Can't understand something about irritation of skin with cartridge razor

When I shave using cartridge razor (a Gillette Mach and such), I get a lot of irritation, especially in my throat area
While using DE - nothing

How come? what is the difference? a friend of mine said he will pass to DE if someone can explain him in details why DE is better (forget price and such, just for the irritation stuff)

More blades, more rubbing, more irritation.
Tell your friend just to try and not try to understand first!

tonich said:

More blades, more rubbing, more irritation.
Tell your friend just to try and not try to understand first!

Click to expand...

Yes but what is the secince behind it?
I mean
I can take my DE and do a 3 passes, right?
With his 5 blades or 3 or 2, he does one and it is "the same" (so he say), I want a deep explanation, not just "it is like this because it is"

I always got irritation and ingrown hairs really bad with carts.

I think it has something to do with the "lifting and pulling for a closer shave" that they advertise. As it lifts the hair it cuts so it is below the surface, and at an angle as it is pulled for the second, third, seventh, twelfth, whatever blade.

Now that sharp hair below the skin causes more irritation on top of the pulling it just did, plus it has to find its way back out of your skin causing ingrown hairs.

That's why you do 2 or 3 passes with a DE, to gently reduce the whisker as opposed to yanking it all out at once.

Granted, that's not a scientific explanation, but one formed by my humble experience and their advertising.

Possibly an allergic reaction to the chemicals in the lubra strips ? The throat is a very sensitive area

Does the friend encounter the same irritation you speak of?

While not scientific, my feeling is that cartridge razors limit your ability to alter blade angle or the degree of their exposure. In fact the only thing you can vary with carts is pressure, really.

Given that, there is no such thing as one razor for everyone. Some prefer carts, some prefer DE, some use both. The only real way for him to know is to try.

sfeile said:

View attachment 656620
View attachment 656621

Click to expand...

If you shave against the grain with a DE or any single blade razor the hair is cut below the surface anyhow that's what we call it a BBS shave in the first place

Same thing happens when you STRECH the area you shave.

So a multiblade razor is not shaving any differently than a DE (again when you use it AGAINST the grain a multiblade razor WILL cut hairs "under the skin" just as a DE will I have never seen a multiblade razor shaving super smooth and "under the skin" when shaving WITH the grain they all leave the same amount of "unshaved" hair a DE does when used with the grain (sometimes even more since most DE razors have at least 4 times the blade exposure (and are way sharper) of a cartridge so they shave closer) and you do need to make an ATG and an XTG pass to remove ALL stuble and get a BBS shave)

Whoever gets ingrown hairs on his neck (or face) simply can't tolerate ATG shaving no matter what razor he uses.

Multiblade razor pull and tug not because of the many iblades they have but simply because they use low quality blades that aren't that sharp to begin with,the fact that most men use them for a gazillion times before changing them because they cost a lot of $$ makes things even worse.

Tell your friend that it is just shaving karma and that shaving is believing. DE is better. 'Nuff said.

BSAGuy said:

Tell your friend that it is just shaving karma and that shaving is believing. DE is better. 'Nuff said.

Click to expand...

Exactly.

I just tell people that a DE is "better." If they want an explanation, I tell them that one "shave" with a DE, is worth a thousand words.

'nuff said.

Exact opposite for me. More irritation & nicks w/a DE razor. Absolutely no irritation & nicks w/my Gillette Fusion Pro Glide.

As a recent DE convert after shaving for over 30 years with cartridge razors, I can say that how you shave with a cartridge is different from how you shave with a DE. I can typically press harder and go over and over the same area repeatedly with a cartridge razor. That alone produces irritation. If you do the same thing with a DE you end up shredding your face. I think the reason is that DE blades are both higher quality and much sharper than any cartridge razor. Therefore you have to go much slower, be more patient and do 2 or 3 passes and possibly a touch up pass, all while NOT PRESSING and letting the razor's weight do the work. The only way to understand this is to actually do it yourself. I didn't understand this until I actually started shaving with a DE. And I have to say that the shaves I get with a DE are far superior to my shaves with a Mach 3. That is all the "science" there is to it. Your friend simply needs to give it a go.

It seems to me that one pass with a five-bladed razor is the same as five passes with a one-bladed razor. No wonder that people get irritated. Plus, I believe that the cartridges do not have the quality of blades or geometry that a single-bladed razor has.

It seems to me that one pass with a five-bladed razor is the same as five passes with a one-bladed razor.

Click to expand...

It is not since a cartridge's blade exposure is almost zero.Like a said a few posts above it is simply the fact that some people can't take ATG shaving.

I think the cart blades are kind of flimsy and I'm not certain they are all aligned properly. Cheep metal too ... Is that scientific ?

Razorcan said:

It is not since a cartridge's blade exposure is almost zero.Like a said a few posts above it is simply the fact that some people can't take ATG shaving.

Click to expand...

I can't agree with that 100%. I can't go against the grain with a cartridge, but I have no problems going against the grain with my DEs or my straights.

In some cases you are 100% correct, and I won't argue that some people just can't. But, I think it still has to do with how far the cart pulls the hair. I agree we probably are still getting below the skin for a BBS, makes sense to me, but only just below. We aren't pulling the hair out of the root to do it, only stretching the skin to flatten it for the blade to cut.

A gillette spokeswoman told the NY Times in an interview that the first blade was dull just for the purpose of pulling the hair in a 3 blade cartridge. That procedure is done twice in a 5 blade cartridge.

With a single blade, we either pitch it or hone it when it gets dull and pulls or else it causes irritation. With a multi-blade cart we are using a dull blade right from the start.

I'm with you sfeile. If I go ATG with a cart I get significant amounts of ingrown hairs. And as we all know with the crazy way hair can grow its almost impossible to not go ATG in some small areas because the hair just doesn't grow common enough for a razor head to always be going in the same direction of all the hairs in its footprint.

In any case with a cart I get lots of ingrown hairs even when I try hard to only shave WTG.

With a DE I do three passes where the majority of the first pass is WTG, the majority of the second pass is XTG, and the majority of the third pass is ATG.

And I do not get ANY ingrown hairs with a DE. I just don't.

Are shaving exactly the same way with both - same prep, same later, same light touch, same multipass grain-specific shave?

xxvaleria said:

It seems to me that one pass with a five-bladed razor is the same as five passes with a one-bladed razor. ....

Click to expand...

Often stated, but not true. In fact, one could make the argument (and Gillette HAS) that there should be LESS irritation with a 5-bladed razor, because it spreads out all the pressure you apply among the 5 blades, whereas with your DE all the pressure is one one solitary blade.

Think of it this way: if someone forced you to lie down on a bed of nails, would you choose to lie on the bed that only had 10 nails, or would you prefer one that had 1000?

The fact is that the reason Gillette keeps adding more blades is not because that last blade is still cutting any hair but because people shave with really bad technique. A large part of that really bad technique is applying a lot of pressure when shaving. Gillette is able to let people get away with that by adding more blades, which spreads the pressure out, making it less damaging to the skin.

When using a cartridge razor, how much shaving cream do you think remains on the skin after tbe first blade passes through? That may be relevant to irritation when two to four more blades will still pass over that very same area of skin.

And when you consider some of the junky canned goo that most are putting on their faces......