CHEEZgr8trH8tr
03-19-2011, 05:11 PM
introduce myself! I have been lurking on these forums for nearly a year now, and only now decided to register after finally putting together what I hope will become a decent wet shave set.
I have always used cartridges and electrics. In fact I bought an electric panasonic and returned it without even opening it after I tried my first wetshave!
What I ended up with was:
Merkur 38C
proraso pre/post shave cream
proraso soap (white tub, for ultra sensetive)
proraso balm.
I wanted to get a nice nice brush, but I am alas a broke college student. So I got a badger brush but definitely on the low end, a 20 something dollar parker "pure badger" grade brush. It works, and it's better than my dad's old synthetic I tried.
I have to say, I NEVER got a close shave with my sensor excel. It was close, but it looked like I had a 5 oclock shadow... all the time. My beard decently tough, and grows like a maniac. Shaving every morning is MANDATORY for me. Another thing that made wet shaving difficult was my grain. My beard is thick... but splotchy. No... coherent patterns to the grain. Think... hay stack instead of rows of corn lol.
It's still hard to get curvature right, especially over my chin. I do love the HD though, the weight helps. I find it really hard to break my old habits, but I've only shaved twice so far. It's hard not to press the blade, and not to pivot your wrist. Also, shaving ATG with this thing is ... tough. I have never been able to on my face, only on my neck.
I am using the standard murker blade, but I got like 120 for 35 bucks from amazon, a sampler pack.
Anyhow, the after - shaving feeling was phenomenal. Definitely closer, not as close as I would like though ( but I am positive that's my technique faltering), no burning or irritation though. Proraso is awesome.
Some people say switching to DE shaving is life changing, others say it's over rated. I think a lot depends on how satisfied you are with your current shaving situation, and how bad of a situation you have accommodated. Ripping my hair out with sensors, quattros, mach 3's, every morning and having a DRY TIGHT ITCHY face afterwards sucks for a decade. Can't wait for my face to adjust and my technique to improve!
Some questions:
On my chin, I can't get it flat! And I'm afraid I'm doing to many passes across it because well on each stroke it only takes off a narrow strip of hair!
Also, can I leave the blade in rubbing alchohol when it's not being used? I rinsed and air dried with rubbing alchohol after the first use, but I noticed a significant reduction in sharpness with the Merkur blade after the first use (which was about 3 passes n some touchups). Granted, I let me beard grow out for like 12 days to see how well it could cut through it. But 12 days of my beard growth is like 3 or 4 weeks of non hairy monster man face growth.
Also, touching up is hard because I have very fair skin even though I'm not white, but my facial hair is black hole black and patches show like a sore spot.
Any advice, opinions, comments or helpful anythings?
This forum rules.
My face shall never burn at 7AM again.:thumbup1:
The first shave I enjoyed a nice long prep. A hot shower, a hot towel, the proraso pre, and then the lather, and when I took that first stroke I wasn't sure if it was cutting or not because I couldn't feel ANYTHING. It was amazing. Second day I was rushed for time. So a warm face wash/exfoliating, the pre, and the usual. It was more nicks and cuts, but I think that's because.... I was really enthusiastic and even though it was the next morning it had been less than 24 hours since my previous shave so I was... trying to shave hairs that had not arrived yet ! But.. I understand now why people say they look FORWARD to shaving now. It's refreshing, and your face feels great!
I have always used cartridges and electrics. In fact I bought an electric panasonic and returned it without even opening it after I tried my first wetshave!
What I ended up with was:
Merkur 38C
proraso pre/post shave cream
proraso soap (white tub, for ultra sensetive)
proraso balm.
I wanted to get a nice nice brush, but I am alas a broke college student. So I got a badger brush but definitely on the low end, a 20 something dollar parker "pure badger" grade brush. It works, and it's better than my dad's old synthetic I tried.
I have to say, I NEVER got a close shave with my sensor excel. It was close, but it looked like I had a 5 oclock shadow... all the time. My beard decently tough, and grows like a maniac. Shaving every morning is MANDATORY for me. Another thing that made wet shaving difficult was my grain. My beard is thick... but splotchy. No... coherent patterns to the grain. Think... hay stack instead of rows of corn lol.
It's still hard to get curvature right, especially over my chin. I do love the HD though, the weight helps. I find it really hard to break my old habits, but I've only shaved twice so far. It's hard not to press the blade, and not to pivot your wrist. Also, shaving ATG with this thing is ... tough. I have never been able to on my face, only on my neck.
I am using the standard murker blade, but I got like 120 for 35 bucks from amazon, a sampler pack.
Anyhow, the after - shaving feeling was phenomenal. Definitely closer, not as close as I would like though ( but I am positive that's my technique faltering), no burning or irritation though. Proraso is awesome.
Some people say switching to DE shaving is life changing, others say it's over rated. I think a lot depends on how satisfied you are with your current shaving situation, and how bad of a situation you have accommodated. Ripping my hair out with sensors, quattros, mach 3's, every morning and having a DRY TIGHT ITCHY face afterwards sucks for a decade. Can't wait for my face to adjust and my technique to improve!
Some questions:
On my chin, I can't get it flat! And I'm afraid I'm doing to many passes across it because well on each stroke it only takes off a narrow strip of hair!
Also, can I leave the blade in rubbing alchohol when it's not being used? I rinsed and air dried with rubbing alchohol after the first use, but I noticed a significant reduction in sharpness with the Merkur blade after the first use (which was about 3 passes n some touchups). Granted, I let me beard grow out for like 12 days to see how well it could cut through it. But 12 days of my beard growth is like 3 or 4 weeks of non hairy monster man face growth.
Also, touching up is hard because I have very fair skin even though I'm not white, but my facial hair is black hole black and patches show like a sore spot.
Any advice, opinions, comments or helpful anythings?
This forum rules.
My face shall never burn at 7AM again.:thumbup1:
The first shave I enjoyed a nice long prep. A hot shower, a hot towel, the proraso pre, and then the lather, and when I took that first stroke I wasn't sure if it was cutting or not because I couldn't feel ANYTHING. It was amazing. Second day I was rushed for time. So a warm face wash/exfoliating, the pre, and the usual. It was more nicks and cuts, but I think that's because.... I was really enthusiastic and even though it was the next morning it had been less than 24 hours since my previous shave so I was... trying to shave hairs that had not arrived yet ! But.. I understand now why people say they look FORWARD to shaving now. It's refreshing, and your face feels great!