So, I am about 10.5 months into this hobby of wet shaving. I own a ton of DEs, SEs, and Injectors. I like them all so far, but DEs are my favorites at this point. And of my DEs I like the Merkurs the most. (The FaTip Piccolo is a close second, but the Merkurs just edge it out of first place.) I have no problems getting a bloodless two-pass DFS or better with almost any DE blade that leaves me with little to no irritation.
The new year has had me thinking about new things, however. So, this month I decided to take the plunge on shavettes. I picked up a couple of Weck Sextoblades, a couple of Hair Shapers, a Parker SRX, the "Classic Samurai" all stainless shavette, a Coolcut 9, a Magic Razor, and a Dovo Shavette. I just think they all are cool, and I am a crazy collector so I couldn't stop at just one. I thought I would give them a try as a jump into straights mostly because of honing and stropping aspect of traditional straights. Less maintenance sounded good for now, and I refuse to let the less forgiving aspect of them be a deterrent. At some point I will also start using traditional straights, but I don't know when that will be.
Saturday's shave (yesterday as I write this, although I haven't gone to bed yet) was my first shavette shave. I decided on the Dovo Shavette since that one appears to get reviewed as the most forgiving of the lot when used with the Dovo Long Shavette blade. Blade loading is nice and easy. The plastic inserts seem a bit on the flimsy side, however, so I hope they hold up. I also had my WCS 84S DE handy for cleanup in case I made a bloody mess of myself.
I started out good on my left cheek. I definitely need to work on how I position myself in front of the mirror to make sure that I can get a good view. It seemed like my hand holding the shavette was always in my way. I guess that is one of the techniques that I will need to develop if I am going to continue using these. When I moved to my neck on the left side, I scraped myself up a bit and gave myself a small weeper. It was no worse than I have done to myself with a DE in the same area, but it was one more place that needed a hit of alum at the end. It was when I switched to my right cheek that things went awry. I put the blade to my face at the wrong angle and gave myself a good nick. It was a bit of a bleeder, but I don't think it will leave much of a scar. I probably should have stopped and switched to the DE right then, but I wanted to finish the pass with the shavette. The right side of my neck went well. However when I got to my chin again I went in at the wrong angle and gave myself another good nick. This one didn't bleed much at all. At this point I switched to the DE for my mustache area and the area between bottom lip and chin. I then made my usual second pass XTG and called it good.
It didn't go as well as I had hoped, but it could have been much worse and the shave was actually good. I think I will probably take Sunday off to let my face heal a bit. These are the first real nicks that I have had in a long time. I need to make sure that the first thing to touch my face always is the flat side of the straight or shavette that I am using.
I am not sure if I like using the shavette yet, but I am not disappointed or discouraged either. I think that I made the right choice to use the Dovo with the long blade. The Parker SRX might have been more of a bloodbath. I definitely want to spend more time with the Dovo and experiment with all the others that I have purchased. It does occur to me that it might be preferable to get a traditional straight since they are supposedly more forgiving, so I will be giving that consideration. Even though I got myself good with it, there is something satisfying about getting almost a complete WTG pass done on my first attempt with only two nicks and a weeper. Yay me!
I keep thinking about contacting Larry at Whipped Dog for a sight unseen straight and poor man's strop kit. I know that eventually I will have both traditional straights and shavettes, learn them, and use them in rotation with my safety razors. I am just not sure how I should approach the learning process from here. I feel like I learned much from Saturday's shave, but would those lessons have come easier with a traditional straight? Maybe? Maybe not. Maybe I stay with just the shavettes for now?
Perhaps Monday, if my face is healed up enough, I will give just my cheeks a go with the Dovo and finish with a DE. Realistically I should wait until next Saturday so that I can relax and take my time. I really love this shaving thing. I want to use all of the tools and be good at using them. Eventually I will learn to hone as well as use straights. I have a long way to go with all of it. 2017 is going to be a fun year of shaving exploration just like 2016 was.
Oh, and those Weck Sextoblade razors look cool, especially the all stainless medical version. I think they will be interesting to use. And I am really looking forward to trying the Parker SRX. They are all such wonderful toys.
The new year has had me thinking about new things, however. So, this month I decided to take the plunge on shavettes. I picked up a couple of Weck Sextoblades, a couple of Hair Shapers, a Parker SRX, the "Classic Samurai" all stainless shavette, a Coolcut 9, a Magic Razor, and a Dovo Shavette. I just think they all are cool, and I am a crazy collector so I couldn't stop at just one. I thought I would give them a try as a jump into straights mostly because of honing and stropping aspect of traditional straights. Less maintenance sounded good for now, and I refuse to let the less forgiving aspect of them be a deterrent. At some point I will also start using traditional straights, but I don't know when that will be.
Saturday's shave (yesterday as I write this, although I haven't gone to bed yet) was my first shavette shave. I decided on the Dovo Shavette since that one appears to get reviewed as the most forgiving of the lot when used with the Dovo Long Shavette blade. Blade loading is nice and easy. The plastic inserts seem a bit on the flimsy side, however, so I hope they hold up. I also had my WCS 84S DE handy for cleanup in case I made a bloody mess of myself.
I started out good on my left cheek. I definitely need to work on how I position myself in front of the mirror to make sure that I can get a good view. It seemed like my hand holding the shavette was always in my way. I guess that is one of the techniques that I will need to develop if I am going to continue using these. When I moved to my neck on the left side, I scraped myself up a bit and gave myself a small weeper. It was no worse than I have done to myself with a DE in the same area, but it was one more place that needed a hit of alum at the end. It was when I switched to my right cheek that things went awry. I put the blade to my face at the wrong angle and gave myself a good nick. It was a bit of a bleeder, but I don't think it will leave much of a scar. I probably should have stopped and switched to the DE right then, but I wanted to finish the pass with the shavette. The right side of my neck went well. However when I got to my chin again I went in at the wrong angle and gave myself another good nick. This one didn't bleed much at all. At this point I switched to the DE for my mustache area and the area between bottom lip and chin. I then made my usual second pass XTG and called it good.
It didn't go as well as I had hoped, but it could have been much worse and the shave was actually good. I think I will probably take Sunday off to let my face heal a bit. These are the first real nicks that I have had in a long time. I need to make sure that the first thing to touch my face always is the flat side of the straight or shavette that I am using.
I am not sure if I like using the shavette yet, but I am not disappointed or discouraged either. I think that I made the right choice to use the Dovo with the long blade. The Parker SRX might have been more of a bloodbath. I definitely want to spend more time with the Dovo and experiment with all the others that I have purchased. It does occur to me that it might be preferable to get a traditional straight since they are supposedly more forgiving, so I will be giving that consideration. Even though I got myself good with it, there is something satisfying about getting almost a complete WTG pass done on my first attempt with only two nicks and a weeper. Yay me!
I keep thinking about contacting Larry at Whipped Dog for a sight unseen straight and poor man's strop kit. I know that eventually I will have both traditional straights and shavettes, learn them, and use them in rotation with my safety razors. I am just not sure how I should approach the learning process from here. I feel like I learned much from Saturday's shave, but would those lessons have come easier with a traditional straight? Maybe? Maybe not. Maybe I stay with just the shavettes for now?
Perhaps Monday, if my face is healed up enough, I will give just my cheeks a go with the Dovo and finish with a DE. Realistically I should wait until next Saturday so that I can relax and take my time. I really love this shaving thing. I want to use all of the tools and be good at using them. Eventually I will learn to hone as well as use straights. I have a long way to go with all of it. 2017 is going to be a fun year of shaving exploration just like 2016 was.
Oh, and those Weck Sextoblade razors look cool, especially the all stainless medical version. I think they will be interesting to use. And I am really looking forward to trying the Parker SRX. They are all such wonderful toys.
![$IMAG0580[1].jpg](https://xfdata.badgerandblade.com/attachments/451/451095-3ef35b72141c13f1efe4cca3c1432089.jpg "$IMAG0580[1].jpg")
