Blades and Irritation

[Don_Pisto]

Hello,

I’m currently doing a big blade test as described here and I had an epiphany the other day with a blade. I was able to go ATG on the upper lip effortlessly and with zero irritation. That was the first time I ever experienced such smoothness. (I’m doing my testing blind, so I won’t know the actual blades until the end but the goal is to test as many blades as fairly as possible without any subconscious bias and outside influences to find the ones that work for me)

So, like the others have mentioned, the blade can matter. It might be worth sampling a lot, like 30 or more. The results will apply to you and you might find your perfect blade. You probably don’t have to do a big test like I’m doing, but chances are if you get a good sample size, you just might find one that gives you effortless ATG for your trouble spots and with zero irritation.

 

[Avi]

Hello,

I’m currently doing a big blade test as described here and I had an epiphany the other day with a blade. I was able to go ATG on the upper lip effortlessly and with zero irritation. That was the first time I ever experienced such smoothness. (I’m doing my testing blind, so I won’t know the actual blades until the end but the goal is to test as many blades as fairly as possible without any subconscious bias and outside influences to find the ones that work for me)

So, like the others have mentioned, the blade can matter. It might be worth sampling a lot, like 30 or more. The results will apply to you and you might find your perfect blade. You probably don’t have to do a big test like I’m doing, but chances are if you get a good sample size, you just might find one that gives you effortless ATG for your trouble spots and with zero irritation.

This a great approach! it would be great to see the results. Two Quick questions, (1) in your blind bin are there multiples of the same blade to prevent random user variation from skewing the results ( with say 5 or 10 pack of each you can even run stats on your results: also you can look for time dependent skews, that is as you progress through your random samples you get used to the rhythm of it and just start getting blade independently better at it ). (2) Is someone else loading them for you ? You might unblind them from the packaging / writing ?

Love this

avi

 

[Don_Pisto]

This a great approach! it would be great to see the results. Two Quick questions, (1) in your blind bin are there multiples of the same blade to prevent random user variation from skewing the results ( with say 5 or 10 pack of each you can even run stats on your results: also you can look for time dependent skews, that is as you progress through your random samples you get used to the rhythm of it and just start getting blade independently better at it ). (2) Is someone else loading them for you ? You might unblind them from the packaging / writing ?

Love this

avi

I‘m still early in the process, today being test #6, but very quickly I learned that blades do matter.

I have two pcs of each blade, and I’m just doing one shave for each. I have two reasons for just doing one shave per blade: I dont want this test to take years to complete (and for me, a blade has to work good from the start. I’m not going to wait for a blade to improve with time if it sucks with first use.) And my other reason is I have a serious rust problem as described here.

I’ll have to solve the rust problem later. If a solution takes more than 2 minutes, I’ll probably just stay with one blade per shave. I’m a lazy ***.

I’m trying to keep everything constant as possible. I’m using the same razor, same soap, doing when I am not rushed, and doing each test with two days growth. I waited to do a big test like this until I felt my technique was solid and consistent.

My wife loads the blades and keeps a list of their number and date. The unused blades are kept in a ziplock bag that’s hidden somewhere. I log the results and date. At the very end, I’ll know what is what.

I think this is the only way I can truly find a blade that works the best for me. To test each fairly. No subconscious bias or influence from other’s experience. It’s been fun, and and eye-opener so far, but it takes will-power because I’m already dying to know the identities of the blades tested so far. The goal at the end is to find the perfect blade, or blades, for me.

When I’m done going through the 63 blades, I’ll then focus on the rust problem, then if I solve it, I might repeat the test using maybe the top 10 or so, and try multiple shaves with each.

 

[Avi]

I‘m still early in the process, today being test #6, but very quickly I learned that blades do matter.

I have two pcs of each blade, and I’m just doing one shave for each. I have two reasons for just doing one shave per blade: I dont want this test to take years to complete (and for me, a blade has to work good from the start. I’m not going to wait for a blade to improve with time if it sucks with first use.) And my other reason is I have a serious rust problem as described here.

I’ll have to solve the rust problem later. If a solution takes more than 2 minutes, I’ll probably just stay with one blade per shave. I’m a lazy ***.

I’m trying to keep everything constant as possible. I’m using the same razor, same soap, doing when I am not rushed, and doing each test with two days growth. I waited to do a big test like this until I felt my technique was solid and consistent.

My wife loads the blades and keeps a list of their number and date. The unused blades are kept in a ziplock bag that’s hidden somewhere. I log the results and date. At the very end, I’ll know what is what.

I think this is the only way I can truly find a blade that works the best for me. To test each fairly. No subconscious bias or influence from other’s experience. It’s been fun, and and eye-opener so far, but it takes will-power because I’m already dying to know the identities of the blades tested so far. The goal at the end is to find the perfect blade, or blades, for me.

When I’m done going through the 63 blades, I’ll then focus on the rust problem, then if I solve it, I might repeat the test using maybe the top 10 or so, and try multiple shaves with each.

I read your original post after my comment and loved the discussion, if you aren’t a scientist you should be as you are absolutely thinking about this right. As I was reading this is I was thinking it would be pretty genius to do this in parallel across your coposters, to see if a consensus develops ( and to fix the time issue the other way )

With regards to the rust problem what happens if you just foodsaver /ziploc them until use?

 

[Avi]

You know what would be very funny, a bit cruel, but also really genius, is if your wife secretly substituted all the blades with the same blade to make this a psychology test rather than a blade test

avi

 

[jmudrick]

You know what would be very funny, a bit cruel, but also really genius, is if your wife secretly substituted all the blades with the same blade to make this a psychology test rather than a blade test

avi

It's worked for ASR and Gillette .

Sent from my LG-US998 using Tapatalk

 

[Don_Pisto]

You know what would be very funny, a bit cruel, but also really genius, is if your wife secretly substituted all the blades with the same blade to make this a psychology test rather than a blade test

avi

Actually, I wouldn’t rule it out if she we’re to do something like that. I better be extra nice to her during this test and I better go hide my stash of blades I was using for my main rotation. You got me wondering now. She teased me a bit about doing this test. Being in lockdown causes crazy ideas. Like doing a random blade test.

What I’m very curious about is how my existing four blade rotation stacks up. I was getting very good, consistent results from all four, but already during this test, two blades gave results better than I ever experienced.