I recently purchased a Muhle R41G and it arrived today. As you can probably tell by my post count and history, I'm relatively new at shaving with a DE - probably about 20-30 shaves total with a variety of razors (a Futur, and DE89 among others) and blades. My plan with the R41 was to put aside until I had a bit more shaving experience but I decided "what the heck" and went for it today.
I didn't shave yesterday so had about two days growth. I'm moderately heavy bearded so there was a good bit of hair to work with. I did my usual routine of showering before I shaved. I also tried Nutrogena shave cream for the first time and, in retrospect, this was probably a mistake. It didn't lather particularly well and I think I'd have been better off with Proraso red. I also used the Astra blade that came with the R41.
How'd it go? Not as badly as I feared but not as well as I hoped. I had a healthy respect for the razor and was very conscious of blade angle and not applying pressure and letting the blade do the work. Having said that, there are some areas that have been trouble spots for me such as the transition from the flat part of my neck to my chin and shaving ATG and they were worse with the R41 than with a less aggressive razor. I did two passes, one WTG and one somewhat ATG and ended up with some nicks below the chin and on the right side of my neck.
Nothing serious and no plastic surgeon required but a little more damage than I do with my other razors.
I'll probably put this one aside until I get a little more experience but I'm encouraged by the closeness of the shave I got in the areas where I had things under control. I do feel like with a bit more practice this could well turn out to be my "go to" razor.
I didn't shave yesterday so had about two days growth. I'm moderately heavy bearded so there was a good bit of hair to work with. I did my usual routine of showering before I shaved. I also tried Nutrogena shave cream for the first time and, in retrospect, this was probably a mistake. It didn't lather particularly well and I think I'd have been better off with Proraso red. I also used the Astra blade that came with the R41.
How'd it go? Not as badly as I feared but not as well as I hoped. I had a healthy respect for the razor and was very conscious of blade angle and not applying pressure and letting the blade do the work. Having said that, there are some areas that have been trouble spots for me such as the transition from the flat part of my neck to my chin and shaving ATG and they were worse with the R41 than with a less aggressive razor. I did two passes, one WTG and one somewhat ATG and ended up with some nicks below the chin and on the right side of my neck.
Nothing serious and no plastic surgeon required but a little more damage than I do with my other razors.
I'll probably put this one aside until I get a little more experience but I'm encouraged by the closeness of the shave I got in the areas where I had things under control. I do feel like with a bit more practice this could well turn out to be my "go to" razor.
