I hate shaving. No – I love it. No – I hate it.

[dloyd9999]

The story so far: I joined the army at a very early age and learned to love DE. It was cool, old school, and just plain great to do in the morning in the field. However, I left the army after 7 years, and fell into the – wait for it – habit of electrics. Gasp. I know. I am sorry. I am a worm.

Things went along fine for 25 years, until I decided to extend my early morning routine, a tad… Yes, darlings, I ran across my old Gillette SS, bought a blade pack from merkur, and off I went. It was a bit like coming home. Kind of sybaritic too.

This is the “I love shaving part”. Here comes the “I hate shaving part”….

I checked the web – doesn’t everyone? And found a few fora. Including this one. Chock full o shaving nuts.

My competitive juices started to flow… I, too, can be BBS… after two weeks I am, shall we say, NOT BBS. Not even close. In fact, I look like the scenery from the original star trek… You know – the one where Captain Kirk fought the Gorn, and created gunpowder out of the surrounding scenery. I know, I know – but he COULD do it because he was Captain Kirk! And speaking of which, I know he used a DE and was smooth as silk… But I digress.

I tried: WTG, XTG, ATG, UTN, HLLM. (UTN=Up the nose, HLLM=hacked like lawn mower)… I get reaaaal smooth on the cheeks, and reaaaaal hacked on the chin line…




I read every single posting I could find. No advice. I have resigned myself to being a lower form of shaving-life. Compared to all you “blade-meisters” out there, I shall remain patchy. In fact, that just may be my new nickname.

Please help. Give generously of your time and advice to poor ol, “patchy”. He needs your pointers, your philosphies, your angles of attack, your special creams and unguents, your helpful hints, your poor, your huddled masses. (All you Americans may now chortle)

Seriously – I do enjoy reading your posts. Thanks for reading, and this is fun!

Cheers all

[vcardona]

I still have the odd patch when using my normal weekday shaving routine. When I really want to get BBS, I find I have to slow way down and really focus. I also have to remember where I normally miss, and make sure I hit those spots. Sorry I don't know if that is any help.

[jfever311]

Welcome to B&B!! What is your pre-shave prep routine? What soaps/creams are you using? Brush?

[dloyd9999]

Welcome to B&B!! What is your pre-shave prep routine? What soaps/creams are you using? Brush?

Proraso or AOS lemon pre-shave. Best badger brush. Usually use T&H Lime or Frasers (with a hint O Lime)

Thanks

[jfever311]

Are you using any kind of pre-shave facial scrub and HOT water? Have you tried other blades? Merkurs do not get very good ratings. Try Crystals. They are a great blade. Mainly though, work on taking your time with the prep. Use HOT water, keep your face clean and wet. I learned myself that you can get a decent shave with almost anything as long as you focus on your preperation and technique. The tech part, you will have to learn. It takes practice fella. Practice and time.

[Schaefo]

Welcome to the group! I started out like you shaving the old school way (in the mid 70’s) but I used an injector razor instead of a DE. After about 25 years or so of cartridge shaving, I “rediscovered” single blade shaving. I started out with Merkur blades as you did, and had no luck getting a BBS shave, then I switched to Derby’s and had much greater success. I’ve also tried Crystals, and Feathers – and get BBS with all of them.

So Point one - I’d try another Blade.

Another thing I noticed on my return to DE shaving is that my beard had gotten tougher, in addition to a sharper blade, you may need to try a different razor – the SS’s are pretty mild, non-aggressive razors, you may want to try an old Gillette adjustable like the Fat Boy, or my favorite a “Black Beauty” (long, black handled slim from the 70’s), or one of the newer Merkur adjustables.

So, point two is, adjustables let you dial up the aggressiveness of your shave, and help to personalize the shave to your beard – it helped me!

Point three as mentioned previously in this thread - a diligent pre-shave routine.

Sounds like you already address pre-shave, but you may need to try a few other things to find out what works best for you – I either shower before the shave and apply generous amounts of hair conditioner to the beard, or if not showering first I use Musgo-Real lime glyce pre-shave soap which does a great job of softening my beard. This works for me YMMV.

Lastly, the jawline is a problem area for most gents – experiment with different blade angles and skin stretching, in which you pull the skin on the jawline up higher and then shave it. Hope this helps - we don’t want you going back to the dark side again!

[crankymoose]

Welcome to B&B

you may want to try a more aggressive razor
you definitely do want to try a sampler pack of blades from http://westcoastshaving.com

you can also watch Mantics you tube videos on advanced shave techniques that may help you get those trouble spots

good luck and enjoy

[DanOK]

Welcome,

Preshave is huge, hot towel a minimum of three minutes or shower first.

[BMWRider]

Ahh, another seeking the holy grail, the BBS shave. I agree with the above posts, blade and razor are probably suspects along with prep. I suggest if you truly want BBS you change one of these at a time. But my next question is, why? If you were enjoying your shaves, living blissfully about the state of your face and unbothered, why compete with a bunch of electrons in cyberspace? I can attain BBS, but it takes 30 minutes. On a weekday morning a two or three pass injector shave takes ten minutes, I am out the door and looking stylish the rest of the day. My shave may not be perfect, but it is d%^& close. Be happy if you have found what works for you, shavegeeks be .....

Welcome to our little forum.