First DE shave in a long while

[trewornan]

There's been some discussion about disposable blade straight razors recently and I mentioned in one of those threads that I wasn't too keen on the X-D20. Well, having slagged it off, it occurred to me that in fact I only used it a few times and that was when I was still relatively inexperienced using a straight.

So last night I dug it out from the back of my shaving drawer, slapped in a brand new feather blade and went to work. I still like the Dovo shavette but the X-D20 was better than I remembered, unfortunately a feather may have been an edge too far and I managed to nick myself three times - not bad nicks, but enough to piss me off. If I carry on shaving with my X-D20 and a feather blade I suspect it will do my technique a world of good since it seemed to show up any minor flaws in my technique. But I wanted to let my nicks heal a bit before trying again . . . anyway, I decided to go for a DE today and let my face recover somewhat.

I hadn't really thought about it but after searching my memory it seems to have been about four months since I last shaved with a DE. After all that time, I had no idea how old the blade in my HD was, it could have had anything from one to seven shaves on it, so it needed replacing, but what to replace it with? I had a hard time deciding between an IP (never nick me so might be a good idea being out of practice) and a Derby (always give me a good shave) and in the end decided on the Derby, I just prefer them for some reason.

Lathered up with some Mama Bear Lavender & Peppermint and did a full four passes . . . I don't go WTG, XTG, etc, my usual is N>S, Nose>Ear, Ear>Nose and S>N. Surprisingly I think it actually took me longer than shaving with a straight but I think mainly because it was more passes and I was out of practice.

Results:

Better than I was expecting, not as close as a straight but pretty damn close and more consistent over the whole face (my straight shaves are often more patchy than I like to admit). Certainly easier than a straight shave, I didn't feel the need to concentrate like I do with a straight so it was more relaxing but then again I didn't get that frisson of danger.

One very minor nick on my neck, but that's the kind that I barely count as it was really just taking the head of a little pimple and nothing to do with razor or technique. I didn't even cut the scabs on the nicks from the previous night which I was expecting would bleed a bit. Learning to shave with a straight has improved my DE shaving - I'm sure I've got a lighter touch than I used to have.

It's strange that I'd forgotten how enjoyable a DE shave can be and although the results are fractionally less BBS it's still pretty good. I've decided that I'm going to make sure I do a DE shave at least once a fortnight from now on - it's a different experience from a straight but one that (without realizing it) I've been missing.

I don't know why I felt like sharing this experience, but there you have it anyhow.

[DanOK]

Thanks for sharing. I went back to a DE after about 30 years and really appreciate having a place to go to share my enjoyment of shaving.