Finally making some progress!

[PR22]

Ahh, I'm completely sold on Thayers Witch Hazel, picked some up at GNC last night and used it after my shave. Wasn't impressed really, didn't feel a cooling sensation and thought it smelled like crap. But at this point of my day my face is usually a bit sore, and it feels completely comfortable right now, I'm having trouble believing it.

Anyhow:

Merkur HD w/ Feather (3rd shave)
AOS Lavender PSO
AOS GBB
AOS Lavender Cream
Thayers Witch Hazel
AOS Lavender ASB

Razor burn still present around mouth but it's decreasing, and not as noticeable now. I've finally made some progress .

Blade experience so far:

Merkur Platinum: I think a jagged rock would work just as well.

Israeli Personna: A satisfactory and comfortable first shave, no where near as smooth as Feathers but it doesn't nick me and I get little to no irritation with these. That's the first shave, second shave gives me irritation and a couple nicks and it becomes too uncomfortable to use after that. Darn, I just got 100 Israeli Personna's and I can't get more than 1 good shave per blade out of the Isreali's.

Derby Extra: Just as sharp as the Israeli's except gives me an uncomfortable shave from the start, nicks/irritation, I don't even want to use it for the second shave.

Swedish Gillette: Sharper than everything except Feather, honestly I wasn't blown away by these. I didn't get as smooth a shave as I would with Feathers, and it nicked me a couple times, I came away feeling this to be an average blade. I'm glad too, these suckers aren't cheap.

Feather: Ahh, my saving grace. Without these DE shaving for me would be worthless. Gives me a smooth, smooth shave. I've gotten competent enough with these that I don't have much of a problem with nicking myself until the last pass or touchups, even then it's so small that it probably doesn't even need a styptic, but I use it anyway. The nicks are something I plan on fixing real soon by focusing a lot more my last pass + touchups.

All the blades have given me razor burn, but I've recently lowered it by practicing with the Feather. I looked at where I have razor burn and noticed that there are a couple areas that have razor burn but have no facial hair growing there. That problem was fixed easily as I just stopped shaving those areas, instead carefully avoiding them and only shaving areas that have hair growing. As for the other area's, I'm still trying to get enough experience to judge why I'm giving myself razor burn there.

I want to blame faulty products for my razor burn, but I know that it has everything to do with my technique, pressure, and lack of experience. I've made some decent gains recently and I'm going to keep working from there. I think that it'll take me a while longer before I can get the shaving experience I had the first time I used my DE.

I've also become more realistic with my expectations of DE shaving. I no longer expect myself to be able to shave every morning and get a comfortable and BBS shave. I forgot that I couldn't even do that with my Mach III, shaving was extremley painful from the second day on if I tried to shave everyday. So I shave every other day now like I did with the Mach III, except on the first shave of the week, that's a 3rd day shave. Gives my face an extra day to relax itself in case I really butchered my face the week before.

Thanks for posting all the reviews and tips, I've been absorbing everything to try and guage and improve my shaves.

P.S. Thanks to Scotto for your 'Tip of the Week' thread, both of your tips have really helped me make some appreciated improvements to my shave. My lather has never been better.

[peacefrog]

Ahh, I'm completely sold on Thayers Witch Hazel, picked some up at GNC last night and used it after my shave. Wasn't impressed really, didn't feel a cooling sensation and thought it smelled like crap.

Which variety did you get? One of the scented ones?

[PR22]

Which variety did you get? One of the scented ones?

The Original w/ Aloe. It's not alcohol free, they didn't have that one, but I didn't feel a burn when I put it on.

[chop-chop]

Prasanna,

Great progress report! Given that you were getting razor burn in the areas where no hair grows, it has to be pressure, more than angle... because you're otherwise reporting good shaves. You're still adjusting from being able to drag the M3 across your face. You'll be getting BBS shaves in no time!

chop-chop

[PR22]

Prasanna,

Great progress report! Given that you were getting razor burn in the areas where no hair grows, it has to be pressure, more than angle... because you're otherwise reporting good shaves. You're still adjusting from being able to drag the M3 across your face. You'll be getting BBS shaves in no time!

chop-chop

Thanks for the kind words, if you think it's pressure then my next shave I'll be sure to be even more gentle around that area.

[BroJohn]

The Aloe knocks down any alcohol burn. Good product.

-- John Gehman

[Leisureguy]

Here's a broader selection of Thayers Witch Hazel. The scented ones are very nice indeed, though the scent is gone pretty quickly.

[Limey]

Prasanna - I am a big fan of Thayer's especially the Lavender. Also, listen to Chop Chop's advice and try less pressure. If that works out you may get 2-3 shaves out of some of your blades which would be okay.

[PR22]

Leisureguy, thanks for the links to the different types of Witch Hazel. TBH when I bought the WH I wasn't looking for scent, I just wanted something to make my face feel better and that it definetley did .

Limey, when I shave on Tuesday I'll be sure to remember this. It's not easy to not use pressure though, by the 3rd or 4th pass I'm pretty much on auto pilot and don't wake up until I feel that burning feeling . For right now I think I'll stick with the Feather's as I'm satisfied with them, but I do plan on going back to try the blades I have once I get the hang of shaving with a DE without any adverse effects.

[PR22]

Hah, I just made some incredible improvements to my shave today! The overall smoothness of my shave isn't all that impressive, but one thing seperates this shave from it's predecessors is that I don't have a burning area around my mouth!

Thanks chop-chop for pointing out that you thought my problem was pressure, I assumed that I was doing my damage on my ATG pass, but you know what they say about when you assume . Turns out I was doing my damage on the WTG and XTG passes, I was conscious today and on my WTG and XTG passes I remembered to let the weight of the razor head do the cutting, and utilized the 2 finger grip. Sure enough my second pass didn't have an scratchy irritated feeling, and my third pass felt completely comfortable.

Then of course I realized how well I was doing and took a step back on my touch up pass, nicking myself once on the neck and using more pressure than I should have when touching up around my mouth.

But overall, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and my shave today was excellent. The ultimate test for me is when I do my warm water rinse, usually my face wants to cry by now, but today it felt completely fine, I almost forgot my cold water rinse. That's a big deal for me as by then I need to dunk my head in ice cold water for a couple minutes to numb my face. Then another test is the AOS ASB that burns like #@%$ and highlights my face a bright red if I have any razor burn/nicks. Well it still burned, and it did highlight the area around my mouth a slight bit, no where near as much as it regularly did, and the redness went away after a couple minutes.

So overall my shave today was an 8/10. I have lots more areas to improve on, but I just got rid of a roadblock that was stopping me from getting a great shave like so many others here. I'm really tempted to use my Feather blade for a 5th shave because I don't want to change anything in case I have a bad shave with a new blade, but I now know that it's more to do with how I handle myself than the blade itself.

Thanks for all the tips, help, advice, and recommendations! They've helped me a ton

P.S. Last week I actually wrote a 'DE shaving isn't for me' post, but after reading it I understood that everything I was complaining about had to do with things I could do better, so I decided to give myself a few more weeks to improve before I went back to the Mach III. I'm really glad I did after todays shave it finally paid off .

[jbc]

Love your sense of humor with the Merkur blades. Try the Wilkerson blades, I like them a lot.

[DoubleE]

Prasanna:

It's good to hear that things are finally going your way. First, for me, Feather's provide the best, irritation free shaves I get. Period.

I've purchased many other blades and from time to time out of curiosity. I feel the need to use some of them so I went through a month or so of using the "other" blades and some of my less used razors. I finally got to where I could get a decent shave from them.....not great, but decent. I finally could stand it no longer and went back to my beloved Feathers and my, lets say, more aggressive razors.

Yikes.....nicks, weepers....what's going on?? I threw away several Feathers thinking I'd just gotten a bad batch of blades. It finally dawned on me that I was using too much pressure! I had increased my pressure using the other blades and razors for two reasons. One, because I could with no ill effects, and two, because I was trying to get a close shave. I lightened my touch, and was rewarded as usual, with BBS and irritation free shaves.

I can make many passes with very light pressure and get a great shave. You'll be amazed how little pressure it takes for that Feather to cut closely (at least for a guy without a heavy beard.)

Keep up the good work.

[PR22]

Prasanna:

It's good to hear that things are finally going your way. First, for me, Feather's provide the best, irritation free shaves I get. Period.

I've purchased many other blades and from time to time out of curiosity. I feel the need to use some of them so I went through a month or so of using the "other" blades and some of my less used razors. I finally got to where I could get a decent shave from them.....not great, but decent. I finally could stand it no longer and went back to my beloved Feathers and my, lets say, more aggressive razors.

Yikes.....nicks, weepers....what's going on?? I threw away several Feathers thinking I'd just gotten a bad batch of blades. It finally dawned on me that I was using too much pressure! I had increased my pressure using the other blades and razors for two reasons. One, because I could with no ill effects, and two, because I was trying to get a close shave. I lightened my touch, and was rewarded as usual, with BBS and irritation free shaves.

I can make many passes with very light pressure and get a great shave. You'll be amazed how little pressure it takes for that Feather to cut closely (at least for a guy without a heavy beard.)

Keep up the good work.

I definetley agree with you on the Feathers, from day one they've given me the closest shave. The only problem was along with that close shave I was giving myself nicks, weepers and razor burn. Now that I've nearly gotten all those under control I find it really hard to imagine shaving without a Feather. It just doesn't make sense without the only blade that can make my beard seem like butter when I shave with it.

And pressure is very tricky to understand. My initial thought was that I wouldn't harm myself on the WTG or ATG passes, because afterall it's so simple I can't screw that up! But of course, the passes I thought to be the most idiot proof turned out to be my biggest problem.

Man I really feel my AD coming on, I nearly bought a FatBoy yesteday (thankfully I didn't), and now I just read about how a Futur can give a shave that even a straight can't match (can you guess what razor I'll be buying next? ). And then all the great Shaving Creams I want to try... geez resistance is futile, I really do agree with that (Thanks Marty lol).

I'm really looking forward to my next shave, my face doesn't feel tight, razor burned, or pained in anyway today. I have a slight idea of what shaving nirvana is like after today, and I'm looking forward to more of it !

[Leisureguy]

You might want to add an alum bar to your routine now that you're not getting razor burn so much. Look at the bottom of this page for a bar and a little wooden rack that's quite handy.

Also, you're moving along well now, so you might want to read through the post at this link and see how much of the information is useful for you.

Very glad you decided to continue---and that it paid off. :)

[jbc]

And the clouds partand a ray of sunshine shines through and the birds begin chirping. I personally only get cut when I bare down. Got away scot free this morning.

[SilverKarn]

This is why i like Proraso A/S balm, it has witch hazel in it already

[PR22]

You might want to add an alum bar to your routine now that you're not getting razor burn so much. Look at the bottom of this page for a bar and a little wooden rack that's quite handy.

Also, you're moving along well now, so you might want to read through the post at this link and see how much of the information is useful for you.

Very glad you decided to continue---and that it paid off. :)

Thanks Michael, I've read and referenced to your blog more than once . I've already picked what I wanted in terms of products, but I blame your blog for wanting to try l’Occitane Cade ASB now... man, you guys are terrible, my AD is progressively getting worst by the day!

[Leisureguy]

Glad the blog's been of use. I like the shea butter aftershave from l'Occitane. Also check out Mama Bear's aftershaves. I just got her Winter Aftershave in the Cucumber fragrance. Very nice indeed.

[PR22]

Meh I had an unenjoyable shave today with a new Feather. I had 1 weeper and 2 or 3 small nicks, I was still careful but a little too cautious. Either way I came away feeling like I took a step back, still better than any shave I've had except for last Tuesday's shave, if tuesday's was an 8/10 today felt like a 6/10 and my previous averages being around 3/10.

So after being in a foul mood because of my said bad shave, I looked at my razor and saw that there was uneven exposure on my Feather! When I took my Feather out of the dispenser today I had a funny feeling about this blade, it just didn't look right for some reason. So I was all angry at my Feather today and I untightened and retightened the HD without moving the blade, and it didn't fix itself. After I got back from class just now I took out the Feather, put in some old Derby I had laying around, and stared at it for a few minutes and saw that the exposure looked to be perfect, then I put the Feather back in and now the damn blade is perfectly aligned ! I guess I should be happy I don't have a borked HD, as I was wondering that earlier, 'If my HD was manufactured wrong wouldn't I have noticed this earlier?'.

On the one hand I'm glad my HD isn't faulty, on the other hand I'm still annoyed I didn't set the Feather in properly today and gave myself an uncomfortable (albeit at least no razor burn, but do have some irritation under the chin) shave.

I just needed to rant. I must say I it is an improvement if my new 'bad shave' is just irritation and not a 'me want to cry beacuse face feels like it was shaved with a cheese grater'.

[PR22]

I made some unexpected improvements today with my WTG and XTG passes. Normall I do the 'Kyle' grip, holding the bottom tip of the razor with 2 or 3 fingers, but having big hands it gets uncomfrtable and my fingers would cramp up after a few minutes. So today, without even thinking about what I was diong, I noticed that I had my fingers near the middle of the HD so I decided to go with it, and when I set the razor on my face it just slid down really nice improvement for me.

Today's shave was MUCH better than last shave, and it's really a tie for my best shave so far. Gave myself a few nicks because I lost all focus during my touch ups as I normally do but I have no razor burn except for a red spot under my lip that went away pretty quickly, and no irritation.

I'm really loving my shaves now!