What did we learn from our last shaves?

Another lightbulb moment today....

I haven't used my Dorco blades for a few weeks now. I've been using Gillette and Astra. Today I decided to use the Dorco again and actually felt the difference.

While all blade brands may do the job, I'm finally starting to learn the difference and feel between different blades.

(And I still have 3 brands from my trial packs I haven't even tried yet. Persona, polsilver, Kai)

 

Still learning technique (and my face) - discovered a "neutral" XTG path on my neck that is the perfect 1st pass. Who knew shaving could be so fun... well, other than you guys...

 

LaToja is an excellent shave stick!

 

When I want a quick but thorough shave (wife and I leaving for dinner in an hour), the Trac II never lets me down.

 

I learned that just because the new Fatip Grande is incredibly smooth with almost
any blade I choose to put in it, it's still a very aggressive razor.



and if you can't stay completely focused on the task at hand, it's going to hurt you....



Nivea AS Balm Please!

 

I "learned" that I will truly, truly miss the Tradere OC razor as I move on to other razors in these months to come...I think I might have withdrawals.

 

I was reminded this morning of something that I used to notice when I had a beard but shaved my neck (with a Mach3).

This weekend I did not shave for 2 days. My stubble was pretty significant this morning. I put the third shave on a Gillette Silver Blue with my RazoRock.

To summarize in a word: wow! My face and neck are ultra smooth! ZERO redness on my neck, chin, under the nose, corners of the mouth, etc. If I shave every day I have some red irritation on my neck that lasts pretty much throughout the day. Not hugely horrible or painful - more frustrating than anything.

It's even more amazing when you realize I repeated parts of the ATG pass on my neck several times because it didn't feel raw and there were still places that needed cleaning up (still working on figuring out my hair directions).

So, it seems my neck needs a day or so to recover before I can comfortably rake a blade across it again. Like I said this should be nothing new because I had noticed that letting my neck grow for a few days when I was bearding it that my first shave after that would be better than average.

I've tried an astringent (Clubman) which does seem to help some. Nivea doesn't seem to do much.

Any advice on dealing with this so I can shave every day without redness?

Maybe I should go WTG and XTG for a couple of days and only go W-X-ATG on every third day. What do you think?

 

I think it's an entirely reasonable experiment to try. Couldn't hurt, might help.

 

Cold water shave to eliminate irritation.

 

I learned that I really can't shave ATG on consecutive days. The shorter the growth, the stiffer and more uncomfortable it is. I still haven't found a good way of softening my super coarse hair, and I've tried most of the usual suspects. I've been hearing more and more recommendations to buck the conventional wisdom and shave BEFORE showering. I may have to try it for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

 

I learned that even an almost-all-plastic razor can give a very good shave.

 

What razor? I would imagine the almost weightless razor would make you want to apply a lot of pressure, but I could be wrong.

 

This one

 

So so true!

 

That 36 hrs between shaves is ideal for me. Just showered and shaved after shaving yesterday morning. Perfect 3-pass shave with my Slim Adjustable (5) w/7 o'clock blue, Omega 6151 Pure, BebeLush peppermint/orange soap, WH, Nivea sensitive ASB & Barbasol Pacific Rush AS. Excellent!!!!!

 

Thanks. I already do that and it does help some.

 

Tried not going ATG on the neck this morning and it definitely helped. I also figured out that my ATG is definitely from the ear to the adam's apple. Bottom up is definitely XTG for me. So I did a couple of WTG until there wasn't any more noise and then did a bottom up pass. My neck is silky smooth except in the back-to-front direction. Key: No redness! Nice!

 

Man injectors give a DFS. They don't get as much love but it has given me better shaves than my DE last 3 shaves.

 

I learned, as I opened up a box with a razor today, that I will try to come back and haunt anyone who uses paper confetti as packaging material.

 

What razor did you use to open your box? Fatboy? Gem?