Just wanted to say thanks to the members of the community who recommended that I dump my cartridge razor in favor of a DE. A very generous member here, sent me a Merkur 34c which I received today and it's certainly a beauty to look at and hold. I ordered some blades from eBay which should be here soon. Since i don't know what brand of blade to use, I just ordered a sampler pack which I uploaded a picture of. Could you guys tell me which of my blades are best to start with and which ones I should leave alone until I get more experienced?
High their, @Trickson , you have joined a very friendly and informative forum. Glad to have you. Enjoy the ride.
Hello and Welcome! All of the blades you have there are good and will cut whiskers no problem. Your best bet is to pick one and stick with it until you run out, focus on technique and good shaves will follow no matter which blade you pick. Check out the links in my signature for "riding the cap" it is a technique that I believe reduced irritation and gives you the best shaves possible. Also check out the link for the 30 Day Crew thread, here we focus on helping each other achieve the best shaves possible through the sharing of knowledge and experiences.
Choice of blades becomes a fine tuning once you get your technique nailed down. The Voskhods have their fans, as do the Feathers. Along with Astra and Polsilver they are favorites of mine. All the others are liked by someone or they wouldn't still be selling them! To avoid a problem with dullness and eliminate a variable while you are starting out - don't try to get 14 shaves from a single blade. Three uses is probably enough to enjoy the best service without tossing too soon. Assuming 5 blades times 3 shaves - that's at least two weeks with any one brand. Keep notes about your impressions of each one so you'll know what to reorder, but don't write any off just yet. Six months from now revisit them and you may find they work better as your skill improves. And save he Feathers for last. They have a reputation of being sharp, because ... well, they are razor blades! Have you chosen a soap or brush? Between Barbasol in a can, creams, croaps, and hard soaps there's lots of choices. Same with brushes be they badger, boar, horse, or synthetic. I won't open up the can o' worms about face VS. bowl lathering. Everyone has their ways to enjoy their shaves.
I still need to get some shave soap. What i'd really like to get is the bar of soap that whips up into a shave cream. I've seen them used on YouTube videos. As far as the brush goes, I have one made from boars hair. The aftershave i chose was vintage 60s or 70s Brut.
Because you already have chosen your aftershave makes sense to find a soap with a complimentary scent. Brut is complex, but it's been around for a while. Someone may know a soap maker that has already matched it! If you want to do the research and try to find a matching soap there's info about the scent profile HERE.
@RyX has it - the other alternative is to find a soap that ends with -no- scent to speak of once you've rinsed. ARKO and Williams both have scents that disappear after shaving. (at least, I can't tell, and my wife couldn't really tell either) Rather than try to learn a brush soap or brushless cream on the fly, start your journey with the same stuff you used for the carts. Barbasol, Edge Gel, Gillette Gel, Dove soap, whatever floats your boat.
I have a bottle of Barbasol and Harry's shave gel on hand. The Harry's razor was the worst i've ever used lol. I threw it away after the first shave and kept the cream. It smells nice. The Barbasol has no smell that i recall.
The razor blade can make a big difference when you first start, but your technique is more important. I would make 4 suggestions: -Try to focus on one specific thing each time you shave, like pressure, speed, or angle. It is easier to improve if you are working at one thing at a time rather than trying to master all of them at once. -Use each individual blade 3 to 4 times. Sometimes the second shave with a blade feels different than the first. -Don't forget that all of the "extra" stuff in wet shaving has a skill associated too. I spent what seems like two months with my shaves getting worse and worse before I realized I was slowly mixing my foam with less and less water. The day after I realized it, I was back to great shaves (I am glad I knew how good it could be, I almost got frustrated enough to quit). -Leave one of each type of blade in the package. As you are learning and your technique is developing, your preference in blades will change too. By the time you have tried all of them you may have a very different opinion of a certain brand. Most likely, by the time you are done trying them all, the blade will make less difference, but you will be able to try each brand again to find the one that you like best once you are past the steep part of the learning curve. Besides, it is fun to realize how far you have come when you try the brand you hated a second time and realize how much you have improved, and that it wasn't as bad as you thought. Good luck!
Glad you've got the 34C in-hand, @Trickson . It was an EXCELLENT razor for me to start with, and I'm sure it'll do you well. Great choice of blades in that sampler pack. All will cut very nicely. @RyX already eluded to what I consider the biggest hurdle when first getting into wet shaving: focus more on technique and a bit less on all the extraneous other things. Learning proper blade angle and how to ride the cap made night day difference for me. Was my "A-ha moment."
@Trickson -I'm excited for you! Blades are such a personal preference that you just pick one and get started. That said-In my opinion Astras are a good place to start.
Start with the green Astra or the Gillette Silver Blue. Both are very smooth and forgiving. Save this Feathers until later. Much later. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
My favorite blades are the Gillette Silver Blue and the Polsilvers. If you're in a rush to try your razor; Barbasol is the only can shaving cream I feel is real shaving soap. If you're looking for some nice (real nice) shaving soap; look in to Stirling soap. They have many, many scent and all lather great; I almost exclusively use them. Stirling also sells nice brushes as well.
When I first started Astras were my favorite. I think I still have 200 of them around. Maybe I'll hunt them down and take my own advice. After about a year I switched to feathers. I did not like them when I first tried them.
Not everyone makes the progression from mild to aggressive razors. I did and blades tend to be a smooth to sharp choice, too. Feathers are great blades, but conventional opinion suggests they aren't a Newbie blade. I think blade choice might be more dependent on hair type than skill level. Thanks to James @LOOT I got to try Kai brand. The blade seems to be made of thicker or maybe stiffer metal. That could be advantageous to someone with thicker hair shafts. If your beard is made of softer or thinner hair it might not register as much.
How can someone with no technique judge blades? Why do people recommend samplers to newbies? It slows technique development by introducing unneeded variables. The best way to learn is to stick to a specific razor blade combo until technique is mastered. Blades don't matter nearly as much to newbies as people pretend they do. When people learn to olay golf they don't buy a new ball brand before every lesson, nor do they buy five drivers and have a drive-off. Because.... It'd probably be easier just to master one set and one ball. Why do we tell shaving newbies to do just this?
