A Tale of 4 Blades.

About two weeks into this DE shaving thing. I have used four different blades, Merkur, Derby, Feather and Astra.
My very first shave was with the Merkur and it was spotless. The result probably had more to do with my desire for self preservation. Next up was the Derby. It seemed to do okay, had a couple of weepers. Then it was the Feather. I liked the shave, and had some weepers. Today the Astra was up. Had a good shave, but about three hours afterwards my cheeks felt like they had been rubbed with sandpaper.

I'm shower shaving, seem to get a good lather on my brush but I have had some irritation on pretty much all the shaves. I've mapped my face; that seemed to help a bit and have done NS, WTG, ATG and XTG, a couple of three passes but mostly mostly two. I have decided that ATG on my neck is not going to happen anymore, my beard is just too tough to handle that. I'm happy with the quality of the shaves. I'm not expecting BBS, my whiskers won't allow that to happen.

As for the blades, I think the Astra and Feather stand out the most. The Feather because I think I want it to based on reviews and the Astra because it seemed to be one of the better shaves.

I have used PREP post shave and also decided to try a Nivea balm I had. That seemed to work good.

I'm not discouraged. I actually look forward to my morning shave probably due to the early morning challenge. One thing I have noticed though is my wife doesn't put the white towels in the bathroom anymore!

Sounds like you are starting to get the hang of it. One suggestion I have is to try not to jump between blades too much. If you pick one, and stick with it for a month or so, you will notice a vast improvement. It will eliminate a variable and allow you to focus more on technique.

Yes that is very good advice.............

Good technique is not the fun part, it's the important part.

emt88 said:

One suggestion I have is to try not to jump between blades too much. If you pick one, and stick with it for a month or so, you will notice a vast improvement. It will eliminate a variable and allow you to focus more on technique.

Click to expand...

Yes, that is exactly what I have decided I need to do as well. Pick a routine and stick with it even if it's only a week at a time. I got too carried away using a different brush, razor, blade, cream/soap at every shave that I strayed from the technique path. Not to mention I couldn't even honestly track what I liked or disliked.

Sounds like you're doing just fine.

This takes time, you can not learn this in few days or weeks, takes a while.....in the mean time dont change towel color yet.

emt88 said:

Sounds like you are starting to get the hang of it. One suggestion I have is to try not to jump between blades too much. If you pick one, and stick with it for a month or so, you will notice a vast improvement. It will eliminate a variable and allow you to focus more on technique.

Click to expand...

+1