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Merkur Progress!

Fatheadhill

Fatheadhill

I've been wet shaving for about a month and a half now and have tried several razors including a Merkur 34c, 37c, 29c, EJ Kelvin, 51' and 53' Superspeed, and a MicroTouch One(I admit it). Today I got the best shave I've had thus far using a Merkur Progress! I was a bit apprehensive to get one after reading the issues some have had, but I guess I got lucky because this thing shaved wonderfully! Two passes and a little touch up and my face was BBS. I did have two small weepers due to my rough skin, not the razors fault, but no irritation at all! In addition to a great shave, I think this razor gives much better feedback than the others I've tried. You can easily hear the razor cutting and I feel like it was easier to judge my angles because of this. You could actually hear when it was cutting efficiently.., maybe it's all in my head, but it seemed to work!

I started with a nice hot shower and used a Nivea face scrub.
No pre-shave( never use any, tried it but didn't feel any benefit)
Bowl lathered using CC Bay Rum and my Semogue 620
using a new Polsilver Iridium, I set the Progress on 4 and went to work. Fairly good first pass
Felt I could go a bit more aggressive so I set it on 5 for the second pass. Great! Only needed a little touch up
Touch up pass was also done on 5.
BBS!!!
finished up with a CO9T splash(burn was great but milder than I expected) let that dry, then CC Bay Rum balm.

My best shave so far and I couldn't be happier with the Progress! It's making me want to try a Mergress now, but honestly I don't know how a knob change could make this thing much better! I'll be working my way up the dial to see how it does on more agressive settings. Wish my beard would grow in faster!! Lol

Hopefully this encourages some other new wet shavers to give the Progress a try! Don't be intimidated, but start conservatively and work your way up. It may give you your best shave to date!
 
Bondage007

Bondage007

One of the best razors currently being made. It gets smoother as you dial it up.
Mergress upgrade gives a little different balance and adds weight. Love the upgrade. YMMV

Cheers
John
 
S

Seneca

Fatheadhill said:
I've been wet shaving for about a month and a half now and have tried several razors including a Merkur 34c, 37c, 29c, EJ Kelvin, 51' and 53' Superspeed, and a MicroTouch One(I admit it). Today I got the best shave I've had thus far using a Merkur Progress! I was a bit apprehensive to get one after reading the issues some have had, but I guess I got lucky because this thing shaved wonderfully! Two passes and a little touch up and my face was BBS. I did have two small weepers due to my rough skin, not the razors fault, but no irritation at all! In addition to a great shave, I think this razor gives much better feedback than the others I've tried. You can easily hear the razor cutting and I feel like it was easier to judge my angles because of this. You could actually hear when it was cutting efficiently.., maybe it's all in my head, but it seemed to work!

I started with a nice hot shower and used a Nivea face scrub.
No pre-shave( never use any, tried it but didn't feel any benefit)
Bowl lathered using CC Bay Rum and my Semogue 620
using a new Polsilver Iridium, I set the Progress on 4 and went to work. Fairly good first pass
Felt I could go a bit more aggressive so I set it on 5 for the second pass. Great! Only needed a little touch up
Touch up pass was also done on 5.
BBS!!!
finished up with a CO9T splash(burn was great but milder than I expected) let that dry, then CC Bay Rum balm.

My best shave so far and I couldn't be happier with the Progress! It's making me want to try a Mergress now, but honestly I don't know how a knob change could make this thing much better! I'll be working my way up the dial to see how it does on more agressive settings. Wish my beard would grow in faster!! Lol

Hopefully this encourages some other new wet shavers to give the Progress a try! Don't be intimidated, but start conservatively and work your way up. It may give you your best shave to date!
Click to expand...
6 weeks into this and it looks like you've already collected 8 razors! Good for you- take time to enjoy them all!
 
emwolf

emwolf

Good question on the Mergress. I love my Progress, does replacing that really affect the shave that much?
 
Fatheadhill

Fatheadhill

Granted I'm only one use in, but I could definitely tell the difference between a 4 and a 5.

if you look at it while adjusting there's certainly a considerable difference between a 1 and a 9.
 
doofus

doofus

Progress is my go to and always my go to suggestion when someone is looking for something new. Congrats!
 
Fatheadhill

Fatheadhill

Redneckwannabe said:
I'm considering getting a Progress. I would like to have an adjustable and I'm between that and the Futur..
Click to expand...

i haven't tried the Futur, although I'd like to at some point. I went back and forth myself, but eventually settled on the Progress because I heard some say that the size of the head on the Futur made it impossible to get close up under your nose. Small thing, but I'm happy with my choice.
 
opsimath

opsimath

Merkur Progress -- not really eye candy IMO, but a most effective razor indeed! I'm still experimenting with mine. I love the growlers like the Mühle R41, but I like a bit milder touch for the polishing -- against the grain on my upper lip, say. With the Progress all I need to do is start off at 4 or 5, and do several initial passes before dialing down to 1 for the last pass.

This seems to work very well for me, but I read a post recently where the fellow was doing just the opposite: starting at 1 and finishing at 5! I bet that most of the Merkur Progress razors out there in the world remain set at a specific comfort number constantly -- nothing wrong with that at all either.

Whatever it takes to peel your gobbler.
 
Guster

Guster

I also just got a Progress from a deal on Amazon. I just did my fourth shave and am using mine at level 3 for now. I have to agree with the shave quality, it is so smooth and efficient. I love it. I'm glad you like yours also.
 
DanielB

DanielB

[MENTION=107522]Fatheadhill[/MENTION] - that sounds fantastic.

I should be so lucky - I just put in a brand new Polsilver Super Iridium in my 39C "Sledgehammer" this morning (first time using this blade, got it in a sampler recently) and got one of my best shaves to date - a fantastic all-direction BBS with no nicks and no irritation... HOWEVER it took 4 full passes + touchups to achieve (and a less than ideal 25 minutes from preshave application to alum). I did WTG, XTG, XTGR (toasty, so worthwhile) and ATG buffing.

The Progress sounds like a great timesaver and perhaps soap-saver too, if less passes are required to achieve the same result. Out of curiosity, as I see you've used a 37C (short version of mine), how did that compare? How many passes on that to achieve same result?

In any case, I'm putting Progress LH on my wish list.
 
Fatheadhill

Fatheadhill

DanielB, I liked the 37c, but did get some irritation on my neck. Nothing terrible, but it just didn't seem as impressive as the Progress. I really need to give it another try as I only used it once.

Honestly, I probably need to quit buying new razors and stick with one until I really get the technique down. As it stands now, I've been wet shaving for about 6 weeks and have purchased 8 different razors(would be 13 if I hadn't lost a group of vintage Gillettes on eBay earlier, darn it! Lol). Part of the fun for me though is collecting the razors themselves.

I'm no expert, but I'd say that if you can do 4 passes and still not have any irritation then your technique must be pretty good. Maybe just try a more aggressive razors. Most Merkurs are on the less aggressive side and I'm assuming the 39c is too. That's one thing I like about the Progress, same razor but varying levels of aggressiveness.
 
schmalgausen

schmalgausen

I have about 15 razors in my collection, like to try something new. But often return to the Progress, it's my warm place.

However wouldn't recommend the long model or Megress without special reason, e.g. huge hands.

Unfortunately Merkur quality seems to get down. Nowadays Progresses have far from great finish and even the scale didn't set to zero.
 
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DanielB

DanielB

DanielB said:
I should be so lucky - I just put in a brand new Polsilver Super Iridium in my 39C "Sledgehammer" [...] it took 4 full passes + touchups to achieve (and a less than ideal 25 minutes from preshave application to alum). I did WTG, XTG, XTGR (toasty, so worthwhile) and ATG buffing.
Click to expand...
Update: inspired by the comments in this thread, I've been doing XTG+WTG(buffing) passes all week with my 39C w Polsilver blade. Best time to date from lather prep to alum is 15 minutes, and I've been getting great BBS shaves (so well that 2 passes are possible the next day), except for under the chin (to edge of goatee), which seem to be difficult with this combo.

I'm thinking the Progress's adjustability would be just the ticket for . I pulled the trigger, got a Progress 570 on the way!
Went with the shorter handle because people say it aids in maneuverability.

l also have a 45C Bakelite and a Fatip Piccolo on the way, from Europe.

No idea where I'm going to pull them all....

By the way, the Polsilver is the best blade I've tried to date by far, have done 7x face and 2x head and no sign of it lagging.
 
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