worst shave ever. dud blade?

Hi all,

I have been de shaving for about a month now, and I love it. But tonight I had the worst shave I have EVER had. I didn't do anything different then I normally do. After my last shave I felt it was time to change blades so I changed the blade before I started.

I proceeded to lather up my van der hagen luxury soap(i use this soap 90% of the time) the lather was a little soupy so I let it sit on my face and whipped up a good lather. I wiped the soupy lather off and re applied. I began to shave and immediately noticed that something was wrong, it seemed like the razor wasn't cutting my whiskers.

After 4 passes I had to stop do to irritation, it looks like I didn't even shave. There was hardly any hair in the sink (compared to normal) and the aftershave I used hardly stung.

Does this sound like a dud blade? Or something else?

I was using a van der hagen blade in my van der hagen razor.

Their razor is okay but I have heard bad things about the blades that come with it. I don't have personal experience but I would try a different brand of razor blades.

Definitely get a variety of blades to try out. That being said, your beard should be shorter from 4 passes. A dud blade is certainly possible, and also check to make sure that the blade is seated properly (even on both sides).

Could be a bad blade or possibly bad lather or combination. Some days this just doesn't work for some unidentifiable, karmic reason.

A month in, it's too soon to pin a bad shave on a dud blade. Even if you feel confident in your lathering and shaving technique, the truth is that you're still learning the basics and developing muscle memory.

I think, most of the times I thought my blade was bad, it was probably actually my lather.

It sure siunds like a bad blade. Blades are cheap and you are under no obligation to finish even one pass with a bad one. Stop as soon as you suspect something is wrong and make a change.

Just put them away for a while, look for what works best for you. If you found the perfect combination then it's time to work on your technique and lattering skills. Once you manage these then you can try different products.

If you're going to try a new product then you shouldn't change too many variables. Because if that combination doesn't work for you you won't know which variable is causing this.

In your case I think your blade angle or latter wasn't good enough. I can tell you some soaps are easy to latter and others not.

This is just what works for me when using hard soap:

1. Pour some water in the puck holder. Let it sit for a while and pout it away.
2. Do 15 swirls with the brush.
3. Start lathering in the bowl. After a while you'll have lather.
4. Keep adding a little bit of water till the later is good enough. Don't over do it because then you'll have to start over again.

Thanks Guys, the lather may have been part of the problem, but it definately wasnt all of it. I didnt change anything other than the blade, it wasnt a new type either just the fourth one in the pack.

It seemed like either my whiskers were either made of steel, or this blade was just not going to work. i'll try again tonight and if its the same, im going to change the blade again.

How many days do you wait before you shave?

Get some better blades. Every bad shave I have had was mostly the result of a crappy blade.

There are lots of things that could have gone wrong...

Angle, pressure and lather are typically at the top of the list of culprits in my humble experience, but a bad blade can certainly contribute to a bad shave as well.

euro said:

How many days do you wait before you shave?

Click to expand...

typically i shave every third day.

I have had shaves that are bad due to poor lather, and when i have one of those the hair still gets cut. it just usually causes razor burn. this was different. it was like the blade just wasnt cutting.

it seems to me that it was probably a bad blade.

Well it was definitely a dud blade. I just tried "shaving" the back of my hand and it won't remove the hair. For some reason it's just not sharp.

Does that just happen time to time?

Yeah. With almost any brand, really. At least now you know the feeling and what to look out for in the future.

Bad blades happens I just had a bad blade a few days ago I believe, I had just changed it and it didn't feel right. Changed it and continued with the shave and had a good shave.

I had a 5 pack of Gillette Blacks with three bad edges. You never know.

Maybe that's what happened to me with the popular PolSilver. I gave up on them after a couple of bad shaves

i switched the blade out, and im back in business. i figure it was also a good time to try a new blade so i loaded up a wilkinson sword that i got at a local store, and had the best shave yet!

It could be the blade, if you're saying that nothing else has changed and you've gotten good results before. Sounds like you have it fixed now. Happy shaving!