tl;dr Better than expected, worse than hoped, easier than thought.
Armaments: Sanguine R5 ($15 on Amazon, awesome), Supermax Super Stainless DE blade (came with it), Proraso sandalwood cream, Omega brush, bowl.
Opponent: 1 day's growth.
It came in the mail yesterday, so of course I had to give it a try today. I don't know what specific wood and metal it's made of, but the handle is very light, and the metal is nicely weighted.
I ended up doing four passes, because I was so light with pressure and angle on the ATG pass, I basically didn't do anything. Took half an hour.
WTG, starting at the sideburns going down, I was surprised at how easy it was to use. Obviously this is the easiest part of your face to shave, but after DE shaving for a while and knowing how the blade should be angled, I was expecting a horror movie if I slipped up even a hair. Didn't happen. No knicks at all for the whole WTG pass. They say to use your left hand on the left side of your face, and I did that, with mixed results. I ended up using my right hand there in some sections.
Next I went across the grain, which for me upwards on neck and on face. On the face is where I ran into some blood. The first one really terrified me - I produced what looked like an even red line on my jawline. But it was ultimately just three pinpricks that went away with cold water. It was my own fault. I put the blade on my face at a 90 degree angle, completely careless. I also got a couple more pinpricks, in the places on my face I usually get them. Corners of mouth, and jawline, where I seem to have a few copper wires growing that I should probably just yank out.
Upwards on the neck was actually pretty close to the cheek in terms of how easy it was. I thought it would be horrifying, but the curved upward stroke to get to the chin was easy, almost natural. I did this with the handle straight.
Next, against the grain. Now, on my neck, that means straight right to left. I didn't want to attempt that, so I did another across the grain. On my face, I went from the chin outwards. One final horrible mistake, I managed to full on cut myself behind the jaw on my right side. Not deep enough to get through all skin layers, but there's a small red line that will take a day or two to go away. No big deal.
Three passes done, I rinsed, aaaand... it was like I did 2 of 3 passes with my safety razor. It was good enough for work, but I wanted perfection. So I did a fourth pass. Again from the chin outwards, and this time I tried to go halfway against the grain on the neck by going at a 45 degree downward angle from the right. I still didn't get very good results directly under the chin, but my face was sore at that point, so I stopped.
By the end, my face was definitely smoother than my first week of safety razor shaves, and most cuts were my own carelessness, so I'd say it went well. Still not nearly as good as a 3 pass safety shave.
My face was sore, and I was dreading the store brand witch hazel (14% alcohol), but... it actually didn't sting NEARLY as much as my first safety razor shaves. Despite the blade feeding on my blood, there was way less irritation, even with an extra 4th pass. I attribute this to some video tutorials I watched. Rather than using 2 inch strokes like most people recommend with safety razors, I used face-long and neck-long strokes on every pass, and never went over the same area twice unless there was still cream on it.
People say a big issue with using DE blades in a shavette is the corners of the blade will slice you up. I definitely felt them poke me, but I was very conscious of them, and I never got a knick from them. Just warnings that I was doing it wrong.
So, it was way easier to use than I thought, and I could see myself becoming an expert within a month. I can tell it will never be easier than a safety though, so I'll probably stick with those for the most part.
Armaments: Sanguine R5 ($15 on Amazon, awesome), Supermax Super Stainless DE blade (came with it), Proraso sandalwood cream, Omega brush, bowl.
Opponent: 1 day's growth.
It came in the mail yesterday, so of course I had to give it a try today. I don't know what specific wood and metal it's made of, but the handle is very light, and the metal is nicely weighted.
I ended up doing four passes, because I was so light with pressure and angle on the ATG pass, I basically didn't do anything. Took half an hour.
WTG, starting at the sideburns going down, I was surprised at how easy it was to use. Obviously this is the easiest part of your face to shave, but after DE shaving for a while and knowing how the blade should be angled, I was expecting a horror movie if I slipped up even a hair. Didn't happen. No knicks at all for the whole WTG pass. They say to use your left hand on the left side of your face, and I did that, with mixed results. I ended up using my right hand there in some sections.
Next I went across the grain, which for me upwards on neck and on face. On the face is where I ran into some blood. The first one really terrified me - I produced what looked like an even red line on my jawline. But it was ultimately just three pinpricks that went away with cold water. It was my own fault. I put the blade on my face at a 90 degree angle, completely careless. I also got a couple more pinpricks, in the places on my face I usually get them. Corners of mouth, and jawline, where I seem to have a few copper wires growing that I should probably just yank out.
Upwards on the neck was actually pretty close to the cheek in terms of how easy it was. I thought it would be horrifying, but the curved upward stroke to get to the chin was easy, almost natural. I did this with the handle straight.
Next, against the grain. Now, on my neck, that means straight right to left. I didn't want to attempt that, so I did another across the grain. On my face, I went from the chin outwards. One final horrible mistake, I managed to full on cut myself behind the jaw on my right side. Not deep enough to get through all skin layers, but there's a small red line that will take a day or two to go away. No big deal.
Three passes done, I rinsed, aaaand... it was like I did 2 of 3 passes with my safety razor. It was good enough for work, but I wanted perfection. So I did a fourth pass. Again from the chin outwards, and this time I tried to go halfway against the grain on the neck by going at a 45 degree downward angle from the right. I still didn't get very good results directly under the chin, but my face was sore at that point, so I stopped.
By the end, my face was definitely smoother than my first week of safety razor shaves, and most cuts were my own carelessness, so I'd say it went well. Still not nearly as good as a 3 pass safety shave.
My face was sore, and I was dreading the store brand witch hazel (14% alcohol), but... it actually didn't sting NEARLY as much as my first safety razor shaves. Despite the blade feeding on my blood, there was way less irritation, even with an extra 4th pass. I attribute this to some video tutorials I watched. Rather than using 2 inch strokes like most people recommend with safety razors, I used face-long and neck-long strokes on every pass, and never went over the same area twice unless there was still cream on it.
People say a big issue with using DE blades in a shavette is the corners of the blade will slice you up. I definitely felt them poke me, but I was very conscious of them, and I never got a knick from them. Just warnings that I was doing it wrong.
So, it was way easier to use than I thought, and I could see myself becoming an expert within a month. I can tell it will never be easier than a safety though, so I'll probably stick with those for the most part.
Keep the shaves coming!
