No1Up
Beet her to it!
I hope this helps someone, and if I forgot something, just ask.
So this will be my attempt to give anyone curious about these 2 fantastic razors my opinion on ownership and usability. I’m not a professional reviewer, so please don’t be too critical. So quick background that I believe is important, feel free to skip to “now the razors”. I got in to wet shaving I want to say somewhere around 2015, no matter what I did I would always get some sort of irritation or ingrown hair, sometimes it would just be a pink spot on my neck, or it would be a bad area. Forget about shaving daily, or against the grain, no more than 2 passes and that was too much most of the time;so somewhere around 2018, I grew a beard.
Over time I lost most if not all of my shaving items. I hadn’t even thought about shaving in nearly 6 years. Recently I found my old straight blade razor and I thought it would be fun to clean my neck up a bit. It was very relaxing, and I like the results. I had been toying around with the idea of trying a new beard style since my hair is thinning and I can’t do much up top. I went with the mutton chop if anyone is curious, its classic, and bold! Bonus, it allows me to shave my neck and chin! I found my old Gillette NEW in an old box we had in the garage along side an old box of persona med preps (they are now discontinued). Fellas, I had such a great shave! 3 days later I got some irritation… I forgotten all about that!
Now the razors.
Facebook Henson adds finally broke me down and I decided to try the Aluminum + (Mild). Wow, what a great razor, I was so impressed. To me, it is far superior to the leaf razor (which I liked). I was so impressed with it I wanted the Titanium version! Since I had the Mild, I went with the ++ (medium). The build quality is outstanding, and the razor is just so beautiful very nice! The shaves were all fantastic, however it’s not all good.
The Henson bad:
· While I can make the handle work for me but it is long, and I prefer shorter handles, like the Gillette new length.
· There is a “suction with it on skin that has no lather, so for instance I did my cheek and I did a quick little pass on an area I already hit and it got stuck, my natural reaction was to move it sideways and it bit me, just a little bit, and yes I know that was dumb but it was more instinctual like blinking your eye if something gets close.
· The head of the Henson is enormous, I did not really realize this until I used the blackbird. Not a big deal, I still got some of the best shaves ever, MOSTLY irritation free.
· I still got irritation a little pink patch that would not go away, I tried creams, I tried tenskin, I tried exfoliation before shaving, I tried pre shave oils, and balms. And after the shave I had what felt like heat, the skin was very hot. Smooth and buttery, but HOT… maybe it’s because I couldn’t stop touching it? Lol
· The stand is ugly – amazon has some for $13 bucks way better
Overall, none of the “bad” was a deal breaker, I still love the razor and I bet I could have figured out something that would reduce the irritation. Ice water helped a lot. Still, pink spot.
Here comes the BlackBird!
I’ve had my eye on the blackbird, but let’s face it, Henson marketing is much better lol. I fell for it. To me, I could not justify a near $400 razor (with stand). When I could get an amazing Titanium razor for $250 with the Henson. I was fortunate to come across a forum member selling his Ti blackbird with the stand at a good price. I could not pass it up, my thought process was at this price point, I could sell it for what I paid if I didn’t like it.
The first thing I noticed was the build quality... How can it be better than Henson?! Henson is top notch, not much room for improvement here... Blackbird feels, and just looks amazing, I can’t put my finger on it. The Henson has more heft, it weighs what you’d expect. The Blackbird looks heavy, BUT when you hold it, it feels like a feather, like, how is this possible?! (I believe Shane is a voodoo practitioner).
Quick pause –
Watching a few of the Blackland videos on going back to the basics, AND some tips for improving techniques. Helpful, tips that translate to a better shave with any razor. I highly recommend the video because it broke me out of the “Mild loop”. He made a point like, you shave, get irritation, so you think you need to go mild, again and again until you are shaving with a butter knife. This made a lot of sense to me. Added to this that the Henson Ti22++ had just a hint of blade feel that I liked so what he said made sense.
Let us get to the shave!
My first shave with the Blackbird was with an Astra blade (second use), on 30 hour stubble. It felt good, no drag, no suction. Finding the angle was easier on the Bird than the Henson (How?! The Henson is built in!). I believe this can be attributed to Shane’s black magic abilities. The handle seems to be designed in a way that the handle flair is a perfect spot for your fingers and allows such perfect control. The blade feel is fantastic and not scary at all. I used a Merkur adjustable and at higher settings it was downright dangerous! This was one of the things that turned me off to “aggressive” razors. No sir, the Bird is smooth, and gentle, but it can shave like it’s been endowed with magic from the spirit realm. As I was getting ready for the second pass, I realized there was no reason for it. I could not find any stubble!!
Over the past week, I noticed a few things. My irritation, gone… no pink spot, could this be due to the use of tenskin? I haven’t needed the tweezers at all. Also, my skin is not hot at all. I can shave daily! I can shave against the grain, daily, that’s BBS buttery smoooooth feeling daily in 3 passes. WTG, XTG, ATG. I NEVER would have thought I could shave like that, daily, and not have any irritation at all. I’m so impressed, and thankful for this amazing tool/art.
Blackbird the bad: (((cricket))) (((cricket)))
All I can think of is the price, thats a lot of money but the pride of ownership and I don’t have a lot of expensive hobbies like collecting guns. I am now wanting to own the Osprey, but I definitely don’t need it, the Blackbird is for me, perfect. The interesting thins here is the seller that sold me the Ti Blackbird, he sold it because he liked his Ti Henson’s better. This gentleman enjoys the very best in razors judging by his selling history, he has owned and sold a lot of top of the line razors. I should note that this was not his first blackbird he owned and sold lol (we are a crazy bunch).
I hope I didn’t forget anything. I will likely end up selling the Henson, maybe not. It is fantastic, idk. I have a feeling it would be one of those things I sell and regret selling it later.
So this will be my attempt to give anyone curious about these 2 fantastic razors my opinion on ownership and usability. I’m not a professional reviewer, so please don’t be too critical. So quick background that I believe is important, feel free to skip to “now the razors”. I got in to wet shaving I want to say somewhere around 2015, no matter what I did I would always get some sort of irritation or ingrown hair, sometimes it would just be a pink spot on my neck, or it would be a bad area. Forget about shaving daily, or against the grain, no more than 2 passes and that was too much most of the time;so somewhere around 2018, I grew a beard.
Over time I lost most if not all of my shaving items. I hadn’t even thought about shaving in nearly 6 years. Recently I found my old straight blade razor and I thought it would be fun to clean my neck up a bit. It was very relaxing, and I like the results. I had been toying around with the idea of trying a new beard style since my hair is thinning and I can’t do much up top. I went with the mutton chop if anyone is curious, its classic, and bold! Bonus, it allows me to shave my neck and chin! I found my old Gillette NEW in an old box we had in the garage along side an old box of persona med preps (they are now discontinued). Fellas, I had such a great shave! 3 days later I got some irritation… I forgotten all about that!
Now the razors.
Facebook Henson adds finally broke me down and I decided to try the Aluminum + (Mild). Wow, what a great razor, I was so impressed. To me, it is far superior to the leaf razor (which I liked). I was so impressed with it I wanted the Titanium version! Since I had the Mild, I went with the ++ (medium). The build quality is outstanding, and the razor is just so beautiful very nice! The shaves were all fantastic, however it’s not all good.
The Henson bad:
· While I can make the handle work for me but it is long, and I prefer shorter handles, like the Gillette new length.
· There is a “suction with it on skin that has no lather, so for instance I did my cheek and I did a quick little pass on an area I already hit and it got stuck, my natural reaction was to move it sideways and it bit me, just a little bit, and yes I know that was dumb but it was more instinctual like blinking your eye if something gets close.
· The head of the Henson is enormous, I did not really realize this until I used the blackbird. Not a big deal, I still got some of the best shaves ever, MOSTLY irritation free.
· I still got irritation a little pink patch that would not go away, I tried creams, I tried tenskin, I tried exfoliation before shaving, I tried pre shave oils, and balms. And after the shave I had what felt like heat, the skin was very hot. Smooth and buttery, but HOT… maybe it’s because I couldn’t stop touching it? Lol
· The stand is ugly – amazon has some for $13 bucks way better
Overall, none of the “bad” was a deal breaker, I still love the razor and I bet I could have figured out something that would reduce the irritation. Ice water helped a lot. Still, pink spot.
Here comes the BlackBird!
I’ve had my eye on the blackbird, but let’s face it, Henson marketing is much better lol. I fell for it. To me, I could not justify a near $400 razor (with stand). When I could get an amazing Titanium razor for $250 with the Henson. I was fortunate to come across a forum member selling his Ti blackbird with the stand at a good price. I could not pass it up, my thought process was at this price point, I could sell it for what I paid if I didn’t like it.
The first thing I noticed was the build quality... How can it be better than Henson?! Henson is top notch, not much room for improvement here... Blackbird feels, and just looks amazing, I can’t put my finger on it. The Henson has more heft, it weighs what you’d expect. The Blackbird looks heavy, BUT when you hold it, it feels like a feather, like, how is this possible?! (I believe Shane is a voodoo practitioner).
Quick pause –
Watching a few of the Blackland videos on going back to the basics, AND some tips for improving techniques. Helpful, tips that translate to a better shave with any razor. I highly recommend the video because it broke me out of the “Mild loop”. He made a point like, you shave, get irritation, so you think you need to go mild, again and again until you are shaving with a butter knife. This made a lot of sense to me. Added to this that the Henson Ti22++ had just a hint of blade feel that I liked so what he said made sense.
Let us get to the shave!
My first shave with the Blackbird was with an Astra blade (second use), on 30 hour stubble. It felt good, no drag, no suction. Finding the angle was easier on the Bird than the Henson (How?! The Henson is built in!). I believe this can be attributed to Shane’s black magic abilities. The handle seems to be designed in a way that the handle flair is a perfect spot for your fingers and allows such perfect control. The blade feel is fantastic and not scary at all. I used a Merkur adjustable and at higher settings it was downright dangerous! This was one of the things that turned me off to “aggressive” razors. No sir, the Bird is smooth, and gentle, but it can shave like it’s been endowed with magic from the spirit realm. As I was getting ready for the second pass, I realized there was no reason for it. I could not find any stubble!!
Over the past week, I noticed a few things. My irritation, gone… no pink spot, could this be due to the use of tenskin? I haven’t needed the tweezers at all. Also, my skin is not hot at all. I can shave daily! I can shave against the grain, daily, that’s BBS buttery smoooooth feeling daily in 3 passes. WTG, XTG, ATG. I NEVER would have thought I could shave like that, daily, and not have any irritation at all. I’m so impressed, and thankful for this amazing tool/art.
Blackbird the bad: (((cricket))) (((cricket)))
All I can think of is the price, thats a lot of money but the pride of ownership and I don’t have a lot of expensive hobbies like collecting guns. I am now wanting to own the Osprey, but I definitely don’t need it, the Blackbird is for me, perfect. The interesting thins here is the seller that sold me the Ti Blackbird, he sold it because he liked his Ti Henson’s better. This gentleman enjoys the very best in razors judging by his selling history, he has owned and sold a lot of top of the line razors. I should note that this was not his first blackbird he owned and sold lol (we are a crazy bunch).
I hope I didn’t forget anything. I will likely end up selling the Henson, maybe not. It is fantastic, idk. I have a feeling it would be one of those things I sell and regret selling it later.
