A blasphemous experiment: Wahl 8061 electric.

[auk1124]

I have been making some life changes over the course of the last couple of years. One of the recent changes: I am trying to ditch my goatee. I have never been able to shave my chin, with any system I have tried to date. Straights, carts, disposables, SE's, a silly number of DE's, blades, creams, soaps, etc... all failures.

The reason? My chin hair grows sideways, E-W and W-E. Plus it is very coarse, and very curly. Plus, the follicles lie extremely flat against my skin. Plus, terribly sensitive skin. Net result, I get ingrowns at the drop of a hat. I gave up and grew a goatee years ago, after starting to see some scarring from all the inflammation and ingrowns.

So I had an Ebates balance that needed spending, and long story short, a Wahl 8061 landed on my doorstep today. The Wahl 8061 is marketed to African Americans and other folks who have problems with ingrowns, and the consensus seems to be that it is one of the best electrics for dealing with this issue.

I gave it a spin tonight, and my initial impression is pretty good. This thing shaves close. I know that is a major complaint with electrics, but the Wahl gave me a darn fine shave. Not BBS, but pretty darn close. No tugging, no ripping hair out. We will see about the ingrowns though. I already have some bad chin irritation from taking my goatee off a few days ago, so for now I will give the Wahl the benefit of the doubt.

I have read that you have to give an electric three weeks for your face to acclimate, so we will see how this goes. I plan to stick with the electric and give it a serious go for the next few weeks, if my chin doesn't rot off.

 

[malocchio]

If you are having misery with a blade there is no shame in using an electric...You may eventually get back to normal and retry wet blade shaving, it's possible you were not prepping the beard enough. Good luck and keep us apprised !

 

[tm3]

I have read that you have to give an electric three weeks for your face to acclimate, so we will see how this goes. I plan to stick with the electric and give it a serious go for the next few weeks, if my chin doesn't rot off.

I have heard that also (the manufacturers put it out there) and I don't buy the "face acclimation" claim.

I think it takes 2-3 weeks to refine technique and get optimal results. Just like it takes a while to develop good DE technique.

Interesting about the Wahl. I have never heard much about it, one way or the other.

 

[auk1124]

Second shave with the Wahl last night. Not as comfortable as the first; some new irritation and redness on my chin, and some ingrowns on my neck. But not horrible.

While a close shaver, this electric still leaves behind some odd hairs here and there, mostly on my neck. It gives a close shave for an electric, according to my understanding, but this is no blade.

Another new product tried: Kyoku electric pre-shave lotion. This stuff is as expensive as gold, and is supposed to be one of the best electric pre-shave products made, if you can believe the Amazon reviews. I used some on my already-irritated chin, and it set me on fire. Looked at the ingredient list, and it is just alcohol and some other chemicals. I can't tell that it did anything for the shave, either.

For now I will skip the pre-shave potions and maybe revisit them later, if I stick with this.