After a few months of happily shaving with my Feather AS-D1, Proraso soap and EJ best badger brush (plus a variety of blades), I decided that I should get serious and try some other stuff. I mulled for a while what my next razor should be, undecided between the EJ89 and the Merkur Futur, among the others. At last, a great idea struck me: why not just go for the queen ***** of razors, the infamous Muhle R41 I kept reading about?
And so I went. I ordered an R41 Grande (because if I was going to laugh in the face of common sense, I decided I might as well do it in grand style). my first tub of Cella and a few blades I hadn't yet tried (Bolzano, Timor, Ladas, Voskhod), then impatiently waited for the package to arrive. In the meantime, I also received my long-awaited custom brush from Rudy Vey (I plan on posting pics later). Of course I had read before that it is wise to only change one item at a time, since it is otherwise impossible to determine how any single change affects the quality of the shave... but I was more bored than curious, too impatient to be cautious. So, after kissing logic goodbye, I also sped it along with a swift kick in the *** and decided to try, all at once, the new brush, the Cella soap and the R41 - although I loaded a Personna Med Prep that I had used once with my Feather.
In the beginning, everything went swimmingly. I loved the smell of the Cella soap (I can see myself getting addicted to it) and after figuring out that a more dense knot requires a little more product to lather up properly, I was ready for the R41 in no time. Now, I had researched the R41 extensively and scared myself properly by watching the "R41 blood bath" video on YouTube, so I can't say that I was exactly relaxed. Going from the Feather (which is considered by most a very mild razor) to the R41, the difference was huge. The very first moment the blade made contact with my face, I knew that I had to be careful, slow and delicate. The first pass, WTG, actually went surprisingly well, with only a minor nick (under my nose) and no visible irritation. Nevertheless, I still had a noticeable amount of stubble on my face and decided to apply a little more pressure during the 2nd pass, which I always do ATG... and that's where things went awry. At the end of the 2nd pass, I noticed that I had a couple of cuts on my lower neck and a handful of nicks on the right side of my chin. Even if the skin felt already raw and the shave was probably already close enough, I decided to push it and do one last pass, XTG, as I always did with the Feather. Halfway through it, however, I had to ditch my plans for an XTG pass, as my face felt like it was on fire: I finished my last pass going WTG again, which was a little more bearable. I then rinsed off, looked at how I had cut myself and judged that the final result, while bad, didn't look as gory as what I had seen in the aforementioned video. I considered for a second if I should use my Proraso Gel to stop the bleeding, but if the guy in the video had used his alum bar, why shouldn't I?
Holy.Smoke. I passed the bar near my chin, where I had all those little nicks, and the stinging sensation was bad enough to make me instantly change my mind. I put the alum bar down, jumped in the shower and let the water wash away the blood. After I was done, I applied a very generous amount of Proraso Pre & Post Shave Cream, which actually stung more than usual but was also more bearable than the alum bar and started providing some relief after a couple of minutes. A day later, I only see a couple of visible traces from yesterday's experience, but I am still not sure if I will shave again tomorrow (I normally shave every other day) or give my face an extra day to heal. I am determined to stick with the R41 for a while, since I want to give it a fair chance and see if I can improve my shaving skills fast enough before I get tired of the razor. In any case, I know that I can't follow my usual WTG, ATG, XTG routine with the R41 as I did with the Feather. Then again, with only a few months of DE shaving under my belt, I should have waited a little longer before trying such an aggressive tool.
And so I went. I ordered an R41 Grande (because if I was going to laugh in the face of common sense, I decided I might as well do it in grand style). my first tub of Cella and a few blades I hadn't yet tried (Bolzano, Timor, Ladas, Voskhod), then impatiently waited for the package to arrive. In the meantime, I also received my long-awaited custom brush from Rudy Vey (I plan on posting pics later). Of course I had read before that it is wise to only change one item at a time, since it is otherwise impossible to determine how any single change affects the quality of the shave... but I was more bored than curious, too impatient to be cautious. So, after kissing logic goodbye, I also sped it along with a swift kick in the *** and decided to try, all at once, the new brush, the Cella soap and the R41 - although I loaded a Personna Med Prep that I had used once with my Feather.
In the beginning, everything went swimmingly. I loved the smell of the Cella soap (I can see myself getting addicted to it) and after figuring out that a more dense knot requires a little more product to lather up properly, I was ready for the R41 in no time. Now, I had researched the R41 extensively and scared myself properly by watching the "R41 blood bath" video on YouTube, so I can't say that I was exactly relaxed. Going from the Feather (which is considered by most a very mild razor) to the R41, the difference was huge. The very first moment the blade made contact with my face, I knew that I had to be careful, slow and delicate. The first pass, WTG, actually went surprisingly well, with only a minor nick (under my nose) and no visible irritation. Nevertheless, I still had a noticeable amount of stubble on my face and decided to apply a little more pressure during the 2nd pass, which I always do ATG... and that's where things went awry. At the end of the 2nd pass, I noticed that I had a couple of cuts on my lower neck and a handful of nicks on the right side of my chin. Even if the skin felt already raw and the shave was probably already close enough, I decided to push it and do one last pass, XTG, as I always did with the Feather. Halfway through it, however, I had to ditch my plans for an XTG pass, as my face felt like it was on fire: I finished my last pass going WTG again, which was a little more bearable. I then rinsed off, looked at how I had cut myself and judged that the final result, while bad, didn't look as gory as what I had seen in the aforementioned video. I considered for a second if I should use my Proraso Gel to stop the bleeding, but if the guy in the video had used his alum bar, why shouldn't I?
Holy.Smoke. I passed the bar near my chin, where I had all those little nicks, and the stinging sensation was bad enough to make me instantly change my mind. I put the alum bar down, jumped in the shower and let the water wash away the blood. After I was done, I applied a very generous amount of Proraso Pre & Post Shave Cream, which actually stung more than usual but was also more bearable than the alum bar and started providing some relief after a couple of minutes. A day later, I only see a couple of visible traces from yesterday's experience, but I am still not sure if I will shave again tomorrow (I normally shave every other day) or give my face an extra day to heal. I am determined to stick with the R41 for a while, since I want to give it a fair chance and see if I can improve my shaving skills fast enough before I get tired of the razor. In any case, I know that I can't follow my usual WTG, ATG, XTG routine with the R41 as I did with the Feather. Then again, with only a few months of DE shaving under my belt, I should have waited a little longer before trying such an aggressive tool.
