Ok, the title sounds more dramatic than it is I suppose. I turned 40 last year and realised I'm growing more hair in more places that is considered usual for someone 'young'. Oh, and I recently bought a sports car. Insert cliche here. 
More to the point, I've become more and more irritated with cartridge razors which I suspected was related to the contact dermatitis I seem to have developed in a few places. On the other hand my cousin tells me that at the same age he had to change shaving tools because his beard became quite a bit more coarse. So he suggested a DE razor and shaving cream rather than cartridges and plain soap.
Well... I'm an Engineer working in the IT business, so any excuse to learn about something new (in a Luddite sort of way) is a welcome distraction from ones and zeros.
So, my experience thus far: Given that my beard isn't particularly coarse or dense I read a little about DE blades and decided to give Astra Platinum blades a go in a Wahl adjustable DE razor. Being unsure about soap versus cream I went for some Geo Trumper's Coconut Oil Shaving Cream with a basic soft/fluffy synthetic brush, just to give my skin a break from soap.
'Read a little about how to create a proper lather, how much water to cream, when and where to build... then proceeded to carve great bleeding scars into my face. I think I missed something. I checked my angles, adjusted pressure and made another pass elsewhere, this time only three cuts.
Ok, you get the idea, I've not used a DE before and clearly need to do a bit more reading. Having shaved everyday for the last 10 days with this setup the cuts are slowly getting less frequent, but I'm yet to get a good single pass with the grain without cutting myself, and the one occasion I dared to go against the grain resulted in bleeding for several hours afterward. First and second day with a fresh blade seem to be the worst, with day three a little better, but by days four the blade is catching and not cutting well then proceeds to the bin.
At this stage the questions begin in my mind; 'Just how long should this take to get better? Or am I doing something wrong?' Learning to use a no.5 plane on gnarly Australian hardwoods wasn't this painful!
At this stage I'm open to any suggestions and advice regarding technique or equipment and welcome your comments and experience. I'm located in Melbourne Australia where we have some access to retail men's grooming boutiques, but certainly not the bewildering array available online.
Thanks in advance for your help, folks.
Dave.
More to the point, I've become more and more irritated with cartridge razors which I suspected was related to the contact dermatitis I seem to have developed in a few places. On the other hand my cousin tells me that at the same age he had to change shaving tools because his beard became quite a bit more coarse. So he suggested a DE razor and shaving cream rather than cartridges and plain soap.
Well... I'm an Engineer working in the IT business, so any excuse to learn about something new (in a Luddite sort of way) is a welcome distraction from ones and zeros.
So, my experience thus far: Given that my beard isn't particularly coarse or dense I read a little about DE blades and decided to give Astra Platinum blades a go in a Wahl adjustable DE razor. Being unsure about soap versus cream I went for some Geo Trumper's Coconut Oil Shaving Cream with a basic soft/fluffy synthetic brush, just to give my skin a break from soap.
'Read a little about how to create a proper lather, how much water to cream, when and where to build... then proceeded to carve great bleeding scars into my face. I think I missed something. I checked my angles, adjusted pressure and made another pass elsewhere, this time only three cuts.
Ok, you get the idea, I've not used a DE before and clearly need to do a bit more reading. Having shaved everyday for the last 10 days with this setup the cuts are slowly getting less frequent, but I'm yet to get a good single pass with the grain without cutting myself, and the one occasion I dared to go against the grain resulted in bleeding for several hours afterward. First and second day with a fresh blade seem to be the worst, with day three a little better, but by days four the blade is catching and not cutting well then proceeds to the bin.
At this stage the questions begin in my mind; 'Just how long should this take to get better? Or am I doing something wrong?' Learning to use a no.5 plane on gnarly Australian hardwoods wasn't this painful!
At this stage I'm open to any suggestions and advice regarding technique or equipment and welcome your comments and experience. I'm located in Melbourne Australia where we have some access to retail men's grooming boutiques, but certainly not the bewildering array available online.
Thanks in advance for your help, folks.
Dave.
