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[ThePatrician]

So two days ago I sliced the daylights out of my middle finger. I was going up the stairs with a glass baby bottle for my infant son, tripped, and slammed the bottle down on the marble with the bottle clenched in my hand. My bathroom looked like I had murdered a hobo when all the bleeding had stopped. The cut was so bad that my finger is in a gauze splint to limit mobility.

I don't have to shave every day, or even every other day now, so I was going to shave last night. I got all my stuff ready, then stopped. There was no way I would be able to make a good lather from soap, and shave with my DE, with one wheel out of action, especially one critical to fine control. I used a shave cream, OS original, and my (gulp) Gillette Fusion. I still did all my prep, pre-shave gel, everything. I took my time building my lather, made sure it was wet enough, which was no easy feat.

I initially tried using pressure to make sure the cart was in good contact with my face, but that just felt WRONG WRONG WRONG. So I used light pressure, effectively dragging the cart lightly across my face. I did two passes, one WTG, the other XTG, and I have to say, the results were NOT BAD!

Has anyone else had this experience? Has anyone else been forced, by sheer fate conspiring against them, to go back to a cart and have the results be satisfactory? I'm not saying be turned back to plastic, but had the results be at least manageable and workable?

 

[bakerbk73]

My bathroom looked like I had murdered a hobo when all the bleeding had stopped.

I've not had that particular experience, but I had to send a virtual high five for the murdered Hobo quote. Nice one. (it's so hard to make murdering hobos as funny as it used to be, damn pc world we live in)

 

[BrookR1]

I tried going back to a three blade Bic disposable for fun and got some good shaves out of it. I won't trash talk carts on performance again. But I do think a large part of my success was because of my good prep and good products.

 

[smalltank]

Been living in an apt for 3years..never been happy since day 1..always wanted to sell everything..my wife..always told me to "take a break"..things will get better...looks like thing actually will..well..I listened!..just curious why were you carrying a glass bottle and not a BP free plastic one..get better soon

 

[TonyJoe]

I took my old Sensor Excel for a spin a couple months ago just for the heck of it. I did my usual prep and lathered with some VDH. I went WTG and ATG, both just as light as if I were using a DE. It gave me a SAS to DFS and zero irritation. Cartridges shave just fine. The reason to use a DE is to not have to give all your money to Gillette for blades.

And I personally think the razors look way cooler.

Hope the finger heals swiftly!

 

[Arved]

I took my old Sensor Excel for a spin a couple months ago just for the heck of it. I did my usual prep and lathered with some VDH. I went WTG and ATG, both just as light as if I were using a DE. It gave me a SAS to DFS and zero irritation. Cartridges shave just fine. The reason to use a DE is to not have to give all your money to Gillette for blades.

I'm wondering if the "goo" helps the hysteresis effect - the lift, stretch, and slice. Assuming that's the case, and that our lathering techniques prevent that (otherwise that blade would only tug on our beards), then the first blade in the cartridge does the same thing, and the remaining blades are there just for the ride.

If that's the case, and with the pivoting head ensuring proper blade angle, I don't see why it couldn't produce a superior shave. Until that leading edge blade gets dull and starts to tug, and the hysteresis effect kicks in again.

Not that I want to go back, mind you. Even if price was no object, I'd rather rely on my technique. It's kind of like being a musician. If you just like music, then you go and listen to it, but to play and make the music, that's another thing entirely!

 

[jansob]

Used a Dorco multi-blade disposable with canned goo during an unexpected overnight stay recently, and it worked ok for a presentable shave. But I could tell any buffing or extra passes would be irritating. Was glad to get back to my usual setup.

 

[Jtokle]

just curious why were you carrying a glass bottle and not a BP free plastic one

BPA-free plastic is not necessarily safe. It just means that it doesn't have BPA in it. There could be something nasty in it that we just don't know about yet.

Glass, aside from being physically dangerous, is probably the safest thing that you could possibly drink out of.

 

[Searlands]

Hope the hand is on the mend mate. Cartridges are just not for me. If I was in a situation where I couldn't shave, I would get my wife to trim my beard with clippers until I was able to use my DE razor again.

 

[Masterkova]

No, no, and no. Now and forever.

 

[ThePatrician]

BPA-free plastic is not necessarily safe. It just means that it doesn't have BPA in it. There could be something nasty in it that we just don't know about yet.

Glass, aside from being physically dangerous, is probably the safest thing that you could possibly drink out of.

What he said. They also reheat better.

So far, the infant son seems to think that the big colored bandage on my finger is a toy. So in addition to the other logistical difficulties of not being able to use my middle finger, I have to be careful when holding him, otherwise he will grab it and squeeze it.

 

[Patman27]

I shave my my sensor excel every once and a while. No cream, in the shower, WTG only. Only do it when I'm basically sleep walking after a long shift and need to look presentable the next morning after a quick turnaround. It gives an almost tug free DFS on the cheeks; under the jaw stays a bit rough though.

 

[Cannata]

Wish you a speedy recovery.

Steve

 

[stevesteve]

I had to use an M3 over last Christmas when I forgot my safety razor. It did on ok job though not very close regardless of my efforts. However, no matter how close to satisfactory youre going to get it's still no less expensive and given enough time with it my skin would start to complain again and I'd be back to shaving every other day.

 

[Mad Man]

I get magnificent shaves by only changing one variable - DE replaced with a Schick electro vibrating mulity blade thingy. Prep, lather, multiple passes etc don't change.

Problem is I can guarantee the price for the BBS (genuine BBS) is a couple of ingrowns and bumps next morning but boy, for a few hours there you have one smoooooooth shave. Still not worth going back to carts permanent.

 

[brooksfletcher]

Hope your hand heals.

Not to go into to much detail, but I pretty much shave "certain" parts of my body with whatever razor I can get a hold of. I don't feel right using a DE or straight to do that lol

 

[Steveareno]

I've always been a wet shaver (I mean since my very first shave 35+ years ago), so I was always pretty satisfied with my shaves using a Gillette Sensor. Probably because of good prep and lathering, as you experienced. That's why I was always dubious of the claims made for DE razors. But I finally decided to take the plunge if only to save the $2.25 per cartridge the Sensor was costing me. I'm six months into it now and am getting even better shaves than I did with the Sensor, so I'll never go back. But one can get a great shave with a cartridge razor; one just has to mind the fundamentals of wet shaving.

 

[JaggerDragger]

I found that carts are great for the first shave or two, then if I go light I get irritation with ingrown hair and must resort to placing pressure on the blade resulting in a less than ideal shave.

I have never tried the old style 2 blade carts and lately I have been looking at them while in the shave isle of the local drug... One of these days I will pull the trigger on a trac 2 just for the crack of it.

 

[PugslyCat]

Has anyone else had this experience? Has anyone else been forced, by sheer fate conspiring against them, to go back to a cart and have the results be satisfactory? I'm not saying be turned back to plastic, but had the results be at least manageable and workable?

Matt, here's to your speedy recovery!

Every year for Lent I make a special effort to use items on hand rather than going out and buying stuff. This year I decided to try and use up a drawer full of various cartridges and disposable razors that were on hand when I took up DE shaving. Except for a few days playing with canned goo, I used my normal prep and multi-pass shave technique. The results were mixed.

My experience was that the triple-bladed carts and disposables caused excessive skin irritation if I did a full 3 pass shave and were really kind of questionable for anything other than a 2 pass shave or even 1 pass plus touch up. The shaves were generally DFS except for the razor burn. They were certainly better than the SAS I had been getting with poor prep and the Mach 3 single pass shaves of my past.

Mostly I shaved with twin-bladed Atra compatible carts from Dollar General. I think they are manufactured by Dorco or Personna. These actually did very well and I had noticeably less skin irritation than with the triple bladed beasts. I was attaining DFS or even BBS with them on a regular basis. The DG Atra compatible carts did better than the few twin-bladed disposable razors I used, which were better than their triple-bladed brethern.

The biggest surprise was how well a single-bladed Bic disposable with the orange handle shaved. It was very close to what shaving with the DE is like. These had also been used with poor prep and a single WTG pass in years gone by to achieve SAS, but they did really well with good prep and a multi-pass shave. The only thing I didn't like about the single bladed Bics was the lack of weight. It just didn't feel good in my hand, but it certainly did the job.

 

[sychodelix]

Glass baby bottles bad. There's no shame in using a cartridge, especially when it's not by your own choice. Some quality latherless cream might make things easier as well for a while until you can use your hands better. KMF is great.