I have been shaving with a safety razor for a couple of weeks now and have been fairly disapointed as much of what I have heard isn't to my experience. I am hoping that since so much of it isn't in line with what I have heard that maybe I am missing something that will help me improve this experience.
What I have heard
I'm not sure if it matters but I don't use a badger brush or anything like that, I use the same shave butter as I did before since I was gifted an entire case of it. I do have to use several times as much shave butter as I did before, maybe 2-3 times as much, per pass, to get the same kind of glide I was getting before, I also aggressively rub it into my face now, not sure if that does anything though. I was considering getting a badger brush and some shave soap when I ran the case out but with the results I have been getting I don't want to spend even more money.
Another thing that I don't know if it matters but I bought two different razors, both of which are Gillette, one is made of three pieces and the other twists open, but I get pretty much the same results with both.
To be clear I wasn't expecting anything revolutionary, the same shave quality at a lower price is what I was after when I ran out of my cartridges and decided to try this. Right now it looks like when I run out of blades I will go back to cartridges, but I still have 90 something to go and am looking to improve this situation if it will give me what I am after.
What I have heard
- its cheaper - I paid $30 for 100 "Feather New Hi-Stainless Platinum Coated double edge blade" it seems to me a blade lasts about a week before it gets too scratchy and the shave quality drops further so roughly $15 a year. where with a 15 pack of Gillette mach 3 refills for $20 I got nine years of shaving from that which if my math is right is .45 cents a year on cartridges. yes I used each cartridge longer than suggested but it did the job and wasn't uncomfortable.
- its a closer/smoother shave - after a couple of weeks of "practice" I now get a shave after two passes on a fresh blade that looks like several hours after a single pass from a 3 month old mach 3 cartridge. I suppose I may still need to learn better technique but as of now a "fresh shave" is like a 5 o'clock shadow.
- just use the weight of the razor/don't apply pressure - the first time I tried it, i used no pressure and the blade scratched and pulled my hair so much it was painful, after a while I learned that fairly light pressure and lots and lots of shave butter made things go smoother.
- its more environmentally friendly - this so far seems to hold up
I'm not sure if it matters but I don't use a badger brush or anything like that, I use the same shave butter as I did before since I was gifted an entire case of it. I do have to use several times as much shave butter as I did before, maybe 2-3 times as much, per pass, to get the same kind of glide I was getting before, I also aggressively rub it into my face now, not sure if that does anything though. I was considering getting a badger brush and some shave soap when I ran the case out but with the results I have been getting I don't want to spend even more money.
Another thing that I don't know if it matters but I bought two different razors, both of which are Gillette, one is made of three pieces and the other twists open, but I get pretty much the same results with both.
To be clear I wasn't expecting anything revolutionary, the same shave quality at a lower price is what I was after when I ran out of my cartridges and decided to try this. Right now it looks like when I run out of blades I will go back to cartridges, but I still have 90 something to go and am looking to improve this situation if it will give me what I am after.