Hello all fellow wet shavers, I have been at it for a couple of months now and I have noticed that now that I nailed the razors and the blades, I get fewer or no cuts during a shave. In the beginning as I was sure I would cut my throat with the mildest of DE's, I watched countless how to videos, to the point that I feel Geofatboy and Mantic 59 are close relatives. During my last shaves I got no irritation or cuts. I thought it could be my lucky day, but I do get more than my fair share of them, so I'm wondering whether my technique got better or my skin is has adapted to DE shaving. I really do not feel I have changed anything in my technique since the first few shaves and now I'm confident with any razor, save a straight. R41 armed with a Polsiver, no problem, I do gravitate however towards the X3 slant, Fat boy, the aristocrat and my beautiful E4 Schick injector ( thanks to my friend Jimjo for insisting I get one). Does the skin gets used to DE shaving after a while? I think I read somewhere it does. If it's true what % should I attribute to it and what % do I attribute to skill.
I think you should give most of the credit to technique. It may not feel like you've changed anything from the first day but I guarantee you have. Minor adjustments in how you hold the razor, how you hold the angle etc. all add up to improve the shave daily. Now, it is true that the skin will also adapt, but technique is really the key. That's my humble opinion as well as my experience.
Skin is skin, your hands developed a softer touch. The only thing thats different, is that you dont cut yourself as often.
Yeah it's definitely the technique. Not having to put pressure on the DE is the key. Your skin gets used to the difference pretty quickly at least in my experience.
My rule when shaving is not to cut the beard but as Mantic59 says, beard reduction on all passes and I do two passes with corrections. No hurry, enjoying the ride, no pressure, just the weight of the razor. I have to admit though when I put a heavier handle on the X3 it became just as aggressive as I wished. This gives me a BBs every time.
I don't feel that my skin has changed at all since I switched to traditional shaving. If anything, it has only gotten worse from aging. I'm getting better shaves now and I feel like it's entirely because of my technique. If I shave when I'm especially tired, I'll sometimes subconsciously apply pressure just because it's still so firmly ingrained in my mind, and I'll have a lot of pain afterwards. Once in a while, I'll just have a bad shave even though there wasn't anything overtly wrong with my technique, and I chalk it up to a dull blade or nuances during prep. I always have discomfort after shaving no matter what, but I have a lot less discomfort these days, which leads me to believe that my skin hasn't changed at all but my technique has definitely improved.
