In Praise of the Merkur Progress...

[Benzadmiral]

Decided to experiment with the Progress today!

On Tuesday I used it for a 48-hour beard, loaded with a new Personna Lab Blue blade. Great shave. So, on an impulse, I moved the Progress into the rotation again -- but this time, instead of setting it at 3 - 2 - 1 for my passes, I opened it up to 4 -3 -2! I kept all the other variables the same, i.e., shower, same blade (though now with 1 shave on it), same Stirling soap, same 3 minutes' wait after applying the lather. And . . .

. . . the Progress brought me even closer to BBS than usual. No irritation. I'm aware that I have shaved, yes, but in a "Man, I feel clean!" way. Setting 4 really mowed down the growth, and the other 2 settings finished the job. Even setting 3 on the lower lip, my weak spot for nicks, caused no trouble at all.

Perhaps my technique has advanced; maybe it's the razor. But I can't help but be impressed.

 

[corlay]

I, too, recently tried a more aggressive approach (4-3-3 in my case) with the Progress and I'm getting really great shaves with this tool.

 

[ShaverNoob]

I like mine a lot, but it's slippery as hell for me. I wrap a rubber band around the handle. It's been great for me as a new guy so you can learn your aggression needs very quickly. I'd also get the long handle if I were doing it again, but I still love it.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I was going to enthuse about my results with setting the Progress up to 4, 3, 2 -- but I see I did exactly that 12 days ago. Today's shave was just the same. Applause for the Merkur engineers and for the Personna people's Lab Blue blade.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I've been using the Progress once every 14 days since my last post, and have had terrific shaves. This week I shaved with it twice, both times on 24-hour beards: the first time with Stirling Texas on Fire soap and settings 3 and 2 (the mildest on my razor); the second today with TOBS Peppermint cream, and leaving the razor set at 2. Even at its mildest the Progress does a fantastic job. If I had no other razors, I suspect I'd be quite content with this one.

 

[martym]

I love my long handled Merkur Progress.
I love it even more than my 2011 R41 Grande.
Except for 1 Big Ben blade where the shave sucked every shave with every blade has been really great. I usually shave once a day but 2 times now and then.
I have settled on a setting of 1.5.