total newcomer), here are some of our favorite shaving resources.
Beginner Resources
The American Academy of Dermatology’s website is an excellent resource for all things related to skin health and hygiene. This basic guide to shaving is the easiest evidence-based introduction, although it does focus on using a mainstream cartridge or disposable razor.
WebMD What Men Don’t Know About Shaving
A medically-reviewed guide about shaving that gets into the topic in a little more detail. It’s still a great resource for beginners, but it also takes into account the common pitfalls of shaving and provides some problem-solving tips.
Wet Shaving Blogs and News
GQ is the ultimate men’s magazine. Their shaving news section offers a blend of product reviews, how-to guides, and even news about the shaving routine of male celebrities. GQ’s staff writers are big fans of wet shaving, but they also cover other shaving techniques, making them a very comprehensive resource.
Dovo is the world’s leading straight razor manufacturer, with a blog filled with wet shaving tips as well as advice on how to care for a straight razor. The blog also includes expert advice related to safety razors, which is not surprising since Dovo is the holding company of Merkur, a leading safety razor brand and another one of our favorites.
Proraso’s blog—especially the Ask a Barber series—is an amazing space to learn about the grooming products that make wet shaving so fun, like soaps, shaving creams, and aftershaves. The blog has a lot of phenomenal tips for how to use or pick these products.
This is an excellent blog dedicated to shaving with a safety razor! It’s operated by MÜHLE, which is one of our favorite safety razor manufacturers, and it’s an excellent resource for beginner safety razor basics as well as for how to care for your shaving accessories correctly.
Other Shaving Resources
This Youtube channel is our go-to for shaving product reviews and instructional videos. It’s run by Geo, a wet shaving enthusiast who turned his hobby into a career and even opened a store to sell wet shaving products and accessories. We love his channel for showcasing different wet shaving techniques and we also enjoy Geo’s warm, fatherly vibe.
Are you a fan of podcasts? If so, Lather Talk is our favorite way of absorbing wet shaving knowledge via the ol’ ears. Hosts Jon Hsieh and Gerard Gustillo discuss wet shaving news and interview guests from the community, including business owners and artisans.
Fragrantica is a resource dedicated to perfumes, but it has a very respectable aftershave database. If you’re curious about the fragrance notes in an aftershave you’d like to try, we highly recommend looking it up on this website—you can even find reviews and other recommendations!
This cool blog is a DIY resource if you want to learn to make your own shaving soap. It gets into the topic of soap-making in detail and explains every facet of the process.
Skin Health
This guide to razor burn is a useful resource. It explains the condition in simple terms and provides medically-reviewed advice for treatment and prevention.
DermNet NZ Folliculitis Barbae
If you’re prone to razor bumps, this page on folliculitis barbae (i.e. the official medical term for the condition) is a must-read. When we want to understand a skin concern with as much depth as possible, DermNet NZ is our go-to resource. This dermatologist-run website is a valuable educational resource that reminds us that common shaving issues can actually be real health concerns and also provides evidence-based advice on how to treat them.
Shaving Communities
Whenever we have a weird question, we know we might find the answer on any one of Reddit’s specialty forums. Wicked_Edge is a fantastic community for engaging with other wet shaving enthusiasts, sharing photos of your “shave of the day,” and asking questions. Make sure to also have a look at the sidebar, which features excellent guides and advice.
Badger and Blade is another thriving community for hardcore wet shaving enthusiasts but it’s also very welcoming to newcomers. It’s more of a traditional forum, with subforums dedicated to discussing both general shaving topics as well as very specific ones. The user base is a little older than on Reddit, so it’s worth signing up if you’d like to learn from men who have been wet shaving for decades.
If you’re especially passionate about straight razors, Straight Razor Place is another community worth checking out. It’s not quite as active as Wicked_Edge or Badger and Blade, but the discussion is very focused and the smaller community can feel very welcoming.
Michael Morris is the head writer here at Rough and Tumble Gentleman. He's got a ducktail beard and loves Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He's married to the woman of his dreams and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
