Hey all, just finished my first shave with a DE. Coming from a fusion pro glide is quite a change. But I wanted to get into DE, so I did some research and wanted to put myself something together for less than $100 to get started. I bought a merkur 34c with feather blades, and semogue? 620 boar hair brush, and nice little chrome stand, and col conk bay rum soap($5) all from a place that im not sure I can mention here or not (they are on the west coast). Lathered up, first thing I noticed with the merkur and feather combo vs the fusion was that there was no tugging. I managed to shave two passes, only nicking myself once on the adams apple. Overall first shave was pretty good. Have a few rough spots and hardly no irritation. Im sure in time I will get my technique down and get smoother shaves. Any advice on my soap or shave gear is appreciated. Anyways, just saying hello.
Welcome to the Den Joel. You got yourself some nice gear! The only thing I would suggest is to get a blade sampler and try out different blades. There are other good quality and inexpensive soaps out there, but if Col. Conk works for you then that's great! Your milage may vary.
spacehobo, im sure there are better soaps and brushs out there. I guess I had my $100 budget and the last thing on the list was the soap lol. It seemed to have good reviews and was pretty cheap, so I grabbed one. I hear good stuff about caties bubbles, might try that soon.
Glad that you landed here at TSD, Joel! It is a great community of shavers. Join us on The Shave of the Day thread. That is the place to post your daily shaves. It is fun, and you will see all kinds of products. And please Mark YOUR location on the TSD map - instructions here.
welcome....and so another journey begins....enjoy this time as everything is new and exciting (not saying that ever goes away) but fight the urge to "try new things" and get that technique down
The more I look, the more I'm interested in straight razor shaving. But I know I gotta learn to walk before I can run!
You should learn about maintaining a straight razor, but don't be afraid to jump in! People were learning to shave with those long before safety razors were invented. (Though on reflection, most people just went to the barber to be shaved before WW1).
Hey Joel, welcome from a fellow newbie! I just had my first wet / DE shave myself this past Tuesday. I've been posting my daily shave in the Shave of the Day thread and getting some real good feedback there. Also check out the 30-Day Rule thread. There's a lot of great info on this site as I'm sure your finding, but also consider making posts and asking questions - there's a bunch of great members here with a passion for this stuff who are most eager to share their knowledge and experience. Cheers! - RT
