I thought I'd come out of lurking now and finally say hi. First off I'm a gal who has been interested in getting a better shave for quite some time. I'm sick of throwing dollars down the drain on expensive cartridges that only irritate my skin and really like the idea of shaving in a more traditional style.
Several years ago I wised up to the fact that most shave creams and gel (read: canned goo) dried my skin out and made my legs feel terrible and itchy after a shave. But I didn't think about a brush and traditional soaps/creams for quite some time. Instead I used hair conditioner. Besides the fact that it's sometimes hard to see where you've already shaved I thought it worked pretty well. Plus it was a heckuva lot cheaper than the other stuff. My razor (a Schick Quattro with the vibrating doodad in it) didn't seem to get clogged as much as before.
Besides spending so much cash on the cartridges I've been frustrated at how quickly the hair on my legs grows back. Within several hours I feel stubble! Not appealing to me. So I started researching how men shave and what works best for them. My personal thought is men's shaving products should work just as well if not better than stuff geared towards women. The commercial shaving products for women seem to be all marketing hype... The differences in design make no real difference in the end result, IMHO.
Mantic's videos on Youtube really got me started and into this. After watching quite a few of his I went out to Walmart and bought an el-cheapo Van der Hagen boar brush and glycerin soap. I tried using those with my Schick instead of the usual hair conditioner and didn't really notice a difference in smoothness (in fact I thought it was a little less smooth than my normal shaves) but I do think there was less irritation. I also followed up the shave with an alcohol-free lotion, something I didn't do in the past.
I like the soap but the brush is only ok. I'm not really concerned with softness since I think my legs could use some exfoliating tongue but I don't like spending such a long time trying to whip up a lather. I think I need to find a better brush that doesn't leave my wrist cramped!
Anywho, after lurking on the B&B forums I decided to buy a DE Razor and try that out. Got a Gillette Lady Blue Star from Ebay that's in great condition and a pack of 100 Derby blades to start out with. I usually only shave once or twice a week so I'm thinking 100 is too many to start out with but I couldn't pass up the deal! When the blades came in they also send a tube of their lavender shave cream. It doesn't really smell like lavender, more like some medicinal cleaning product.
So today I tried my first DE shave with the glycerin soap and the shave cream mixed together. I think I did okay making the lather (hate the time it takes with the boar brush) but I'm just not sure on the soap/cream/water/air ratio especially since all the tutorials are geared towards how much lather is needed for the face, not the legs! I had to make more lather when I was done with the first leg just to feel like I had enough.
I decided I wanted to do just one ATG pass on each leg. I know some have recommended WTG and then ATG but I was kind of lazy. When I first put the razor to my leg I was trying to super careful. Everything I read on the board suggested I would tear my skin up if I shaved I did using a pivot-head cartridge razor. And I also read that for the ladies the fresh Derby blades were maybe too sharp and a used one was better on legs. To be honest I think reading those might have been to my detriment. I normally don't apply pressure with my cartridge razors, I just let the blades do the work. So I was actually using negative pressure with the DE and things were not as close or smooth as I think they could have been. However after the first leg I felt more confident using the razor and actually let the weight of it do the work like it is supposed to.
I only ended up with one or two nicks near the top of my legs but they were very tiny and stopped bleeding almost immediately. So I'm feeling pretty good about the whole experience! The shave still was not my smoothest but it was by far the least irritating and moisturizing I have ever had, and my skin doesn't itch at all like it used to. I'm excited to continue this style of shaving and hope to improve my lathering and shaving technique. I also want to invest in a decent brush. For now I'm fine with the VDH soap but eventually I'd like to look into something else. My goal is to have BBS legs that stay smooth for at least 24 hours. We'll see how this goes!
For parting words, I'd like to chime in on the suggestion of creating a ladies' subforum. There really is just too little information out there on how women can get a proper shave for their legs. Most of the info I have found comes from commercial sources looking to market their latest shaving gadget, gel or cream for women. We need real solid research, not myth and speculation!
Sorry for such a long post but I just had to talk about all of it. Thanks everyone! Can't wait to see how things go from here.
Several years ago I wised up to the fact that most shave creams and gel (read: canned goo) dried my skin out and made my legs feel terrible and itchy after a shave. But I didn't think about a brush and traditional soaps/creams for quite some time. Instead I used hair conditioner. Besides the fact that it's sometimes hard to see where you've already shaved I thought it worked pretty well. Plus it was a heckuva lot cheaper than the other stuff. My razor (a Schick Quattro with the vibrating doodad in it) didn't seem to get clogged as much as before.
Besides spending so much cash on the cartridges I've been frustrated at how quickly the hair on my legs grows back. Within several hours I feel stubble! Not appealing to me. So I started researching how men shave and what works best for them. My personal thought is men's shaving products should work just as well if not better than stuff geared towards women. The commercial shaving products for women seem to be all marketing hype... The differences in design make no real difference in the end result, IMHO.
Mantic's videos on Youtube really got me started and into this. After watching quite a few of his I went out to Walmart and bought an el-cheapo Van der Hagen boar brush and glycerin soap. I tried using those with my Schick instead of the usual hair conditioner and didn't really notice a difference in smoothness (in fact I thought it was a little less smooth than my normal shaves) but I do think there was less irritation. I also followed up the shave with an alcohol-free lotion, something I didn't do in the past.
I like the soap but the brush is only ok. I'm not really concerned with softness since I think my legs could use some exfoliating tongue but I don't like spending such a long time trying to whip up a lather. I think I need to find a better brush that doesn't leave my wrist cramped!
Anywho, after lurking on the B&B forums I decided to buy a DE Razor and try that out. Got a Gillette Lady Blue Star from Ebay that's in great condition and a pack of 100 Derby blades to start out with. I usually only shave once or twice a week so I'm thinking 100 is too many to start out with but I couldn't pass up the deal! When the blades came in they also send a tube of their lavender shave cream. It doesn't really smell like lavender, more like some medicinal cleaning product.
So today I tried my first DE shave with the glycerin soap and the shave cream mixed together. I think I did okay making the lather (hate the time it takes with the boar brush) but I'm just not sure on the soap/cream/water/air ratio especially since all the tutorials are geared towards how much lather is needed for the face, not the legs! I had to make more lather when I was done with the first leg just to feel like I had enough.
I decided I wanted to do just one ATG pass on each leg. I know some have recommended WTG and then ATG but I was kind of lazy. When I first put the razor to my leg I was trying to super careful. Everything I read on the board suggested I would tear my skin up if I shaved I did using a pivot-head cartridge razor. And I also read that for the ladies the fresh Derby blades were maybe too sharp and a used one was better on legs. To be honest I think reading those might have been to my detriment. I normally don't apply pressure with my cartridge razors, I just let the blades do the work. So I was actually using negative pressure with the DE and things were not as close or smooth as I think they could have been. However after the first leg I felt more confident using the razor and actually let the weight of it do the work like it is supposed to.
I only ended up with one or two nicks near the top of my legs but they were very tiny and stopped bleeding almost immediately. So I'm feeling pretty good about the whole experience! The shave still was not my smoothest but it was by far the least irritating and moisturizing I have ever had, and my skin doesn't itch at all like it used to. I'm excited to continue this style of shaving and hope to improve my lathering and shaving technique. I also want to invest in a decent brush. For now I'm fine with the VDH soap but eventually I'd like to look into something else. My goal is to have BBS legs that stay smooth for at least 24 hours. We'll see how this goes!
For parting words, I'd like to chime in on the suggestion of creating a ladies' subforum. There really is just too little information out there on how women can get a proper shave for their legs. Most of the info I have found comes from commercial sources looking to market their latest shaving gadget, gel or cream for women. We need real solid research, not myth and speculation!
Sorry for such a long post but I just had to talk about all of it. Thanks everyone! Can't wait to see how things go from here.