I was lying in bed the other night unable to sleep and started thinking about the whole multi blade cartridge versus the single open blade and DE.
Before I get into this I want to point out that this is a conversation I had with myself and is not me disputing what 1000's of people say. Just one other thing. I shaved with multi blades for years with no problems. I never used a brush, just some decent shaving cream. Never really BBS but never any burn or irritation.
Now it occured to me that the safety cartridge razor is designed for Joe Public, the man on the street who just wants to get up, shave and go. He doesn't want to think about his shave or the techniques he uses. He just wants to get rid of the hair on his face with minimal effort. So off he goes shaving this way and that, with the grain, against the grain, round and round the grain. In between scrapes he's shouting at the kids and putting his pants on. He's putting way too much pressure on the blades but at the end of the day he got clean shaven without getting cut up too bad and with a bit of burn or maybe not.
Now, we all agree that DE or a straight gives you a great shave with minimal burn/ irritation and so on.
Why? and this is my point.
Because we are thinking about what we are doing. We know that if we go hell for leather, this way and that and pressing down too hard we won't have a face left to shave the next day. We practice good preparation and technique unlike Joe Public. We take our time and achieve, hopefully, what we set out to do.
Now here is the dispute I had with myself.
Is a straight/DE actually better than a 37 blade razor OR is it purely down to good shaving practice? I mean, because we don't use too much pressure and we prepare properly and use proper technique we get a good clean irritation free shave. If Joe prepared his face properly and shaved gently with the grain would his irritation go away? Would he achieve a far more satisfactory shave? Would the burn go? Is a Gilette multi wotnot as good as/better than a single blade if you practice proper shaving technique.
I hope this doesn't stir up any controversy, it's just a thought I had.
Mat
Before I get into this I want to point out that this is a conversation I had with myself and is not me disputing what 1000's of people say. Just one other thing. I shaved with multi blades for years with no problems. I never used a brush, just some decent shaving cream. Never really BBS but never any burn or irritation.
Now it occured to me that the safety cartridge razor is designed for Joe Public, the man on the street who just wants to get up, shave and go. He doesn't want to think about his shave or the techniques he uses. He just wants to get rid of the hair on his face with minimal effort. So off he goes shaving this way and that, with the grain, against the grain, round and round the grain. In between scrapes he's shouting at the kids and putting his pants on. He's putting way too much pressure on the blades but at the end of the day he got clean shaven without getting cut up too bad and with a bit of burn or maybe not.
Now, we all agree that DE or a straight gives you a great shave with minimal burn/ irritation and so on.
Why? and this is my point.
Because we are thinking about what we are doing. We know that if we go hell for leather, this way and that and pressing down too hard we won't have a face left to shave the next day. We practice good preparation and technique unlike Joe Public. We take our time and achieve, hopefully, what we set out to do.
Now here is the dispute I had with myself.
Is a straight/DE actually better than a 37 blade razor OR is it purely down to good shaving practice? I mean, because we don't use too much pressure and we prepare properly and use proper technique we get a good clean irritation free shave. If Joe prepared his face properly and shaved gently with the grain would his irritation go away? Would he achieve a far more satisfactory shave? Would the burn go? Is a Gilette multi wotnot as good as/better than a single blade if you practice proper shaving technique.
I hope this doesn't stir up any controversy, it's just a thought I had.
Mat