When starting off wet shaving, many people are confused about mugs and brushes. It's not hard to see why either! With mugs costing from all the way to 0 for a Hampshire Pewter Shaving Bowl and brushes ranging from your basic boars hair brush (like applying lather with cactus needles!) all the way to a 0 Rooney Super Badger shaving brush; people can get the absolute wrong idea about wet shaving.
The way I approach things is this: If you are going to spend a ton of money, do it where it counts and then spend as little as possible. There is one, and only one, area in the world of wet shaving where you should spend a fair amount of money; that is on a quality straight razor. However, as I've mentioned in previous articles, wet shaving and straight razor shaving are not the same thing. You can wet shave without a straight razor (or a safety razor), and you can also shave with a straight razor without wet shaving (although it is highly discouraged, try it once and you'll see why). With a little application of common sense, wet shaving can be relatively inexpensive to indulge in, and you will reap the rewards of this small investment for years to come.
First off, a standard coffee mug should be quite adequate for our purposes. I see no reason to pay for one that is custom monogrammed or even the ungodly price of -0 for a wooden or pewter shaving dish, be realistic and use a coffee cup! If you must get a mug specifically for shaving, how about one of your favorite college or pro football team? I still believe that would be absurd, however, to each his own.
Now, to brushes. You don't really believe that I would advise you to shell out for a Badger brush, do you? Of course not! I recommend, are you ready for it, a lady's powder brush! Ever since I started wet shaving, I have been using a synthetic powder brush that I purchased from my local grocery store for a whopping and it has worked fantastically. As far as boar's hair brushes go, unless you like being poked with a thousand tiny needles while you're applying your shaving lather, I would say avoid them at all costs. I hear that there are some on Amazon for about (badger hair) but when you factor in the shipping, it still doesn't make sense to me to pay twice as much for something that is of equal quality to something I can get for half and no shipping at Wal-Mart!
I hope that these words of common sense will encourage you to become a part of the wonderful world of wet shaving.
