Gillette for the winner

[miffed]

Hello all!!First off, i genuinely hope that everyone and anyone reading this is well and in a good mood
Second, i am posting this here because i will be mentioning several tools for shaving not just the brand from this thread's title...

I have been shaving with an elevated interest for well over a year now i think. For the most part of my adult life i have used a combination of electrics and i believe i used to "touch up" using a mach 3...Now, when i first started being methodical regarding shaving i of course was steered away from Gillette as a brand on the whole, the argument first and foremost being, less blades equals less irritation, then the ritual of shaving itself when one opts for wet shaving et cetera and so on and so on...

I first off got myself a safety razor, and proceeded to follow the steps from individuals wiser than me in this regard as to "how" to shave...shaving with a DE razor yielded results that were pretty much irritation free but alas did cause some white bumps, redness and of course cuts and nicks, this relented somewhat as my technique began to take shape, but in the end i have only managed one cut free shave with a DE in my life...

Because of the excessive cuts and whiteheads recurring i opted to try other methods, the next being electrics...i have tried foils, rotaries, the Oneblade even close to zero gapped beard trimmers...the results vary...the foil typed shavers were very good result wise, i recall my skin being as smooth as glass after using an Andis profoil, but the amount of irritation it caused was enormous, i was almost purple on my neck from it i also had yellowheads appear after 2 days...the rotaries didn't give me almost any redness but the yellowheads that appeared after a couple of days were in the dozens so of course i continued my search, next the Oneblade, it gives a surprisingly close shave, redness free, no cuts and nicks, but whiteheads appear after a couple of days...as for zero gapped beard trimmers i have tried using these to shave even if it recommended not to do so...the results were pretty similar to those of the Oneblade, not as close, no cuts, no redness, but the shave was far far from what one can get using any sort of blade...

DISCLAIMER: I have summed up a year of research, trial and error and contemplating so as not to bore anyone reading this too much

After i tried "everything under the Sun" i have to admit that i was quite demotivated and i did not believe that i would ever manage to get a shave that i envisage is possible...i spent some time with these thoughts, and then i had the following idea...why don't i try using the most common tool for shaving? i proceeded to do some research to see what is most commonly being used, i found out that here, in Europe, the most common tool used is the mach 3, as i used the mach 3 for years on end i wasn't very keen on giving it another go, so i went for number 2 on the list, which was the Fusion family from Gillette...the idea, at the time, seemed preposterous, a 5 blade system on skin that could not handle a single blade, electrics so on and so on...i ended up getting the fusion proglide, i opted for it because of the flex thing in the middle as opposed to the "just" fusion version, i was thinking of getting the power version but at the time i thought it to be gimmickry...

I proceeded to shave "properly" the same as i would when using a DE razor, face wash, lather made and applied with a synthetic brush, alum after, aftershave...all the works, so to speak...

The results blew me away, i have to say, i got a BBS (WTG as i cannot manage ATG and frankly don't need it) just a smooth very very close shave, no cuts no nick, no redness nothing, i remember at one instance of reminding myself of men on shaving adverts (when glancing at myself in the mirror), such were the results, now i thought that this was too good to be true and that white/yellowheads would appear in a couple of days...alas they did not, thankfully...
The only qulam that i do have with the fusion i am using now i that it has two metals vertical bits on the very edges of the cartridge and sometimes these do make vertical lines on my neck, around my Adams apple, i deem this to be caused by my pressing down too hard, as when i don't i do not have the lines appear, to remedy this i will try different cartridges, the Fusion proshield i think they are called, the difference being that the metal "bits" on these carts are plastic so i am thusly hoping that they do not cause these lines, to be fair the lines disappear by next morning...i in fact shaved last night and just came back from a quick gaze at myself in the mirror, no lines...so not a biggie by any account.

So my "two cents" in regard to shaving are pretty much the same as Fox Mulders, trust no one this has been repeated numerous times on this forum in the guise of your mileage may vary...i am however displeased with myself for jumping on the "anti gillette" bandwagon, i have noticed this occurrence with "big brands" from various walks of life, for example, people show disdain towards Rolex, i find this instance to be justified, some also manifest negative connotations towards Casio which i strongly disagree with, i have used these two brands as examples as i own a couple of timepieces from both manufacturers, and i have to stress that i have shared my personal experience derived from the usage of each tool.

If someone was to ask for my advice i would suggest that they do quite the opposite to what i did...try the most popular common tool, method and then go into more specific options, i spent nearly half a year needlessly washing my face with various exfoliating products trying to cure whiteheads, in the end i discovered that i need to wash my face before bed with cerave facial cleanser the first two nights after shaving so as to allow the hair follicules to puncture my skin cleanly, i still do get the odd whitehead from touching my face with dirty fingers from time to time up to three, max, but i did waste half a year of time and considerable resources without any need for exfoliating my face...

If anyone had similar experiences with the appearance of vertical "lines" from using the fusion family i would very much like to hear them...

Cheers everyone have a lovely day

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

Hello @miffed

Truth be told, I'd be miffed if I had to go through what you did as well. People here can provide you advice oh yes, and everybody has their own idea on what or how you should do things. At the end of the day, only proper experience, teaches you what works for you, in this wet shaving hobby/journey. So kudo's to you for figuring out your way through the dense forest, breaking out from the weeds, so that you can make wet shaving work for you.

Regarding carts like the Gillette Mach 3, or the Gillette Mach 5 Fusion Pro Glide razors, I have used both of them extensively for years. I have also used the older Gillette 2-blade carts, and I have used some disposable 1-blade carts in the past as well. What I can tell you from my experience, is that they not only caused me ingrowns, but their performance was substandard the entire way.

#1, cart razor blades always seemed to be dull right out of the pack. Because of this, they always tugged on my course whiskers as they cut, instead of cutting smoothly. And before you ask, did that hurt? Of course it hurt! Talk about freaking torture! Now, a DE blade will only do this if its dull, and every sign points to the fact that cart razor blades are dull out of the pack, just thinking logically out loud here.

#2, Another thing that cart razors always did, is clog easily, and on my course whiskers, cart razors clog on every single pass, requiring shake out in water after each pass, to unclog them. This makes the shaving process take 10-times longer then it should, and its caused by the fact that there is no sizable gap in the cart. The more blades you have in the cart, the worse it clogs.

Some folks have posted pictures of their cart razor blades in which they were not able to unclog, and there has been a study done that suggests that cart razors can provide a potential health risk, if you are not able to clean them out properly, as they can harbor bacteria in dead skin cells and whiskers. So ya, thats probably where a lot of the skin conditions can come from, using unclean razors, not good.

Eventually, I just got fed up with the lack of performance from cart razors, and not only that, but also the costs going up on the Mach 5 Fusion ProGlide cart blades, just ridiculous, when they cost like 30 bucks for like an 8-pack now. Its absolutely insane, because you can buy a 100 pack of Feather DE blades for around 30 bucks. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, to figure out the game that cart razor manufacturer's are playing. And I rather not spin the dice on cart razor caused bankruptcy, no thank you!

Now, you also touched on electric shavers AKA razors. As we all know, there are rotary and foil in this category. I also used a Norelco rotary shaver for many years. Rotary shavers seem to do the job, just not perfectly. I was able to shave with a 3-blade head shaver, and get myself shaved without too much irritation, but they were never able to shave me close, and you could see my 5-oclock shadow before it was 5-oclock.

Electric shavers are another source of bacteria laden petri dish, if you don't clean them out properly and disinfect them. Most folks don't, and then they wonder why their face is opening up into an acne level of mess. Now days I have a foil shaver as an emergency backup. But before I came to B&B this year, it was my main use shaver. The good new about my Panasonic Arc 4 shaver, is its able to shave me close enough to reach a low-grade BBS.

But the bad news is, not only does it take forever for it to get me there, but the process in which in doing so, brings me high levels of redness and irritation, that I look like a kid with severe acne disorder. I discovered further on, I could alleviate some of this, by using a shaving gel from Tomb45. As my Panasonic is a modern electric shaver, it can be used wet or dry. Using a shaving gel, greatly reduced some of the irritation, allowed the razor to glide, and cut my whiskers better.

It wasn't however, my introduction into DE safety razors, for the first time in my life this year, did I discover what kind of a REAL shave I could get. A whole new world opened up to me, when I entered the world of traditional wet shaving with a DE. I first started with a Feather AS-D2 razor. Up until that point, all of nearly 9-months ago, it provided the best shave of my life. I was able to achieve a mostly BBS shave, with next to no irritation. But I was at my learning stages back then.

When one takes a giant leap into traditional wet shaving with a DE safety razor, one has to learn proper technique, and learn how to NOT apply pressure. Then one has to try different blades, and see how they work in said razor. I basically went down the RAD rabbit hole, and over the nearly 9-months now, I have purchased many razors, and I was also graciously fortunate enough, to win a couple razors as well in a giveaway.

It takes a lot longer then one would think, to not only learn proper technique, but also in finding your perfect razor. I guess one could say that many folks on B&B never find their perfect razor, but I fortunately did, and managed to find it before entering bankruptcy thankfully. lol You can look at my signature to see all the razors that I felt worth of listing. But the one that truly won my heart and soul, was the last razor I purchased, the PAA Copper Ascension Twist Adjustable In Rose Gold.

I literally got the best ever shave of my life with that razor, and it has officially ended my RAD. But of course my AD continues on forward for other wet shaving items. Software for example, must have more! Do I have enough? Sure! Don't care, want more! I am like Varuca Assault in Willy Wanka, I always want more, and I want it now. HAHA

Thankfully, my battle wasn't quite as bad as yours. I mean, I did have ingrowns on occasion from using cart razors. But some of what you were experiencing, was probably more due to dirty razors that haven't been disinfected. And truth is, now that were in the days of Covid, I guarantee you, more people disinfect their equipment more often then they ever have. Nothing like a deadly virus to hang over your head, to get you to straighten up and fly right lol.

Thanks for sharing your story, and allowing me to share mine. Your awesome Miffed! So lets turn that frown upside down, and go from miffed to happy, cause guess what? By switching to traditional wet shaving via DE, your shave life has just been boosted. !!!WOOHOO!!!

 

[StewB]

In my experience irritation is mainly caused by one or more of three factors: inadequate pre-shave preparation, pressing the razor into your skin, and over-shaving. When I get "whiteheads" this is usually ingrown hairs, and I get them much more often when using multi-blade cartridge razors. A DE razor, properly used, gives me a closer shave with less irritation.

Glad you found something that works for you!

 

[gpjoe]

Congratulations on finding your shaving nirvana.

Two comments:

First: I am very surprised that you were only able to ever attain one single blood-free shave using a DE razor. I've only been using a DE razor for approximately nine months, and bloodletting has become a rarity. Is it easier to cut yourself with a DE than with a multi-blade Gillette cartridge? I would say yes with certainty, but I believe that with experience anyone can accomplish a close, comfortable shave with a DE razor and not bleed.

Second: Regardless of how some may feel about Rolex, they market watches, and do so by extolling the virtues of their timepieces, rather than trying to tell their customers how to be men, which just may have caused the disdain you sense towards Gillette. I never jumped on the anti-Gillette bandwagon, but rather jumped off the preachy, virtuous, be-a-better-man-wagon.

Happy shaves.

 

[miffed]

Hello @miffed

Truth be told, I'd be miffed if I had to go through what you did as well. People here can provide you advice oh yes, and everybody has their own idea on what or how you should do things. At the end of the day, only proper experience, teaches you what works for you, in this wet shaving hobby/journey. So kudo's to you for figuring out your way through the dense forest, breaking out from the weeds, so that you can make wet shaving work for you.

Regarding carts like the Gillette Mach 3, or the Gillette Mach 5 Fusion Pro Glide razors, I have used both of them extensively for years. I have also used the older Gillette 2-blade carts, and I have used some disposable 1-blade carts in the past as well. What I can tell you from my experience, is that they not only caused me ingrowns, but their performance was substandard the entire way.

#1, cart razor blades always seemed to be dull right out of the pack. Because of this, they always tugged on my course whiskers as they cut, instead of cutting smoothly. And before you ask, did that hurt? Of course it hurt! Talk about freaking torture! Now, a DE blade will only do this if its dull, and every sign points to the fact that cart razor blades are dull out of the pack, just thinking logically out loud here.

#2, Another thing that cart razors always did, is clog easily, and on my course whiskers, cart razors clog on every single pass, requiring shake out in water after each pass, to unclog them. This makes the shaving process take 10-times longer then it should, and its caused by the fact that there is no sizable gap in the cart. The more blades you have in the cart, the worse it clogs.

Some folks have posted pictures of their cart razor blades in which they were not able to unclog, and there has been a study done that suggests that cart razors can provide a potential health risk, if you are not able to clean them out properly, as they can harbor bacteria in dead skin cells and whiskers. So ya, thats probably where a lot of the skin conditions can come from, using unclean razors, not good.

Eventually, I just got fed up with the lack of performance from cart razors, and not only that, but also the costs going up on the Mach 5 Fusion ProGlide cart blades, just ridiculous, when they cost like 30 bucks for like an 8-pack now. Its absolutely insane, because you can buy a 100 pack of Feather DE blades for around 30 bucks. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, to figure out the game that cart razor manufacturer's are playing. And I rather not spin the dice on cart razor caused bankruptcy, no thank you!

Now, you also touched on electric shavers AKA razors. As we all know, there are rotary and foil in this category. I also used a Norelco rotary shaver for many years. Rotary shavers seem to do the job, just not perfectly. I was able to shave with a 3-blade head shaver, and get myself shaved without too much irritation, but they were never able to shave me close, and you could see my 5-oclock shadow before it was 5-oclock.

Electric shavers are another source of bacteria laden petri dish, if you don't clean them out properly and disinfect them. Most folks don't, and then they wonder why their face is opening up into an acne level of mess. Now days I have a foil shaver as an emergency backup. But before I came to B&B this year, it was my main use shaver. The good new about my Panasonic Arc 4 shaver, is its able to shave me close enough to reach a low-grade BBS.

But the bad news is, not only does it take forever for it to get me there, but the process in which in doing so, brings me high levels of redness and irritation, that I look like a kid with severe acne disorder. I discovered further on, I could alleviate some of this, by using a shaving gel from Tomb45. As my Panasonic is a modern electric shaver, it can be used wet or dry. Using a shaving gel, greatly reduced some of the irritation, allowed the razor to glide, and cut my whiskers better.

It wasn't however, my introduction into DE safety razors, for the first time in my life this year, did I discover what kind of a REAL shave I could get. A whole new world opened up to me, when I entered the world of traditional wet shaving with a DE. I first started with a Feather AS-D2 razor. Up until that point, all of nearly 9-months ago, it provided the best shave of my life. I was able to achieve a mostly BBS shave, with next to no irritation. But I was at my learning stages back then.

When one takes a giant leap into traditional wet shaving with a DE safety razor, one has to learn proper technique, and learn how to NOT apply pressure. Then one has to try different blades, and see how they work in said razor. I basically went down the RAD rabbit hole, and over the nearly 9-months now, I have purchased many razors, and I was also graciously fortunate enough, to win a couple razors as well in a giveaway.

It takes a lot longer then one would think, to not only learn proper technique, but also in finding your perfect razor. I guess one could say that many folks on B&B never find their perfect razor, but I fortunately did, and managed to find it before entering bankruptcy thankfully. lol You can look at my signature to see all the razors that I felt worth of listing. But the one that truly won my heart and soul, was the last razor I purchased, the PAA Copper Ascension Twist Adjustable In Rose Gold.

I literally got the best ever shave of my life with that razor, and it has officially ended my RAD. But of course my AD continues on forward for other wet shaving items. Software for example, must have more! Do I have enough? Sure! Don't care, want more! I am like Varuca Assault in Willy Wanka, I always want more, and I want it now. HAHA

Thankfully, my battle wasn't quite as bad as yours. I mean, I did have ingrowns on occasion from using cart razors. But some of what you were experiencing, was probably more due to dirty razors that haven't been disinfected. And truth is, now that were in the days of Covid, I guarantee you, more people disinfect their equipment more often then they ever have. Nothing like a deadly virus to hang over your head, to get you to straighten up and fly right lol.

Thanks for sharing your story, and allowing me to share mine. Your awesome Miffed! So lets turn that frown upside down, and go from miffed to happy, cause guess what? By switching to traditional wet shaving via DE, your shave life has just been boosted. !!!WOOHOO!!!

Hello @miffed

Truth be told, I'd be miffed if I had to go through what you did as well. People here can provide you advice oh yes, and everybody has their own idea on what or how you should do things. At the end of the day, only proper experience, teaches you what works for you, in this wet shaving hobby/journey. So kudo's to you for figuring out your way through the dense forest, breaking out from the weeds, so that you can make wet shaving work for you.

Regarding carts like the Gillette Mach 3, or the Gillette Mach 5 Fusion Pro Glide razors, I have used both of them extensively for years. I have also used the older Gillette 2-blade carts, and I have used some disposable 1-blade carts in the past as well. What I can tell you from my experience, is that they not only caused me ingrowns, but their performance was substandard the entire way.

#1, cart razor blades always seemed to be dull right out of the pack. Because of this, they always tugged on my course whiskers as they cut, instead of cutting smoothly. And before you ask, did that hurt? Of course it hurt! Talk about freaking torture! Now, a DE blade will only do this if its dull, and every sign points to the fact that cart razor blades are dull out of the pack, just thinking logically out loud here.

#2, Another thing that cart razors always did, is clog easily, and on my course whiskers, cart razors clog on every single pass, requiring shake out in water after each pass, to unclog them. This makes the shaving process take 10-times longer then it should, and its caused by the fact that there is no sizable gap in the cart. The more blades you have in the cart, the worse it clogs.

Some folks have posted pictures of their cart razor blades in which they were not able to unclog, and there has been a study done that suggests that cart razors can provide a potential health risk, if you are not able to clean them out properly, as they can harbor bacteria in dead skin cells and whiskers. So ya, thats probably where a lot of the skin conditions can come from, using unclean razors, not good.

Eventually, I just got fed up with the lack of performance from cart razors, and not only that, but also the costs going up on the Mach 5 Fusion ProGlide cart blades, just ridiculous, when they cost like 30 bucks for like an 8-pack now. Its absolutely insane, because you can buy a 100 pack of Feather DE blades for around 30 bucks. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, to figure out the game that cart razor manufacturer's are playing. And I rather not spin the dice on cart razor caused bankruptcy, no thank you!

Now, you also touched on electric shavers AKA razors. As we all know, there are rotary and foil in this category. I also used a Norelco rotary shaver for many years. Rotary shavers seem to do the job, just not perfectly. I was able to shave with a 3-blade head shaver, and get myself shaved without too much irritation, but they were never able to shave me close, and you could see my 5-oclock shadow before it was 5-oclock.

Electric shavers are another source of bacteria laden petri dish, if you don't clean them out properly and disinfect them. Most folks don't, and then they wonder why their face is opening up into an acne level of mess. Now days I have a foil shaver as an emergency backup. But before I came to B&B this year, it was my main use shaver. The good new about my Panasonic Arc 4 shaver, is its able to shave me close enough to reach a low-grade BBS.

But the bad news is, not only does it take forever for it to get me there, but the process in which in doing so, brings me high levels of redness and irritation, that I look like a kid with severe acne disorder. I discovered further on, I could alleviate some of this, by using a shaving gel from Tomb45. As my Panasonic is a modern electric shaver, it can be used wet or dry. Using a shaving gel, greatly reduced some of the irritation, allowed the razor to glide, and cut my whiskers better.

It wasn't however, my introduction into DE safety razors, for the first time in my life this year, did I discover what kind of a REAL shave I could get. A whole new world opened up to me, when I entered the world of traditional wet shaving with a DE. I first started with a Feather AS-D2 razor. Up until that point, all of nearly 9-months ago, it provided the best shave of my life. I was able to achieve a mostly BBS shave, with next to no irritation. But I was at my learning stages back then.

When one takes a giant leap into traditional wet shaving with a DE safety razor, one has to learn proper technique, and learn how to NOT apply pressure. Then one has to try different blades, and see how they work in said razor. I basically went down the RAD rabbit hole, and over the nearly 9-months now, I have purchased many razors, and I was also graciously fortunate enough, to win a couple razors as well in a giveaway.

It takes a lot longer then one would think, to not only learn proper technique, but also in finding your perfect razor. I guess one could say that many folks on B&B never find their perfect razor, but I fortunately did, and managed to find it before entering bankruptcy thankfully. lol You can look at my signature to see all the razors that I felt worth of listing. But the one that truly won my heart and soul, was the last razor I purchased, the PAA Copper Ascension Twist Adjustable In Rose Gold.

I literally got the best ever shave of my life with that razor, and it has officially ended my RAD. But of course my AD continues on forward for other wet shaving items. Software for example, must have more! Do I have enough? Sure! Don't care, want more! I am like Varuca Assault in Willy Wanka, I always want more, and I want it now. HAHA

Thankfully, my battle wasn't quite as bad as yours. I mean, I did have ingrowns on occasion from using cart razors. But some of what you were experiencing, was probably more due to dirty razors that haven't been disinfected. And truth is, now that were in the days of Covid, I guarantee you, more people disinfect their equipment more often then they ever have. Nothing like a deadly virus to hang over your head, to get you to straighten up and fly right lol.

Thanks for sharing your story, and allowing me to share mine. Your awesome Miffed! So lets turn that frown upside down, and go from miffed to happy, cause guess what? By switching to traditional wet shaving via DE, your shave life has just been boosted. !!!WOOHOO!!!

thank you very much for your reply, very detailed and informative...

i have absolutely no doubt that all the advice i received and am still receiving is sound and correct but i really seem to have no reaction to a method of shaving that should really not be for me on any account...

i will try to reflect on a couple of points you made, in no particular order...

carts being dull right out of the box so to speak...well i honestly don't have the same experience, the mach 3 from what i can remember did dull but only after at least 10 shaves, back when i used it i use to shave, very sporadically once a week or once every two weeks, first going in with a beard trimmer and then finishing up with a mach 3...

in terms of carts being dull and not being effective as DE's well i actually get closer shaves with the proglide not to mention the awesome fact of no irritation, whiteheads et cetera, i have yet to get as close with something as i do with the proglide, the andis did get me glass smooth in every direction but the trade off is a night spent at a dermatology department lol...i do have a question for you personally seeing as you used the fusion extensively, i will ask it at the end of my reply so it can remain fresh in your memory...

back to viruses and such, i keep every tool very clean, i have just the slightest smidge of medical knowledge/background so i think that i can saftely say that my gear is virus and bacteria free, but that's me, i am on the same amount of hand washes pre and post covid for example...some folks can and will get bacteria and such on their gear but the same can be said of people not taking ample care of their stuff about nearly pretty much anything...a mobile phone can also exude problems that start in the micro cosmos (i was going to write sub atomic level but i am not sure that they do in fact he he) i am also of the opinion that having and using a DE will NOT make one immune to the bulid up of bacteria and the like, any tool you use should be properly maintanied, the level of mainteneance needed for normal use can be easily achieved just by using common sense, nothing extensive, i believe this to be true of any tool for shaving, the lowest maintenance tool being a straight and the highest an electric due to the oiling part (i have a dislike of oil, not crude, hehe)

electrics have been appealing to me for some time, but my skin simply cannot handle them, also i dare say that in the long run, mathematically speaking, they end up costing you more money, thank God finances are not a priority when it comes to shaving but here, Europe, electrics are not priced as they are on Amazon and similar outlets in the West, the replacement heads also tend to be quite expenisve, definnetly more so than in the EU, UK and US, i am talking about Braun, Panasonic is very poorly represented here, i managed to find an arc shaver but for something like 350 euros...ridiculous, i have not dared to use a panasonic electric, simply the RPM would tear me to shreds, i believe, my logic being that an andis profoil which spins at a little above 9000 rpm gave me purple skin, so to speak, the panasonics spin at around 13.000+ RPM so the picture that they would paint would not be pretty and quite painful...the thing i thought that i'd like about electrics is the speed with which you can finish your shave, the contratry turned out to be true, i needed nearly half an hour to prep shave and post shave using the onblade, the philips and andis took a somewhat shorter period of time to shave my face, none below 20 full mins, of course i am talking about the whole ritual as i used them both wet with the same shaving soap (proraso white) alum after shave et cetera



my last shave was on wednesday, i used the green proraso splash, its not bad but compared to "RED ONE" classic barber it's trash, it smells ok, but left my skin quite dry and feeling "flaky" the RED ONE splash does none of these things plus smells way better and is much cheaper, around 7.5 euros for 500 ml, the proraso is around 9 euros and the amount is cca 150 ml i think i may be off a little though, the only downside is that it's made in turkey...

as for the financial aspect of shaving wet using a DE, i think that the "equipment" one buys out of love for shaving (the famed ritual) can easily surpass the amounts of $ needed for cart shaving...when we are talking essentials DE's are a clear cut winner, but when you take into account some of the stuff people use, the high end stuff, a pack of 8 carts for 30 USD seems cheap by comparison, at least in my lay opinion...

I would really appreciate your input regarding the vertical lines the proglide sometimes leaves on my neck, are they indeed caused by the metal ridges at the far sides of the cart or...all and any input would be very welcome

Thanks again,

Enjoy the weekend

 

[miffed]

In my experience irritation is mainly caused by one or more of three factors: inadequate pre-shave preparation, pressing the razor into your skin, and over-shaving. When I get "whiteheads" this is usually ingrown hairs, and I get them much more often when using multi-blade cartridge razors. A DE razor, properly used, gives me a closer shave with less irritation.

Glad you found something that works for you!

Hey StewB,
thank you for your input, it seems that it really does take all sorts, i hope that if there is someone like me, in regard to the reactions they get from using various methods for shaving, they find and read this thread because a lot of various methods and outcomes are mentioned and detailed.
One's mileage does indeed vary
Have a great weekend

 

[miffed]

Congratulations on finding your shaving nirvana.

Two comments:

First: I am very surprised that you were only able to ever attain one single blood-free shave using a DE razor. I've only been using a DE razor for approximately nine months, and bloodletting has become a rarity. Is it easier to cut yourself with a DE than with a multi-blade Gillette cartridge? I would say yes with certainty, but I believe that with experience anyone can accomplish a close, comfortable shave with a DE razor and not bleed.

Second: Regardless of how some may feel about Rolex, they market watches, and do so by extolling the virtues of their timepieces, rather than trying to tell their customers how to be men, which just may have caused the disdain you sense towards Gillette. I never jumped on the anti-Gillette bandwagon, but rather jumped off the preachy, virtuous, be-a-better-man-wagon.

Happy shaves.

Thanks GPJOE!!

indeed i did only manage one blood free DE shave, but to be fair i am not very patient in the sense that i encourage myself midshave and subsequently speed up causing havoc, in essence...i have in time developed my DE technique somewhat but even when i did manage to get a shave with one or close to one nick, so no cuts, i had whiteheads appear after two days, this does not happen after carts, how? i really have no idea, i am doing everything the same apart from using a cart...also the closeness i can achieve is greater with a cart than a DE, the shave time is greatly shorter, around 10 mins, including prep, shaving and post shave sometimes i can even manage to get my plastic bowl washed in under 10 minutes, i am joking a little here as i have not timed myself, but i think i have quite a good feel for the passage of time seeing as i liked watches a lot when i was younger....

back to marketing...forgive me, but i think "a crown for every achievement" is as bad as "the best a man can get"
i even believe that the same company can in some instances create these "preachy" slogans and ad campaigns on the whole for more than one company, great minds think alike seems that preachy, marketing based, money driven one's do too

is it crueler to propagate "being a real man" if you use gillette or being atop the social ladder because your own a Rolex?

i believe the latter to be worse, i was quite taken aback when a very good frined of mine, and very well read man, an intellectual now based in the UK, told me the reason behind his wanting a Wimbledon edition Rolex, was, and i quote "i want to climb the social ladder bra' ", i think that instilling this mantra into the minds of young, insecure people (both male and female) can result in detrimental consequences, but alas everything today is internet based, everybody seems to want everything and to want it now, before the mass use of the internet and the general distortion of the moral fabric of society this caused, things were very different, al least from what i remember, i'm 38...

I have noticed that there are snobbish people in the "watch loving" community as there are in the "shave loving" community those slogans appeal very well to those sorts of people, the results are clearly visible as most of the companies that have "the best a man can get" and similar slogans are in fact multi billion conglomerates, so they are not too badly off

again your milage may vary

for example, i now use a samsung smartwatch and shave with a cart, so 1 out of 2 marketing wise, i am "getting the best a man can get" but without "a crown for every achievement" lol

Have a great weekend

 

[BigJ]

Congratulations on your progress!!

 

[miffed]

Congratulations on your progress!!

Thank you very much BIGJ!!