Asking for a little advice from the experienced guys... Well its been about 3 weeks of DE shaving. It has been a great experience from day one. I have had maybe two extremely minor nicks in that time and only a couple weepers and bumps due to my neck/chin not liking Merkur blades. I've been using Astra's for about 2 weeks now with pretty good results. The bumps went away after like 2 shaves and have now had very consistent shaves in result and flow. I have done a 3 pass + touch up: WTG, XTG and ATG for this time and have been pretty much BBS for a week (even where my beard switches 90 deg. @ jawline), without any nicks, irritation or burn. Question is...At what point should I break into my sampler pack and try the next blade? Do you think this is sufficient in terms of practice/routine etc?
You could use up on package of Astras and then move onto another type of blade. I found what works for me and it has largely taken up the blades that I use.
I guess you could look at it a couple ways. 1) If you're getting great results like that, why change? 2) Your technique seems to be good enough to evaluate new blades so maybe you'll find something even better.
With Astra's at about $9 per 100 delivered from Amazon, if they are working great for you, why switch? I have 200 of the Astras and recently bought 100 of the Treet Classics BUT only because I want to use my Autoplex stopper on them and the Treets are carbon and not stainless. The strop would do harm to a stainless blade....
And the blades get a fair shake too. Like say the first one was defective but the rest are awesome. Or vice versa.
You should try a different brand blade when you feel the desire.. What I did was used a different blade out of my sampler everyday and kind of rate them for comfort on just one shave,then keep and use the ones I liked to find a winner I could use while developing my technique...Sounds like you've already got that with the Astra's. I'm just curious are you using the SP's or SS's? Also while 3 wks may feel like alot of time, I found that I continued to learn and improve my technique for at least 4-6 months after I started "traditional" shaving and this knowledge led me to on occasion choose other blades as favorites..Also after a while of shaving re-visiting blades you've tried or trying them in other razors is quite fun and interesting....
Do what pleases you. Eddie made a comment about continuing to learn and improve his technique even up to 4-6 months. If you do go with a sample pack and you find a blade you don't particularly like, don't toss 'em. Set 'em back up in the cabinet and come back to 'em 4-6 months later, after you've had time to refine your technique. Many folks have done that with blades and razors that "just don't work" only to find they get a great shave with those "less than stellar" items once their technique has improved.
Thanks for the advice guys...just eager to try something new I guess. They are Astra SP's...and I'll probably try out a few more then go with best of all those for a few months before trying again...And after all my boasting...got a small nik this AM!
I had the same experience with Astra SP's. I didn't like the first one I tried early on in a sampler pack, but a few months later I tried another in the same razor and got excellent shaves.
