So, I purchased a DE and started wet shaving probably 6.5-7 years ago. My brother was the one to convince me to go the wet shaving route so I jumped in quite naively. I ended up purchasing a Merkur Futur set and had always used Feather blades with the only soap from Crabtree and Evelyn or Col. Conks.
I knew about this site and had perused it from time to time but I recently needed new soap as I finished the last of my Col. Conk set that I had purchased from Amazon. I figured I should look and find some other soaps so I came here and checked the forum. Well that led me to watching some videos and doing more research and realizing that I had been doing it MOSTLY wrong the entire time. When it would come to lathering up I would very slightly (5-8 seconds) load up my brush and then either use my free hand to create lather or face lather. After getting an education and through reading here I decided to order some Pre de Provence 63, some shave soap from Stirling and a box of Personna Blue blades.
All I can say is WOW!!!! Using a quality soap, loading the brush properly and using the shave bowl that came with my set the first time made a world of difference. After doing research it became apparent that my DE choice and blade choice are those preferred by more experienced shavers, but seeing as that was all I knew I have really enjoyed the Personna.
As many of you attest to, I now look forward to shaving each morning and in fact my wife asked why I was doing a second pass one weekday morning.
My little shave den is growing from using "whatever" soap to the PdP and 3 different Stirlings. In fact I bought my wife a brush and some Stirling (she's not yet convinced on using a DE), my 17 yo son a Stirling starter set and my 15 yo daughter a starter set as well. My wife loved the lather she was able to get on her legs, my daughter was shocked that it stopped her razor burn and my son isn't quite sure what to make of it.
Sorry for the long initial post. I just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions and tips and hopefully I will be contributing here for a long time to come.
Kanga
I knew about this site and had perused it from time to time but I recently needed new soap as I finished the last of my Col. Conk set that I had purchased from Amazon. I figured I should look and find some other soaps so I came here and checked the forum. Well that led me to watching some videos and doing more research and realizing that I had been doing it MOSTLY wrong the entire time. When it would come to lathering up I would very slightly (5-8 seconds) load up my brush and then either use my free hand to create lather or face lather. After getting an education and through reading here I decided to order some Pre de Provence 63, some shave soap from Stirling and a box of Personna Blue blades.
All I can say is WOW!!!! Using a quality soap, loading the brush properly and using the shave bowl that came with my set the first time made a world of difference. After doing research it became apparent that my DE choice and blade choice are those preferred by more experienced shavers, but seeing as that was all I knew I have really enjoyed the Personna.
As many of you attest to, I now look forward to shaving each morning and in fact my wife asked why I was doing a second pass one weekday morning.
My little shave den is growing from using "whatever" soap to the PdP and 3 different Stirlings. In fact I bought my wife a brush and some Stirling (she's not yet convinced on using a DE), my 17 yo son a Stirling starter set and my 15 yo daughter a starter set as well. My wife loved the lather she was able to get on her legs, my daughter was shocked that it stopped her razor burn and my son isn't quite sure what to make of it.
Sorry for the long initial post. I just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions and tips and hopefully I will be contributing here for a long time to come.
Kanga
