I just upgraded a razor and wanted to share some of the thought process I went through and results of that with those who are to blame. JK 
This past Monday, I was shaving with my EJ DE89L and, at the end of the shave, the head felt loose. As I was cleaning it, it fell apart. The cap screw had broken off at the top of the handle. Thankfully, I still had my 39C Slant, but it gave me a very good excuse for RAD. The question was, what do I replace it with?
My usual shave with the DE89 was a four pass and sometimes a bit of cleanup. Lately, though, my skin has been getting very slightly irritated by this procedure. In my research here, I found it may be that I may not be letting the weight of the razor do the work. I may have been applying a slight pressure. I may have been trying to make it more aggressive than it was, though I was unaware of doing that. That further confounded my purchase decision.
I knew I wanted to upgraded, probably to a stainless. I knew I wanted a better grip as I had found the DE89L handle to feel a little slippery when my hands were wet. Since the DE89 is fairly mild, I have long been looking at the Feather. This could be the opportunity to get one, but I needed more research first. So, I reviewed many of the older threads here to remind me of my stainless options. One of the polls helped point me in another direction. I was reminded of the Above The Tie razors and went through the history and read all of the discussions about the prototype testing and the review threads since then. It looked to be very similar in size to the DE89 head, which, until it broke, I liked. Now, I had another problem.
The DE89 is mild and I had used it successfully for a couple of years. Maybe I should get the ATT with the M head. But, others mentioned how the R head was the sweet spot, not quite as mild, but not dangerously aggressive either. Adding a handle choice did not help, at least not at first. When I first looked at the ATT, I thought I should get the Kronos/Titan handle because it was a similar length to my DE89L and I already had a shorter handle with the 37C.
A set of posts, probably in a review thread, maybe by Alex, helped me make up my mind about the handle issue. It discussed how the weight of the handle affected the aggressiveness of the head. For any given ATT head, the Kronos/Titan handle would be more aggressive than the Atlas handle. So, what I really needed was the seven piece set, but I couldn't quite afford that. I needed to select a less costly option.
Back to my prior quandary... The DE89 is mild. But, I may have been unconsciously trying to make it more aggressive. I didn't know whether I would be better off with an Atlas and the M head. It would be of a similar mildness to the DE89 or maybe a fraction more aggressive. But, if I was adding pressure to the DE89, maybe I really needed a more aggressive head. Maybe the R head would be a better fit than the M head. Several vendors had the Atlas handle with the R head. It was well praised in the reviews. I decided to give it a chance. I was almost set to get the Atlas/R until I found BullGoose had something the other vendors I looked at (and ATT) did not have at the time. BullGoose had the Atlas five piece set. Since this would give me a milder backup to the Atlas/R with the M, I went with that combination and gave Phil a call.
It arrived today. (Thanks, Phil.) I had not shaved in a couple of days so, after exercising, I showered and shaved. I used the middle R head to see if the increased aggressive would work okay. I put in an inexpensive Ladas blade, which is what I usually used with the DE89. I had some hot water prep during and just after the shower. I lathered up some MWF on my Omega Boar brush and made two passes, WTG and ATG, with just a bit of clean up afterwards. The sound certainly reminded me of using a straight. I suspect this may be due to a wider portion of the blade edge being exposed and unsupported, though the edge gap is still controlled. I'm not sure yet, but I may be able to get away with some buffing with this R head like I did with the DE89 and 37C. I followed up with some CF Lavender balm and completed an excellent shave.
The praise in the review threads was correct. I'm quite impressed with this new razor. It is certainly quite the upgrade from the DE89 and I'm not likely to have the cap screw break on it.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the polls, threads, reviews, etc. that led me this razor. I still want to try the other heads to see how they work for me, but I am quite happy with how my relationship with this razor has started out. Thanks again.
This past Monday, I was shaving with my EJ DE89L and, at the end of the shave, the head felt loose. As I was cleaning it, it fell apart. The cap screw had broken off at the top of the handle. Thankfully, I still had my 39C Slant, but it gave me a very good excuse for RAD. The question was, what do I replace it with?
My usual shave with the DE89 was a four pass and sometimes a bit of cleanup. Lately, though, my skin has been getting very slightly irritated by this procedure. In my research here, I found it may be that I may not be letting the weight of the razor do the work. I may have been applying a slight pressure. I may have been trying to make it more aggressive than it was, though I was unaware of doing that. That further confounded my purchase decision.
I knew I wanted to upgraded, probably to a stainless. I knew I wanted a better grip as I had found the DE89L handle to feel a little slippery when my hands were wet. Since the DE89 is fairly mild, I have long been looking at the Feather. This could be the opportunity to get one, but I needed more research first. So, I reviewed many of the older threads here to remind me of my stainless options. One of the polls helped point me in another direction. I was reminded of the Above The Tie razors and went through the history and read all of the discussions about the prototype testing and the review threads since then. It looked to be very similar in size to the DE89 head, which, until it broke, I liked. Now, I had another problem.
The DE89 is mild and I had used it successfully for a couple of years. Maybe I should get the ATT with the M head. But, others mentioned how the R head was the sweet spot, not quite as mild, but not dangerously aggressive either. Adding a handle choice did not help, at least not at first. When I first looked at the ATT, I thought I should get the Kronos/Titan handle because it was a similar length to my DE89L and I already had a shorter handle with the 37C.
A set of posts, probably in a review thread, maybe by Alex, helped me make up my mind about the handle issue. It discussed how the weight of the handle affected the aggressiveness of the head. For any given ATT head, the Kronos/Titan handle would be more aggressive than the Atlas handle. So, what I really needed was the seven piece set, but I couldn't quite afford that. I needed to select a less costly option.
Back to my prior quandary... The DE89 is mild. But, I may have been unconsciously trying to make it more aggressive. I didn't know whether I would be better off with an Atlas and the M head. It would be of a similar mildness to the DE89 or maybe a fraction more aggressive. But, if I was adding pressure to the DE89, maybe I really needed a more aggressive head. Maybe the R head would be a better fit than the M head. Several vendors had the Atlas handle with the R head. It was well praised in the reviews. I decided to give it a chance. I was almost set to get the Atlas/R until I found BullGoose had something the other vendors I looked at (and ATT) did not have at the time. BullGoose had the Atlas five piece set. Since this would give me a milder backup to the Atlas/R with the M, I went with that combination and gave Phil a call.
It arrived today. (Thanks, Phil.) I had not shaved in a couple of days so, after exercising, I showered and shaved. I used the middle R head to see if the increased aggressive would work okay. I put in an inexpensive Ladas blade, which is what I usually used with the DE89. I had some hot water prep during and just after the shower. I lathered up some MWF on my Omega Boar brush and made two passes, WTG and ATG, with just a bit of clean up afterwards. The sound certainly reminded me of using a straight. I suspect this may be due to a wider portion of the blade edge being exposed and unsupported, though the edge gap is still controlled. I'm not sure yet, but I may be able to get away with some buffing with this R head like I did with the DE89 and 37C. I followed up with some CF Lavender balm and completed an excellent shave.
The praise in the review threads was correct. I'm quite impressed with this new razor. It is certainly quite the upgrade from the DE89 and I'm not likely to have the cap screw break on it.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the polls, threads, reviews, etc. that led me this razor. I still want to try the other heads to see how they work for me, but I am quite happy with how my relationship with this razor has started out. Thanks again.
