CzechCzar
Use the Fat, Luke!
At long last I have done it!
Apologies in advance for the wall of text. It was a longer story on paper than I thought in my head.
After 10 years of wetshaving I have finally figured out a routine that lets me get a close, comfortable BBS shave, that I can do every day. Given the trouble I have had with irritation, redness, bumps, etc., I thought I would post it in the hopes that it helps someone else.
First, a bit of a preface: my skin. I have been blessed (cursed?) with extremely sensitive, fair skin, and a beard like a pirate. I previously used a Gillette Mach 3 razors, and hated it. I had to go over areas so many times that I would get redness, bumps, and irritation. My first wetshaving purchase was a Burt’s Bees brush and soap, which was at least interesting, though it may not have improved things that much. I stumbled upon B&B in 2008 (?), and then it was down the rabbit hole trying to find a combination that worked for my skin.
I went through goodness knows how many DEs. Because my beard was so tough, and because the hair on my neck grows in swirls I had to get an extremely aggressive DE in order to get BBS.
(Before you jump in and tell me a BBS is possible with every razor, trust me, it’s not. Blade buffing the crap out of my face with a Rockwell on plate 6, or an EJ89, could barely get me DFS. I have gone to professional barbers for straight razor shaves, and they were flummoxed that they could not shave me BBS close.)
Off the top of my head, I have tried 3 or 4 Merkurs/Muhles, R41, Cobra, Mongoose, Pils, Rockwell, Superspeed, Red Tip, ATT Series, BBS-1, Black Mamba, Game Changer, Fatip, Baby Smooth, Stealth Slant, Wunderbar, iKon Tech, iKon 102, OneBlade, Asylum Rx, Parker Variant, and on and on… Really, that list is very incomplete. I have tried for a few weeks, and sold, most of those because they just couldn’t get me BBS.
The ones that could (iKon Tech, Parker Variant turned up to 7, Cobra Original) would take off so much skin that I could only shave two or three days in a row before taking a break to let the redness and irritation settle down. I bought expensive soaps galore, many aftershave splashes (ouch) and balms (slightly less ouch), but nothing seemed to fix the problem.
And then, over the past two months, I made a few relatively minor changes that fixed it for me.
First, I switched to balm from splash. I love splash but my skin doesn’t. That helped somewhat. Then, on a whim, I bought Egyptian Magic. This was on sale at Costco and it’s amazing. It goes on thick, but quickly melts and just feels wonderful on the skin. I have tried other well regarded aftershave balms like Chatillon Lux and Myrsol Emulsion. This is far, far better. I actually feel my skin wanting it. My complexion has improved by leaps and bounds since I started using it.
Next step was I gave up on soaps and creams, and tried Dollar Shave Club’s Dr. Carver’s Easy Shave Butter. I know, I know: heresy. But this is an amazing product. It’s better than 95%+ of my normal cream/soap shaves, unless the setup is absolutely perfect. It takes about 1/10 the time that it would take to use a bowl. It’s dirt cheap. And I can tell my skin loves it, because there is no angry, red, pained feeling when I rinse my face after shaving.
And finally, I sucked it up and bought a Blacklands Blackbird. I was always reluctant to shell out so much for a razor, which was stupid in retrospect, because I spent far, far more on my other razors. The Blackbird shaves me BBS close in 2 passes and touch up, and is amazingly gentle. A real winner, especially at a really steep angle.
Now that my face has had a month or two to adjust to the new regimen, most alcohol splashes turn my neck a bright, angry red. The only one I’ll put on is Skin Bracer, because my skin doesn't mind it, I want an antisceptic, and my daughter loves the scent. I use Skin Bracer after the balm. And Lucky Tiger Aftershave and Face Tonic beforehand as a toner.
So that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Apologies in advance for the wall of text. It was a longer story on paper than I thought in my head.
After 10 years of wetshaving I have finally figured out a routine that lets me get a close, comfortable BBS shave, that I can do every day. Given the trouble I have had with irritation, redness, bumps, etc., I thought I would post it in the hopes that it helps someone else.
First, a bit of a preface: my skin. I have been blessed (cursed?) with extremely sensitive, fair skin, and a beard like a pirate. I previously used a Gillette Mach 3 razors, and hated it. I had to go over areas so many times that I would get redness, bumps, and irritation. My first wetshaving purchase was a Burt’s Bees brush and soap, which was at least interesting, though it may not have improved things that much. I stumbled upon B&B in 2008 (?), and then it was down the rabbit hole trying to find a combination that worked for my skin.
I went through goodness knows how many DEs. Because my beard was so tough, and because the hair on my neck grows in swirls I had to get an extremely aggressive DE in order to get BBS.
(Before you jump in and tell me a BBS is possible with every razor, trust me, it’s not. Blade buffing the crap out of my face with a Rockwell on plate 6, or an EJ89, could barely get me DFS. I have gone to professional barbers for straight razor shaves, and they were flummoxed that they could not shave me BBS close.)
Off the top of my head, I have tried 3 or 4 Merkurs/Muhles, R41, Cobra, Mongoose, Pils, Rockwell, Superspeed, Red Tip, ATT Series, BBS-1, Black Mamba, Game Changer, Fatip, Baby Smooth, Stealth Slant, Wunderbar, iKon Tech, iKon 102, OneBlade, Asylum Rx, Parker Variant, and on and on… Really, that list is very incomplete. I have tried for a few weeks, and sold, most of those because they just couldn’t get me BBS.
The ones that could (iKon Tech, Parker Variant turned up to 7, Cobra Original) would take off so much skin that I could only shave two or three days in a row before taking a break to let the redness and irritation settle down. I bought expensive soaps galore, many aftershave splashes (ouch) and balms (slightly less ouch), but nothing seemed to fix the problem.
And then, over the past two months, I made a few relatively minor changes that fixed it for me.
First, I switched to balm from splash. I love splash but my skin doesn’t. That helped somewhat. Then, on a whim, I bought Egyptian Magic. This was on sale at Costco and it’s amazing. It goes on thick, but quickly melts and just feels wonderful on the skin. I have tried other well regarded aftershave balms like Chatillon Lux and Myrsol Emulsion. This is far, far better. I actually feel my skin wanting it. My complexion has improved by leaps and bounds since I started using it.
Next step was I gave up on soaps and creams, and tried Dollar Shave Club’s Dr. Carver’s Easy Shave Butter. I know, I know: heresy. But this is an amazing product. It’s better than 95%+ of my normal cream/soap shaves, unless the setup is absolutely perfect. It takes about 1/10 the time that it would take to use a bowl. It’s dirt cheap. And I can tell my skin loves it, because there is no angry, red, pained feeling when I rinse my face after shaving.
And finally, I sucked it up and bought a Blacklands Blackbird. I was always reluctant to shell out so much for a razor, which was stupid in retrospect, because I spent far, far more on my other razors. The Blackbird shaves me BBS close in 2 passes and touch up, and is amazingly gentle. A real winner, especially at a really steep angle.
Now that my face has had a month or two to adjust to the new regimen, most alcohol splashes turn my neck a bright, angry red. The only one I’ll put on is Skin Bracer, because my skin doesn't mind it, I want an antisceptic, and my daughter loves the scent. I use Skin Bracer after the balm. And Lucky Tiger Aftershave and Face Tonic beforehand as a toner.
So that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
