Hi Op, similar situation here, long time lurker, very sensitive skin, daily shaver with a Rockwell 6c/plate 3. Except I'm a tinkerer and perfectionist and don't want to settle for anything less than a BBS every single day in under 5 minutes, mindlessly and without irritation/nicks.
I have/had something like 10 razors since I made the switch 5 years ago. My absolute fave is the Taiga, a SS open-comb adjustable. The finish is exceptional, the mechanism is really clever, the Ti handle is very grippy, it hovers on the skin without any noise or feeling anything and delivers the closest shave. Being an open comb, it can bite easily so I need to be mindful and shaves take longer than 5 minutes but I absolutely love it. Problem is my skin does not. Irritation builds up, then nicks before my neck orders me to leave it alone.
And this is a recurring story for all my razors which I have persevered with for months each time. I have to compromise, either shaves take longer, or less than BBS or more likely mandatory breaks because of irritation/nicks. All of them I can get 5 shaves a week with; I suspect with a few I could maybe achieve 6 shaves a week with better technique adjustments but 7/7 was always out of reach. Then I bought a 6c for my son who decided electric shavers are better for him, so I tried it last year and that's when I was finally able to achieve my dream. I've been shaving every single day with perfect results and my neck skin looks better than it ever did.
I've learned to accept that my skin and facial features (lean with angles) dictate what is possible. Examples:
- with anything else than very mild razors, my skin will scream at me on the third consecutive shave
- with flattish head razors, irritation builds up when hair grows back but it does not when the head is round and the blade is flexed
- multiple ATG passes and buffing are possible with very mild razors otherwise even one is very risky
- the razor head never touches my skin if there is no lather on it, etc...
I've had to tune my technique for each razor. For the Rockwell I started with plate 2. My hair grows in multiple directions but always horizontally or vertically so I do two passes, one vertical, one horizontal, both against the grain as much as possible (ex: up where the hair grows down and down where the hair grows up) with a little bit of buffing (always lather!). With plate 2 more buffing is needed and it's wise to learn not to insist. Over time I graduated to plate 3, BBS is now a given with less buffing and it lasts longer. Same story with plate 4, longer lasting, easier to achieve but my skin won't tolerate it more than a couple consecutive days so I do alternate the 3 plates (plate 2 to recover from 4), using plate 3 most of the time. I have it so nailed down that some days I'm done in barely more than 4 minutes.
That Ikon slant would be too aggressive for me as well I think. As others have suggested shaving with the grain might help. My go-to technique with more aggressive razors is two diagonal passes, if you're righty then top-left towards bottom-right then bottom-left towards top-right, it's efficient and less aggressive on the skin. But with a slant I'm not sure that would work around the Adam apple for the nicks.
And finally razor acquisition disorder is real. I have a Seygus Zeppelin V2 .5/.5 on the way. It's very slightly slanted, I'm hoping it will behave like a slightly more efficient plate 3 and anyway it's a unique razor, I could not resist... I'll let you know how it goes.
I have/had something like 10 razors since I made the switch 5 years ago. My absolute fave is the Taiga, a SS open-comb adjustable. The finish is exceptional, the mechanism is really clever, the Ti handle is very grippy, it hovers on the skin without any noise or feeling anything and delivers the closest shave. Being an open comb, it can bite easily so I need to be mindful and shaves take longer than 5 minutes but I absolutely love it. Problem is my skin does not. Irritation builds up, then nicks before my neck orders me to leave it alone.
And this is a recurring story for all my razors which I have persevered with for months each time. I have to compromise, either shaves take longer, or less than BBS or more likely mandatory breaks because of irritation/nicks. All of them I can get 5 shaves a week with; I suspect with a few I could maybe achieve 6 shaves a week with better technique adjustments but 7/7 was always out of reach. Then I bought a 6c for my son who decided electric shavers are better for him, so I tried it last year and that's when I was finally able to achieve my dream. I've been shaving every single day with perfect results and my neck skin looks better than it ever did.
I've learned to accept that my skin and facial features (lean with angles) dictate what is possible. Examples:
- with anything else than very mild razors, my skin will scream at me on the third consecutive shave
- with flattish head razors, irritation builds up when hair grows back but it does not when the head is round and the blade is flexed
- multiple ATG passes and buffing are possible with very mild razors otherwise even one is very risky
- the razor head never touches my skin if there is no lather on it, etc...
I've had to tune my technique for each razor. For the Rockwell I started with plate 2. My hair grows in multiple directions but always horizontally or vertically so I do two passes, one vertical, one horizontal, both against the grain as much as possible (ex: up where the hair grows down and down where the hair grows up) with a little bit of buffing (always lather!). With plate 2 more buffing is needed and it's wise to learn not to insist. Over time I graduated to plate 3, BBS is now a given with less buffing and it lasts longer. Same story with plate 4, longer lasting, easier to achieve but my skin won't tolerate it more than a couple consecutive days so I do alternate the 3 plates (plate 2 to recover from 4), using plate 3 most of the time. I have it so nailed down that some days I'm done in barely more than 4 minutes.
That Ikon slant would be too aggressive for me as well I think. As others have suggested shaving with the grain might help. My go-to technique with more aggressive razors is two diagonal passes, if you're righty then top-left towards bottom-right then bottom-left towards top-right, it's efficient and less aggressive on the skin. But with a slant I'm not sure that would work around the Adam apple for the nicks.
And finally razor acquisition disorder is real. I have a Seygus Zeppelin V2 .5/.5 on the way. It's very slightly slanted, I'm hoping it will behave like a slightly more efficient plate 3 and anyway it's a unique razor, I could not resist... I'll let you know how it goes.
