Hello from Ontario!

Hey everyone!

I went to the store about a week ago to buy some more refill cartridges for my Gillette Fusion 5, noticed the prices had gone up, quite a bit! I thought about switching back to the Mach 3, the 5 was giving me some razor burn and the blades would get very dull after 2/3 shaves. I went home razorless instead.

Decided it was time to look at some lower cost alternatives, after doing some quick research I ordered a Edwin Jagger DE89 and a brush from Amazon. I also went out and picked up some Wilkinson Sword razors and some Proroso from the local store. The rest came in the mail the next day, and I attempted my first shave with a DE.

First shave, did not go so well.. Cut myself 5 or 6 times and got some irritation; I also made a massive mess of the shaving soap. I researched a bit more about different techniques, and I have shaved 4-5 times since then. Now I'm getting very close and comfortable shaves, worlds better than the old Fusion 5. Tonight I tried out the Derby Extra blades that came with the DE89 (I used the Wilkinson first), and it is by far the best shave yet! I'm not sure if it's my improving technique or the Derby that made the difference, but I can't remember the last time I had a shave this close without any irritation.

That said, I think I still have a ways to go, so I decided to sign up here to see exactly what I'm getting myself into

Hello and welcome. Great to have you here on B&B. Wander on over to the Hall of Fame and introduce yourself.

Welcome to B&B!

Welcome to the club. Glad to have you aboard.

Welcome! More from Ontario
Hope it wasn't Shopper's Wilkinson you bought, every price is better than there! Oh to be Canadian right now!

Welcome to the forum !!

Welcome to B&B!

Welcome to Badger and Blade, Who.

You like Derbys?

If you like them you will be a DE razor user.

Welcome to the B&B.

Cash_Stronomer said:

Welcome! More from Ontario
Hope it wasn't Shopper's Wilkinson you bought, every price is better than there! Oh to be Canadian right now!

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You got it! Picked em up for Shoppers, seemed like a steal compared to buying the usual cartridges. When I got home I started looking at razors online, realized it wasn't such a good deal after all! Got 10 more blades coming from tryablade.com , that should be an interesting experiment. I think it's about time I say goodbye to Shopper's!

Billski said:

Welcome to Badger and Blade, Who.

You like Derbys?

If you like them you will be a DE razor user.

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I like the Derby's so far, going to try a few more brands before I go all in and buy 100. I think I'll be sticking with the DE for the foreseeable future, straight razors look cool but I feel I would definitely cut myself up with one of those.

Thank you everyone else for the warm welcome!

Welcome to B&B

Do not be shy about joining in ANY of the conversations and meeting the members. We're all good friends here on B&B

Drop into the Shave Wiki and read over some of the shaving articles. http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/ You will find a LOT of useful info in there.

If you have not already done so, stop into the Hall of Fame and tell everyone a little about yourself

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/forumdisplay.php/30-Hall-of-Fame

I know their different everywhere, but there's an I-D-A not too far of a drive from me that has Personna's at $2.39 per 5 pack. Not a great price, but for buying local it's pretty good. If you're going to Try-A-Blade for samples, I highly recommend Nacet, Silver Blue, and trying some of the different Personna labels they have.

Welcome to B&B.

Welcome fellow Ontarian! Just a word of advice, if you get your Wilkinson Sword DE blades at a certain shop(pers), they are way overpriced at $14+ for a package of 10. Try out some of the vendors here on B&B and you can get them for much less. Happy shaving!

Welcome to B&B.

Cash_Stronomer said:

I know their different everywhere, but there's an I-D-A not too far of a drive from me that has Personna's at $2.39 per 5 pack. Not a great price, but for buying local it's pretty good. If you're going to Try-A-Blade for samples, I highly recommend Nacet, Silver Blue, and trying some of the different Personna labels they have.

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Thanks for the recommendations, I actually put some Silver Blues and Personna's in the order (as well as some Feathers and Astras). I think there's an IDA around here somewhere, but I plan on buying in bulk online in the future.

LewBleu said:

Welcome fellow Ontarian! Just a word of advice, if you get your Wilkinson Sword DE blades at a certain shop(pers), they are way overpriced at $14+ for a package of 10. Try out some of the vendors here on B&B and you can get them for much less. Happy shaving!

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Thank you! Yes, I ended up paying 15.99 for the 10 Wilkinsons, I could've got them online for less than half that if I had done more research.

Hey there, hello from the Ottawa area.

Welcome to the nightmare that is DE... by nightmare, I mean the world of getting great shaves and never looking at cartridges again without disdain.

DE has great rewards, but the first rule is patience, you have to unlearn everything about shaving with cartridges.

For blades... you shouldn't need to pay anything over 20$ for 100 blades. Lot of sellers around the world, so just look around, and lots of sellers here, or recommendations easily obtained. PM me, I'll be happy to send you a few blades your way.

Proraso is a great choice for a soap, Shoppers also carry Omega brushes... both of these are my go-to now.

My white Proraso is the soap of choice, and now both my wife and daughter are using it and loving it.. yes, they were turned and now both use DE razors too, and that's without any convincing from me, my wife, I just assisted with my razor when she forgot hers, and loved it, she feared it at first, but now, the ease of using it, how easily it glides, etc. she kept mentioning it to her daughter until my daughter just came to me and said.."well, mom keeps telling me how awesome it is, so I might as well try it too, can we order me one?".

For razors, there's a crapload out there, and each razor type has their strength. For me, I absolutely love and prefer the TTO (twist to open/butterfly doors) and I really enjoy my Parker (and my wife and daughter loves theirs).

As far as your learning cure, the standard questions, assistance, etc. is always the same for newbies. Pressure... shave like you're just wanting to remove the lather, if the hairs aren't remove, try again, and change your angle a tiny bit. Get it right, you shouldn't feel the blade at all on your skin, nor get any irritation. Lather: swirl a wet (extra water shaken out) brush a good ten seconds and load it up, but stop if it's starting to foam up. You can bowl lather or face lather. If you bowl, make sure your face is wet, and swirl your brush until you get a lather that 's so thick, that it feels like a very thick whipped cream (and not that stuff from a can, I mean the real stuff that you use a egg beater to create). If you face lather (my preference), wet face well, work the loaded brush from side to side to spread the soap first, then work little circles going back and forth across the face, and done right, takes about 10 seconds, and it's suddenly explode in thick creamy lather. Just make sure that your brush is loaded well and your face is wet. Lastly, learn to map your face, see the direction of the hair growth and learn to cut with the grain first, then across it, then against it until you get the angle and pressure right and get no irritation at all. You'll know how good the shave is by the application of the aftershave.. once you get absolutely no burn but have a great shave, you'll have achieve the "mastery".

Just be patient, it can take a few months of shaving to get things going really right, and the learning curve is a good year of improving your technique. With time, if you have the dexterity, you'll be able to shave with a single pass, a few retouches, and be able to do it a fast as you see people do it in the cartridge commercials, just sliding it like a race car.

Welcome to B&B! Sounds like you are on the road to better shaves. Enjoy!

Welcome from ALberta. Enjoy your adventure.

Welcome aboard!