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Hello from San Diego.

I just wanted to post and say a quick thank you to all of the contributors here that have made this forum such an incredible assemblage of helpfulness.

I am a recent convert to DE/Wet Shaving. I am 43 years old and have been a "Cartridge" guy my entire adult shaving life. I guess I somewhere along the way fell prey to the typical American marketing ploy of more, bigger, and more expensive must be better. My path here (for those who are curious as to where all us newbs come from and possibly how to better spend their marketing dollars to reach us "Potential Converts") is probably a fairly typical one. I was about due to buy my next $40-$50 bulk package of Mach 3 cartridges when the Dollar Shave Club ads starting popping up in my FB feed. I googled this and while it sounded good economically, the razors themselves received fairly mixed reviews. Around the same time I saw the Microtouch One Advert on TV with Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars a few times. A little research on that product led me to google "Best Starter Safety Razor". I didn't want to spend a ton of money to try something that I was going to hate. I also was wary of not spending enough and having a poor first experience that might unfairly turn me off of the entire concept. I wound up purchasing an EJ89 with the lined handle(and a 5 pack of Derbys), a tub of Proraso Green, and an Omega Pro48 boar brush.

I read a lot of posts from here and watched quite a few videos (mainly Mantic and the guy from WCS whose name I can't recall at the moment...) while eagerly awaiting the arrival of my "starter" package. I felt pretty confident that I had a clue by the time it arrived and jumped right in. Bowl lathering (in a plain old medium sized soup bowl) seemed to work just fine. I know that the sage advice here is to just shave WTG and maybe a little XTG for the first week or so. I however wanted to see if the finished product was indeed "better". In my defense I have been immediately post-shower shaving, mostly one pass ATG, with a cartridge razor and water only... no cream at all. My skin obviously does not irritate easily as I had been doing this daily for many years.

So away we went(after a hot shower and a fairly hot face towel)... I seemed to prefer lots of short overlapping strokes (almost like elongated blade buffing) to long slow ones. I spent a bit of time working finding the proper angles to maximize the cut without having to use much pressure. Sound REALLY helps in figuring this out. The first WTG pass went swimmingly. I was a bit disheartened that there was still so much stubble remaining at this point though. I am of Scotch/Irish descent and my beard is a bit coarse. A little more lather and on to XTG... Still quite a bit of stubble afterwards. Of course I couldn't stop there and had to do an ATG pass. My results after this were similar to my results after a cartridge shave. My face and neck felt a little more raw and irritated than usual. I had one small weeper right on the jawline transition. Not too bad for the first go I guess.

Round two started out and went similar to round one the previous day. After the ATG pass though I did A LOT of touching up trying to get a BBS. The upside... my results were better than my usual cartrige and water shave. The downsides... I still wasn't BBS in a lot of areas and the process had taken 30 minutes(including the post shave cleaning-up) instead of the usual 3-4. My face and neck were still a bit raw. I hadn't researched aftershaves yet but figured that this was a good time. I decided to see what was available locally and after a Googling a few reviews, I went over to Walmart. I picked up a bottle of Nivea for Men After Shave Balm and the also the "Sensitive" version of the same product. Did a 1/2 each on face and neck comparison and liked the "regular" much better. It gave me much more of the "stinging/cooling effect" and left my face feeling a bit softer and more hydrated. My wife loves the scent and I love how it works so I think that I am set there for awhile.

I wondered if my lather was somehow lacking and contributing to the bit of post shave rawness that I was experiencing. I went back a re-watched a couple videos and read a few posts. I gathered that I was likely using too much water. I made a bowl and tested it between my fingers... neither very slick nor very much "cushion". I started over with very little water and a generous amount of soap loaded, lots of agitation, and added just enough water to get some lather. MUCH better. Probably twice as slick and three times the cushion.

I continued on with this daily for about a week and continued to struggle with getting a really close shave. I felt like I was going over the same trouble spots over and over again and still never getting them entirely smooth. I again re-watched some videos on technique and took closer note of the idea of "Face Mapping". I have come to realize that while mapping my face is fairly straightforward... trying to draw a diagram of growth directions on my neck... well... it might just be both easier and equally descriptive to just take a picture of a bowl of spaghetti. It is really all over the place. Then came what seems to be the next obvious question... Do I need sharper blades? I ordered a pre-assembled sample pack from West Coast Shaving + a few additional single packs that were reviewed well here that I wanted to try. I received exactly the 10 or so packages of blades that I had ordered. They were well packaged, promptly shipped, and my card was quickly and accurately charged for the transaction.

So I swapped the DERBY out of the EJ89 for an ASTRA SP. I had about a week and half under my belt at this point and felt like my technique was getting better. I did a half and half test for the first three passes and the ASTRA cut "maybe" a little better than the DERBY. It "might" have felt a little more smooth but it was pretty similar. This also may have been due to using a new Astra and a Derby that had a couple shaves on it already(although cleaned and thoroughly dried after each). I spent just as long as usual afterwards trying to touch up the trouble spots on both sides using the ASTRA. The results were pretty similar to previous efforts with the Derby. I was going over the same areas many times lightly and still not getting them all REALLY smooth. Back to the Google-fu technique and the next inevitable question... Do I need a more aggressive razor?

I wanted to stay on the inexpensive but not junk cheap side of things and after a lot of research here (thanks for the TABLE of current modern razors ranked subjectively by aggression BTW... a great resource). I decided to try the Jaws/Cadet/ et al... OC. I decided on the Razorock JAWS as it was the only version of them I could find in stock and and ready to ship. And since I was already paying for shipping I thought why not add a Mission SB which was ranked somewhere in between the EJ and the JAWS in terms of subjective aggressiveness. I also ordered a tube of Proraso "RED" to try a cream instead of a soap. I ordered these from ItalianBarber.com. There was a note prominently displayed on the site that their shipping department was experiencing a 1-2 day delay due to a large volume of orders. I placed my order mid-day on Monday and it shipped early Tuesday afternoon. Pretty darn good for a small company at what sounds like a challenging time for them. This order was also well packaged and arrived a couple days later exactly as expected.

I decided to only change one variable at a time and stayed with the ASTRA blade, the Proraso Green soap, but switched to the Mission. Its head is similar to the EJ89 but a little thinner and probably a little lighter. The handle is much heavier and much more deeply knurled. The balance is a bit different from the EJ, but I really liked the handle on this Mission. (Maybe one day i'll try the Mission handle on the EJ even though it is not quite as "pretty" as the lined EJ handle). The Mission made a different sound as it cut. I don't know if this was mainly attributable to more "aggression" or just the differences in resonance from different weights and materials. It seemed to be maybe just a tad more aggressive than the EJ but the finished results were only marginally if any better than the EJ. I do think it got me there just a bit quicker than the EJ but that could also be due to my ever improving newbie technique or even just the weight and better control of the bigger handle. I also wanted to mention that the blade alignment on this is pretty good. There is some side to side play when the blade is flat, but when pressed tightly up against the cap and curved, the play disappears and leaves no real room to "adjust it". There "might" be just a touch more gap on one side than the other but it is pretty darn close.

On to the JAWS... I hated to change two variables, but I had to try the Proraso Red cream. I installed another fresh ASTRA SP blade from the same pack. The RED cream lathered well and easily. I liked the sandalwood smell, but prefer the Green Soap and missed the menthol. The JAWS OC has an even longer handle than the mission and heavy knurling as well. It made a MUCH different sounds as it cut and I could tell it was taking more hair off than either the Mission or the EJ89. I was farther along after each pass (WTG,XTG,ATG) than I had been prior. I still had to do a lot of touch up but the finished results seemed to be much improved. Not BBS all over, but better. And the amount of irritation was similar to the other less aggressive razors. I did manage to make a slice on my jawline transition area while doing an XTG pass. I somehow moved the razor sideways I think. I won't blame this on the Jaws as even the EJ would have probably rewarded that boneheaded move with a similar result. The blade gap on the JAWS is a bit uneven. Each side is parallel with the cap, but one side extends out a little farther from it than the other. There also is not much "adjustment" to it... it is what it is, but it is a pretty minor difference in my estimation. I didn't find myself looking to see which side was which during the shave nor could I tell the difference by feel or result.

So today I decided to "test" all three razors. I tried a Polsilver in the EJ and left the ASTRA SPs in the Razorocks. I did the usual three passes (half on each side) plus a little touch up with the Mission on the left and the EJ on the right. The results were ok but not outstanding. The Polsilver blade seemed to tug a little less and be maybe a bit sharper but resulted in no more more appreciable "closeness" than did the ASTRA in the mission. I decided to re-lather and go over the entire shave again lightly with the JAWS to see if it would cut closer. WOW... I was really surprised. Even on the areas that I thought were pretty close to BBS already, I could both hear and feel the JAWS taking off even more hair! A little more touch up on the trouble spots and my best shave to date was the result. I experienced a little more stinging than normal with the AS but I did a lot more passes and touching up in total than usual today. That being said the AS cooled it right down and it is fine now. I guess I am blessed to have really "Non-sensitive?" skin.

I guess that is a pretty long first post. My apologies. I "suffer" from being overly caught up in the details sometimes. That seems to be especially true when I am excited about the subject matter. So where do I go from here? I have been studying up on vintage Gillette history both here and elsewhere. I know that I am still new at this and will get better with practice with the equipment I already own. I have about 9 more different blade varieties to try. It's too bad I can only shave once a day. ;) My only real complaints are how long it takes (20-30 minutes at this point) and now my obsession with obtaining a true, all over, BBS shave. I think i'm hooked. Thanks to you all...
 
Hello and welcome to B&B, SDCyclist. This is a great forum full of friendly, helpful shavers. You'll learn a lot here.

Go for a few vintage Gillettes. Great shavers and classic style.
 
Welcome from another Newbie. Don't worry about the length of your post -- someone told me last week we get paid by the word for Newbie posts.

Practice will improve your technique and help you narrow your choices into a rotation of what works best for your face. 'S good fun as well as nominally less expensive than the carts. Er, that's so long as those alluring ADs don't getcha.
 
Welcome to B&B! San Diego is one of my favorite cities in the world to visit (maybe THE favorite).

You must be an engineer or scientist of some sort? If not, I think you missed your calling. :laugh:

I'd keep working your way through that blade sampler pack. And feel free to stop at DFS. I usually get BBS or DFS on my cheeks, but if I go for BBS on my neck... it's just not worth it. Faceturbation is pretty much as satisfying with DFS as it is with BBS. :001_cool:
 
I think you hit it. You should be able to achieve BBS with what you have. I would stay with the same razor, and blade for about 3-4 weeks while you learn your face, equipment and get your technique perfected....we all want to get there faster but the BBS will come and once it does it will come with more and more regularity.
 
Welcome to B&B from another San Diego newbie. I'm also a menthol junkie.

I started this a few months ago and now have over 40 razors, with 3 more on the way. My wife thinks that I have lost my mind.

You've been warned.

When I first started I was advised to find a blade that works reasonably well and spend the first month just working on technique. I made it a couple of weeks before I started buying more razors, soaps, etc. A few weeks ago I discovered single edge razors, and today I had my first injector shave.

Perhaps the most amazing discovery is here: an Internet forum where everyone is polite and respectful toward each other.

--Bob
 
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