AHA! I understand! (adjusting Slim setting while shaving)

[mackal]

I had an Aha moment today while shaving. I've been trying out my Gillette Slim Adjustable for the past couple days. Yesterday's shave was rather poor, when I had the razor at setting #5 for all the passes. I was resigned to count this as "too high" a setting for me, and go back to 4 for the rest of my days. But then I pondered the day before, where I started with WTG at 3, and only on next pass did I go to 5. So with nothing to lose, I did today WTG at 3, XTG at 5, and went all in with 7 on almost-ATG. What a difference! Success!

And here is the interesting bit: I thought back about why it worked and I think the reason for the success is something like this. The shorter the hair gets, the less the razor "grabs" at a given setting (or the more perfect your razor angle has to be to really snip that remaining bit sticking out). So, in order to "get at the hair", with a given fixed aggressiveness of the razor you do the only "intuitive" thing you can: you apply pressure, you "dig for it". And that's when things go bad. In contrast, when you instead dial up the aggressiveness of the razor, you no longer have trouble getting at the hair, because you've got that razor edge sticking out so much. Also, it helps to know you got the razor on "aggressive", so you are naturally more careful (I swear I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I first came in with the razor set at 7... ).

The only question I wonder about is, well, why it doesn't work to START your shave with that most aggressive setting. For some it seems to work, from what I read. But not for me. My working theory is that on that first pass, the lather is not as good, the face isn't as wet as slippery as it needs to be, etc... In short, the shaving conditions are not yet ideal, and they improve over the successive passes.

Phew. OK, off to bed, and let me just rub my face a few more times... damn, love that BBS feeling!

 

[ackvil]

Glad you found what works for you. What you found out duplicates my experience. I started doing what you are doing years ago. If I kept the setting at 5 during all of the passes I would have a substantial number of touch ups to get places I missed. By increasing the settings I rarely have to touch up any area since everything gets cut. My usual procedure is to start at 4 or 5 and increase the setting by 1 with each pass. However, I don't go above 7 on my neck.

I use a similar approach on my Mergress razors and start that at 2 and increase it by one notch but usually don't go above 4+ on my face and 3+ on my neck.

 

[Cobra0369]

Congrats on your aha moment. I had one a couple weeks ago (blade angle).

 

[celestino]

Congratulations on the new-found success!

 

[Dngolden]

This is completely counter-intuitive - And I'm going to try it tonight!
I've never had great success with my Slim. Looking forward to experimenting.

 

[jasonb8736]

I've been progressively dialing DOWN on each pass and having good shaves. I'll try the opposite and dial up during each successive pass and compare. It's a very convincing argument out forth by the OP. Thanks for sharing, Mackal.

 

[mackal]

This is completely counter-intuitive - And I'm going to try it tonight!

Totally agreed, completely counter-intuitive. But the recurrence of posts where I saw other members dialing up was bothering, really piqued my interests. Hence the grand experiment.

Best of luck with your attempt!

One additional tip that is the cherry on top for me, that I also discovered yesterday: for that last pass, stretching the skin helps... not too much, but just enough for the skin to be taut.

 

[duki92]

I've been told, that in old Gillette manuals is recommended to do first pass with low setting, than increase for XTG-ATG. Tried only 2 times, do not remember results.

Think of it, taller grass is easier to cut than low one.

 

[Latherdude]

Fascinating. I, too, have only ever dialed down on subsequent passes, but I'll have to try dialing up with my fatboy sometime.

 

[CanuckShaver]

Great tip, I'll have to try this method next time I use the slim.

 

[jasonb8736]

I tried the "dial up" method with great success. I used my Mergress and progressed through three passes at settings 2, 3, then 4 to finish (WTG, XTG, ATG). It was a nice smooth shave and I didn't change any other aspects/tools from my usual shave. The biggest improvement was that I did not require the usual touchups that I normally need when I use the "dial down" method. Seems to work for me and this is the first time that I've ever opened up the Mergress to setting 4. Yikes! Slow and steady...slow and steady...

 

[Rothman]

I'll give it a go. I typically do the reverse and do a WTG at 7 and an ATG at 3. It works great for me but, I will test this new AHA! moment concept.

 

[flyingfool]

I'll have to try this with my Slim. Only about 1 month in almostdaily shaves. First all passes at #3. Now all passes at #4. Have been thinking of going up to #5.

I recently found I get better results when I do WTG, AGT and end with XTG. Not the typical but it seemed to help. Only under nose do I use the traditional three pass rotation/cycle.

 

[duki92]

Have tried again with Slim at 7 for WTG and 9 ATG. Comparing with my normal use of Slim @9 for both WTG and ATG, my cheeks , mustaches, jaw,were worse shaved, BUT, near adam's apple, my trouble spot, was better. Looks I'll have to combine both of this.
Also, this with feather.

 

[rxonmymind]

I've done this also with fantastic results with adjustable. Thus my reason for having my Fatboy in my rotation for a month. Had to kick it out and use my other razors that had started to accumulate dust! Shame. Good you found this aha moment. Congrats.