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Wow.. that was... disappointing

So I figured I'd wait a few days and let my beard grow in nice and thick before starting week 4 of shaving, but that may have been a mistake.

I shaved today after 2 days growth, and the pulling was something fierce...

Prep was a warm towel wrap with my VDH glycerin and TOM mint lather combination, and I went heavy on the VDH today on purpose to add extra glide to the shave. I started with a Derby that was on shave #4 after having been hand stropped and figured I would let it have one more go for the thinning and I would switch to a new blade for the finish work. I want for reduction rather than elimination as I knew I couldn't expect to get all of the hair off at once without serious issues, but even still it didn't seem to want to come off.

Neither the hand stropped Derby on pass 1 or the new Derby on pass 2 could cut my beard without tugging, no matter how gently I tried to go at it. Out of frustration over how little cutting was occuring on my neck, I went S-N for pass #2 until that pulled and I realized I was at risk for razor burn, I went for another N-S to try and reduce it but that did very little if anything... I finished pass 2 after having tried some XTG on my jawline and just said the heck with it and washed off.

I'm suprised how little my face hurts, I must have done this mostly right, but it's not as happy as it normally is for sure. How am I supposed to go about tacking this type of thing in the future? I'm not sure my face would be up for 3-4 N-S passes just to knock things back enough to be managable...
 
My trick for three days plus is to work some conditioner into the beard in the shower first. You don't have to use a lot, just leave it there a minute before rinsing it out again. I guarantee your shave will take around half the effort if you use that trick.
 
I wouldn't even attempt a 4-day growth with a Derby.

In my experience they are way over-rated, pull and tug like no other, and leave me with irritation. I've come back several times to see if I maybe had a bad blade, but no, not for me.

Feather is my go-to blade for a few days growth. I am BBS in three passes plus touch ups.
 
Somehow I knew it would come to a Derby vs. Feather showdown.

But seriously Is there anything different I could have done? The only mistakes I think I made were when I tried to go S-N on pass 2 and the small part of my jaw I tried to do XTG... but it wasn't cutting!!!!

I'll have to try the conditioner thing next time. This week is going to be interesting. Meh face hurts, but I need to be presentable tomorrow and tuesday, hopefully I'll have a face left by Wed...
 
hot towels r good but Lectric Shave pre-shave solution ALWAYS works for me.I tookt he advice froma BB member bout it...this AM just tried my 1st GEM 1912 with GEM blades n def. helps!
 
I doubt it was the Derbys, per se -- I get consistently good results with them (in my non-adjustable 38C), but my beard is not especially coarse, and I rarely go more than a day without a shave. Of course, with more growth you may need better prep. Do you ever use pre-shave oil? I'm not one who thinks it is necessary all the time, but it definitely does make a difference.

Good luck!
 
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I do not use pre shave oil. It might not be a bad call at this point if I ever run into another situation where I've got that much growth at once...

I guess I should have let my face stay under the towel longer owing to the larger amount of growth I had today.
 
Your experience is exactly why I love a Gillette slim adjustable and the Israeli red pack blades.I can get away with a SS if I shave very early but if I give my beard a few more hours only a cranked up adjustable gets her done.
 
Maybe its time to try some Merkur blades?:lol:

48+ hours of hair growth and I wouldn't use a blade that was already on its last legs. Time for a new blade.

Have you used that lather combo before?

If you decide to skip a couple of days shaving in the future, shower first. I find that a hot shower is really great prep.
 
I use that lather combo exclusively :p Although usually with a little less VDH.

The blade wasn't really on it's last legs either, I have consistently gotten 4 shaves out of the Derbys in the past. As soon as I finished pass #1 I tossed it and put a new one in, I'd swear it wasn't as nice as the old one :p

Too much growth....

I guess a shower in addition may have helped, but that's what the hot towel was for (at least I thought it would do the job, as it normally does). Maybe my setup isn't good for my skin. I've noticed it works great on normal days when I shaved no more than 2 days prior, minus the fact that no matter how hard I try ATG will give me irritation if I do it 2 days in a row and my face still doesn't seem to like it no matter what I do...

Whatever happened I was expecting a result that was very different from what I experienced. My technique was finally getting to where I could get a nice shave and go XTG and everything would be pleasant (as mentioned ATG still irritates my skin, but I may have sensitive skin). I took my sweet time, I even grabbed a nice folding chair and really let myself stretch the whole process out in luxury... well up until the razor touched my face... then the pain started :001_rolle

I'm not sure why I decided to go XTG when WTG wasn't doing a good job... I think it was frustration. It didn't help though, that swipe of skin is particularly sore, the rest is just bothered... oh and the ATG patch on my neck also hurts... again it was stupid but at the time I wasn't thinking clearly and mainly I was thinking about how on earth I was going to get all the hair off my face.

Absolutely zero blood and weepers though even with all the drauma so I think blade angle was good!

Heavy growth seems to be an area I'm not quite up to tackling yet. I guess this means I can't go into hiding.
 
In the soup nazi's voice, from Seinfeld.

"No hiding for you!" :001_smile

Next time you have heavy growth try going E-W, and W-E. Or from your ears to your nose and then from you nose to your ears. That helps me to remove excess growth with out trying to just rip it all off with an ATG pass.
 
Oh I started N-S which is WTG for me, then I tried XTG which is the E-W and W-E, but I only tried that in one small area. I think I needed two WTG passes before an XTG, and ATG would have been out of the question at that point...

The ATG was on my neck, which oddly enough is a less sensitive area for me. I did that after a single WTG did just about nothing for beard reduction. Again I needed two WTG's before an ATG, and when I say ATG in this case I guess I really mean XTG as my neck grows from E-W...

Then of course if I factor in the time of day, and the number of feet above sea level...

:lol::lol::lol:


Yeah I just got way too impatient, and I also had way too much growth for a comfortable shave... I think I learned that at least until I get better, I shouldn't let it get that long thinking I was helping myself when in fact it just hurt a lot :p
 
Honestly , anything more than 3 days growth , and i clipper my beard down first.
Otherwise with my dermatitis the shave irritates the hell out of my face.
 
Just shaved 3 days of growth this morning using a Feather and Superspeed.

With extended growth (at least for me), I face lather and leave the lather on my face for 2-3 minutes before I begin my first pass. This seems to really soften things up quite a bit. I've never had a tugging problems doing this.

And not to make this about a Feather/Derby battle, but I never had the results with a Derby that I get with a Feather. They are worlds apart in performance.
 
Honestly , anything more than 3 days growth , and i clipper my beard down first.
Otherwise with my dermatitis the shave irritates the hell out of my face.

Or you could use a straight razor :001_smile That's what I did when I got rid of my goatee.
 
Honestly , anything more than 3 days growth , and i clipper my beard down first.
Otherwise with my dermatitis the shave irritates the hell out of my face.

I guess this was about 2.5 days, maybe I fall under the same category. I had even considered using my facial hair trimmer with length combs and what nots just because I have no facial hair anymore and thus never use it, but I said I'd just use the DE.. maybe next time I'll trim first. I find it more enjoyable to remove 1-1.5 day of beard.

And I never expected Derby to = Feather, but Feather is out of my price range. They're pricey and work out to that mythical dollar a week.
 
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