This post will be about my first impressions with the Van Der Hagen Deluxe Shave set. Set comes with brush, bowl, stand, and soap. Now, the first time I used this set, as well as properly wet shaved in general, was about two days ago. That time was a three pass shave with a Schick Type I injector with Chick blade. My lathering technique and method of preparing the soap needs serious work, as my face had about three weepers and felt like it was on fire after all was said and done. I put the puck into the bowl and starting lathering right off the puck in the bowl. Pretty freakin close shave vs the canned foam I've used up until that point.
Today I did a warm face wash and instead of putting the puck directly into the bowl, I put it back into its plastic container and stirred the lather from the paste I gathered in my damp boar brush. The lather was a bit better than last time after I figured out one needs to do the stirring sans puck in the shave bowl until bubbles in the lather disappear and gets somewhat creamy. I'm still new to mixing the lather, its basically to me a science. Anyways, the WTG pass was excellent, no faults there, had to be a bit careful here, but nothing I couldn't handle.
Next was ATG, this was where I had some issues with possible glide problems as the whiskers would sometimes tug and irritation started to creep up. My blade has only been through 1 shave before this one, so its still good. XTG was the third and last pass, mostly under my neck. Now, I think I may have used most of the little lather I had worked up and so the neck became irritated as I shaved. A weeper crept up on this pass, but nothing like last time. I re-lathered and used new lather once I realized there might not be enough lather in my bowl and brush. XTG finished the shave with minor irritation and one weeper, all with near BBS, which shocked me as I never could get near BBS with my shave foams.
So, the final verdict is, Van Der Hagen is ok so far, but my lathering needs some serious work. I can say this though, I've gotten better results with a bowl and brush than canned foam. We don't need more blades, we need more brushes and bowls!!!
Today I did a warm face wash and instead of putting the puck directly into the bowl, I put it back into its plastic container and stirred the lather from the paste I gathered in my damp boar brush. The lather was a bit better than last time after I figured out one needs to do the stirring sans puck in the shave bowl until bubbles in the lather disappear and gets somewhat creamy. I'm still new to mixing the lather, its basically to me a science. Anyways, the WTG pass was excellent, no faults there, had to be a bit careful here, but nothing I couldn't handle.
Next was ATG, this was where I had some issues with possible glide problems as the whiskers would sometimes tug and irritation started to creep up. My blade has only been through 1 shave before this one, so its still good. XTG was the third and last pass, mostly under my neck. Now, I think I may have used most of the little lather I had worked up and so the neck became irritated as I shaved. A weeper crept up on this pass, but nothing like last time. I re-lathered and used new lather once I realized there might not be enough lather in my bowl and brush. XTG finished the shave with minor irritation and one weeper, all with near BBS, which shocked me as I never could get near BBS with my shave foams.
So, the final verdict is, Van Der Hagen is ok so far, but my lathering needs some serious work. I can say this though, I've gotten better results with a bowl and brush than canned foam. We don't need more blades, we need more brushes and bowls!!!