so i have been doing the DE shaving for about a month now, and over the past week or two things have gotten much much better for me. I attribute this change to a few things that i have discovered:
1) even though you THINK you know which way your hair grows, you dont until you do the cotton ball test to see which way it grows, especially on the NECK! i did this two weeks ago and my shaves have been much better on my neck. i break my neck up into 5 areas and shave those areas in a differenet direction
2) keeping the passes to a minimum - i only do two passes on my neck now (WTG and XTG), and it is thanking me. no more redness or irritation. and it is pretty darn smooth
3) concentrate on the neck - go super slow, i personally have better luck doing a really slow, but long stroke on my neck for the 5 areas that i have established (in #1 above)
4) dont go for BBS, especially on the neck. I am now able to get consistent shaves with no nicks. most of the time it is BBS everywhere but my neck, and well, i am just fine with that for now.
5) aggressive isnt a bad thing, at least for me anyways. I shave with a Merkur Progress. i started shaving with a setting of 1 or 2. i found that i had to shave over the same spots too often and i think that led to accidents and irritation. one day i decided to bump up the setting to 3-3.5. i got the best shave that day, and after a WTG and XTG pass i was in pretty good shape. a quick ATG pass on a lower setting (2) and i was BBS and ready to go! this is a YMMV but it works for me, plus i think I was more careful with a more aggresive razor, and perhaps that was the reason for my improvment...a healthy dose of fear is a good thing
6) dont fight RAD. just dont do it. you are going to want to buy more razors, so just do it and get it over with! Do what you can to keep the wife non the wiser, as they wont understand and give you a hard time. Lie and say you think it would be fun to go to antique stores, and when you get there dont let her know the only reason for your new found appreciation of antiques is to get a fatboy razor for $5! hahah. seriously, i have been at this for a month and now have 25 razors!!! of course, i am planning on selling a lot off and make money on ebay
at least that is what the wife thinks!
7) dont expect this to be cheaper than cartridge razors...once you get done buying tons of razors, soaps, aftershaves, etc...it is going to be more expensive...the only time you need to think about how this saves money is when explaining it to the wife...tell her about the $0.20 you will spend on blades per week compared to the old Mach 3....dont let her know about all this other 'stuff'
hope my insight helps, but as is the mantra of B&B....YMMV
1) even though you THINK you know which way your hair grows, you dont until you do the cotton ball test to see which way it grows, especially on the NECK! i did this two weeks ago and my shaves have been much better on my neck. i break my neck up into 5 areas and shave those areas in a differenet direction
2) keeping the passes to a minimum - i only do two passes on my neck now (WTG and XTG), and it is thanking me. no more redness or irritation. and it is pretty darn smooth
3) concentrate on the neck - go super slow, i personally have better luck doing a really slow, but long stroke on my neck for the 5 areas that i have established (in #1 above)
4) dont go for BBS, especially on the neck. I am now able to get consistent shaves with no nicks. most of the time it is BBS everywhere but my neck, and well, i am just fine with that for now.
5) aggressive isnt a bad thing, at least for me anyways. I shave with a Merkur Progress. i started shaving with a setting of 1 or 2. i found that i had to shave over the same spots too often and i think that led to accidents and irritation. one day i decided to bump up the setting to 3-3.5. i got the best shave that day, and after a WTG and XTG pass i was in pretty good shape. a quick ATG pass on a lower setting (2) and i was BBS and ready to go! this is a YMMV but it works for me, plus i think I was more careful with a more aggresive razor, and perhaps that was the reason for my improvment...a healthy dose of fear is a good thing
6) dont fight RAD. just dont do it. you are going to want to buy more razors, so just do it and get it over with! Do what you can to keep the wife non the wiser, as they wont understand and give you a hard time. Lie and say you think it would be fun to go to antique stores, and when you get there dont let her know the only reason for your new found appreciation of antiques is to get a fatboy razor for $5! hahah. seriously, i have been at this for a month and now have 25 razors!!! of course, i am planning on selling a lot off and make money on ebay
at least that is what the wife thinks!7) dont expect this to be cheaper than cartridge razors...once you get done buying tons of razors, soaps, aftershaves, etc...it is going to be more expensive...the only time you need to think about how this saves money is when explaining it to the wife...tell her about the $0.20 you will spend on blades per week compared to the old Mach 3....dont let her know about all this other 'stuff'
hope my insight helps, but as is the mantra of B&B....YMMV
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