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How I learned to stop neck irritation and love my vintage adjustable

Goodfella, I can't say enough in praise of this razor. Compact, quick, beautifully engineered, quality craftsmanship, very forgiving. It has been recommended as a newbie razor because it is so forgiving. But is it too forgiving? Is it so forgiving that it encourages, or at least does not discourage, bad habits and sloppy technique that robs a new user of the ultimate shave? Can the case be made for the "tough love" approach to learning the art of DE wet shaving?

It worked for me. A few weeks ago I acquired a '59 Gillette adjustable :001_tt1:, up until then I had been using and enjoying my Goodfella for about 6 months. My technique had, or at least I thought it had, improved since the early months and an extensive regimen of beard prep had reduced but not eliminated neck irritation. I had been undertightening the razor as a poor man's adjustable, since I was convinced that some of the irritation stemmed from over working the neck with very mild passes, but this was far too imprecise and on one bloody occasion convinced me of the need to acquire a genuine adjustable.

Enter the Fat Boy, and the worst shave I have had. Ever. With anything. EVER. Blood, rashes, ingrowns, and a face that burned with unholy fire for days afterward. What the deuce just happened? I had used the same beard prep, the same lathering techniques, the same shaving techniques that I had been practicing on the Goodfella, I had done nothing different. And that my friends was the problem. Turns out, that what is acceptable technique on the Gf, is NOT acceptable technique with other razors. Not that I realised this at the time, I just sadly put away the FB and decided my face was not cut out for this model.

A little later I acquired a '63 Slim adjustable as a gift, and thought that maybe this would be different, I had heard that it was considered generally superior to the FB if not as satisfyingly chunky and hefty. Alas, same result: pain, hellfire, people crossing the street, babies screaming, women crying out "Dear God, what is that thing?!" upon seeing my ragged and raspy visage, etc ad. nauseum.

What the deuce? Why so much praise for these razors? They are ghastly, vicious, biting things! Surely so many shavers could not be so wrong! Guess they just didn't suit my face I decided. And so the slim took up its place next to the FB and I returned to the Gf, resigned to what was clearly an overly sensitive neck that I could do nothing about but try and minimise the fallout with careful prep and resisting the urge to "overshave" for closeness. And yet... the Gillettes called to me from behind the mirrored door of the medicine cabinet. With their little mechanisms, their shiny nickel plating so much more dazzling and brilliant than the reflective chrome of my Goodfella, their knurled handles, thick and heavy, their history and pedigree outclassing the upstart.

After my shower this morning, I paused as my hand descended toward the Gf. Suddenly a madness overtook me, "Curse you '63 Slim! How can I ever stay mad at you?" I yelled and liberated her* from her dank prison amidst the expired medicines and children's cough syrups. This time things would be different, we would discover one another anew...

[I... I'm sorry things have become a little over narrated and dramatic all of a sudden, I'm supposed to be working on an English Lit assignment right now and I guess that is percolating through. Strictly clinical reporting to follow]:

Anywho, I brushed a light lather of palmolive shave stick into my beard and used a bull clip to hold a piping hot towel in place while I made my lather in a bowl (Goodfella all black badger hair brush and Bluebeards Revenge cream) rinsed face and applied the lather then set the Gillette to 1 and took extreme care, re-learning everything that I had seen or read about DE shaving, and forgetting what I thought I knew. Took great care not to rush, only use short strokes, taking care to always adjust for angle, never repeat strokes and kept it strictly WTG and XTG. On the neck I bullfrogged for under the chin, lightly stretched the skin kept the strokes minimal and short and forced myself to rinse every time I needed to adjust the angle so as to prevent myself from slopping the razor around on my face and adjusting "on the fly" and forcing myself to take the blade AWAY FROM MY FACE [this proved to work well and so long as I need to break my bad shaving habits I will continue to do so] and not proceeding until I had verified the blade was at the correct angle.

The result? A DFS with NO neck irritation. Hell, no irritation anywhere other than the fading of old irritation from my last shave. For the first time ever in 15 years of shaving I had no nicks, bumps, scratches, cuts, or rashes. It felt like my first shave with a DE all over again, with the same constant running the finger over your cheek and jaw in wonder at how damn fine that shave was, only now I can do it on my neck as well without wincing!

One may be prompted to ask, why not be so careful with the Gf? The Gf is an unresponsive razor, it doesn't "talk" to me the way the Gillette did. I had no idea how wrongly I had been using the Gf. The Gillette hums a satisfying hum and gently slides along the skin when all is well. I can't quite say how but it sounds and feels wrong when not (and boy do you notice afterwards). The Gf will keep cutting any old way and generally won't ever let you get hurt, except for some mild irritation.

My conclusion is that mild, forgiving razors can be great newbie tools, but if like me you start forming bad habits, they won't do anything to discourage them or encourage you to correct them. My habits got so poor, that a Gillette Slim on 1 messed me up bad when applying those same habits. I think tomorrow I will reacquaint myself with the Fat Boy.

And that gentlemen, is how I learned to stop neck irritation and love my vintage adjustable.

*Footnote: I'm not the only to refer to my razors as "she" right? Guys? Guys?!

Short Version: All my irritation problems stem from poor technique that was never auto-corrected by a very forgiving razor.
 
Hilarious. I, for one, always appreciate dramatic narratives about humdrum shaving matters. And I'll keep your point in mind that a very mild razor can actually retard one's learning of the finer practical points of shaving.

And, um, as long as you don't articulate a gendered address to your razor, then that's between you and your higher power. If you're actually, literally talking to your razor, then you may have a larger problem than whether you believe it to be grammatically masculine or feminine.
 
Hmmmm. That is a lot of drama! Glad you are having fun shaving! I want to read your experiences with a straight razor, assuming you will start with a butter knife.:lol:
 
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Great post and congratulations on realizing that revisiting the basics is actually a move forward.

I love my Gillette Slim, it may be my favorite vintage razor, but remember getting beat up a bit with it. However, it's all about technique.

I think a challenge for newbies in particular, is is persevering through the learning curve, before they spend too much money buying the "perfect" hardware and software without repeatedly going back to basics - angle, pressure, good lather etc. etc.
 
I've found as of late that my skin doesn't appreciate overly aggressive razors no matter how I use it. My niche is to use a middle of the road razor, the EJ89L with an ever growing rotation of blades is wonderful to my skin. The slant is terrible for me, along with really mild razors such as techs and super speeds. I did enjoy your narrative though, and look forward to more stories as you develop your technique more with your adjustables.
 
I love your post! I agree that a razor that is too mild is like training wheels. It might help get you started but it's not helping you in the long term. Because it is too mild, you reshave the same areas multiple times, taking a little skin with each pass. I started with a Futur, so I had to learn angle, pressure and direction of grain in a big hurry. After a few months I tried a Weishi. It was like I had forgot the blade. What usually took me 3 passes turned into 5. After a few days I could see redness and bumps forming on my neck and jaw line. I went back to my Futur and within days the irritation was gone. I should not have started with a Futur, but I am glad I didn't start with a Weishi.
 
Great story, but I'm a bit confused. The Slim on a setting of "1" is extremely mild. I'd wager it's milder than your Goodfella.

So, although I was entertained by your post, I'm not sure you've really figured out why the Slim gave you a better shave. My guess is that, rather than the aggressiveness factor you cited, the fact that you really took your time and used short, careful strokes and watched your angles very carefully is the real answer as to why your shave was less irritating.

Dial that Slim up to 6 or 7, and if that gives you a less irritating shave, then you'll be able to make the point about aggressiveness.
 
My guess is that, rather than the aggressiveness factor you cited, the fact that you really took your time and used short, careful strokes and watched your angles very carefully is the real answer as to why your shave was less irritating.

All those factors are linked together. When a razor is too mild, the temptation is to compensate by applying more pressure and shave too fast.
 
Great story, but I'm a bit confused. The Slim on a setting of "1" is extremely mild. I'd wager it's milder than your Goodfella.

So, although I was entertained by your post, I'm not sure you've really figured out why the Slim gave you a better shave. My guess is that, rather than the aggressiveness factor you cited, the fact that you really took your time and used short, careful strokes and watched your angles very carefully is the real answer as to why your shave was less irritating.

Dial that Slim up to 6 or 7, and if that gives you a less irritating shave, then you'll be able to make the point about aggressiveness.

My experience is that the Slim on 1 is milder, but still not as forgiving with pressure and angle as the Gf. To be honest I took some dramatic licence there as I can't remember if I got the bad shave from the Slim on 1 or 3. The DFS, no irritation shave I had yesterday was on 1 however. And yes, it was the time and care taken that eliminated the irritation. Time and care that the Gf had not encouraged as it happily gives a quite good shave with the sloppiest of habits. It's forgiving nature does not give you the "feedback" that helps you auto-adjust technique.
 
Great results again this morning shaving with the Slim. 2 Passes with the same short strokes and care and no fussing over closeness of cut, just working on an irritation free and visually presentable shave. I will keep this routine up, slowly dialling up the Slim, as the technique gets relearned and improves, until I feel I have struck the sweet spot. It's taking a lot of discipline to slow down and shorten the strokes, the temptation is there to just take large swaths. Every time I get sloppy now I Stop. Rinse. Adjust. Proceed.
 
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