Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
The Short Version: My favorite razor by a long shot. Better than my Schone/Fatip, Carbon CX, Feather AS-D2, Feather Popular razors. It shaves better and leaves my face less stressed than those.
The Long Version: Up until now, I considered that I preferred either milder razors or if a bit more efficient, needed a highly clamped blade. At a graduation party I found out my neighbor was a wet shaver. Conversation ensued and he has my Carbon CX for a month and I his R41.
I've used it for 11 shaves now with the same Personna MedPrep blade. I've had excellent shaves since the get go. I was cautious given everything I've ever read on this razor and half expected to hate it. Instead it is my daily driver.
Blade feel? You bet. In the past I enjoyed the type of razors you rather wondered if there was a blade in them and confirmed there was by feeling where your whiskers no longer were. This is very different to that. This razor gives lots of blade feel and I think that is why it works so much better than other razors for me.
My skin is not super sensitive, but I can get razor burn or irritation sometimes. I have oily skin and don't require much in the way of balm or AS, especially not in summer. I'm not prone to ingrown, but the hair at the base of my neck grows very close to the skin.
Shaving style: I shave every day. Feel like a bum if I don't. I can use any of my razors as daily drivers, some are better in that role than others. The R41 is the best in that role, bar none including my SE razors. I'm a two pass shaver. WTG, ATG. Personally I don't get any advantage by doing XTG, my upper lip being the only exception. This razor would require great great care to go ATG on my upper lip. I've done it at slight angles, but honestly it shaves so close with WTG and XTG there that there is no point to risk bloodshed for 4 more hours of BBS. This is one case where I think the tight blade clamping of other DE razors such as the Schone/Fatip or Feather AS-D2 or almost any SE due to the thick blade makes ATG easy whereas flimsy DE blades not clamped near the edge can be problematic for some in general or some parts on an individuals face. (i.e, perhaps you can't go ATG with the R41 at all and I do just fine except on my upper lip, YMMV).
Some random points or observances I have on this razor
The Long Version: Up until now, I considered that I preferred either milder razors or if a bit more efficient, needed a highly clamped blade. At a graduation party I found out my neighbor was a wet shaver. Conversation ensued and he has my Carbon CX for a month and I his R41.
I've used it for 11 shaves now with the same Personna MedPrep blade. I've had excellent shaves since the get go. I was cautious given everything I've ever read on this razor and half expected to hate it. Instead it is my daily driver.
Blade feel? You bet. In the past I enjoyed the type of razors you rather wondered if there was a blade in them and confirmed there was by feeling where your whiskers no longer were. This is very different to that. This razor gives lots of blade feel and I think that is why it works so much better than other razors for me.
My skin is not super sensitive, but I can get razor burn or irritation sometimes. I have oily skin and don't require much in the way of balm or AS, especially not in summer. I'm not prone to ingrown, but the hair at the base of my neck grows very close to the skin.
Shaving style: I shave every day. Feel like a bum if I don't. I can use any of my razors as daily drivers, some are better in that role than others. The R41 is the best in that role, bar none including my SE razors. I'm a two pass shaver. WTG, ATG. Personally I don't get any advantage by doing XTG, my upper lip being the only exception. This razor would require great great care to go ATG on my upper lip. I've done it at slight angles, but honestly it shaves so close with WTG and XTG there that there is no point to risk bloodshed for 4 more hours of BBS. This is one case where I think the tight blade clamping of other DE razors such as the Schone/Fatip or Feather AS-D2 or almost any SE due to the thick blade makes ATG easy whereas flimsy DE blades not clamped near the edge can be problematic for some in general or some parts on an individuals face. (i.e, perhaps you can't go ATG with the R41 at all and I do just fine except on my upper lip, YMMV).
Some random points or observances I have on this razor
- I can and do shave daily with the R41. (approaching two weeks of daily shaves)
- My skin feels better than with any other razor I've used. Even when there was no irritation at rest, if I was to grab or pull or tug on my cheeks, in certain areas I could feel a little irritation at times. Not all the time but some of the time. .
- To the point above, the weather has been very hot and humid where I live. Normally any shave as close as the R41 gives, would give me some slight burning/irritation if I was outside and sweating after the shave. Zilch, nada, nothing, none of that with the R41.
- I actually have come around a bit on shave sticks. In the past I disliked them as I don't like rubbing hard soap on my face. I'm thinking it was due to the slight irritation I got before that I mentioned I could feel if manipulating my face. Last weekend I traveled and used my Tabac stick and was ready for the normal feeling I don't like when using it, it never came. I rubbed soap on the skin and nothing felt irritated or tender as it had in the past.
- There is a lot of talk of efficiency or aggressiveness. I will put it this way. The Muhle R41 is aggressive and efficient on whiskers, but very mild on my skin. It is possible to have a razor that is tough on whiskers and easy on your skin, or so I found out. This razor may/won't be that for all of you, but for some, it will. If I had to make a guess, I think it's precisely because the razor is riding directly on the whiskers and skin for the most part, no bar to stretch the skin. You have to control the blade or cut yourself.
- If I had to do with only one razor, this would be the one.
