Hi everyone,
A short introduction: my name's Mark, 26, Dutch, and a DE razor user since three weeks. I would like to tell my story and hope to get some tips and tricks in return.
A couple of weeks ago I went to a free demonstration of a master barber at my local drugstore. His first reaction (a bit exaggerated): my God, your skin looks terrible! As it turned out I had a lot of ingrown hairs in my neck area. He asked my shaving habits. These were every other day with a cartridge razor (Wilkinson Quattro - probably used for way too long) with shaving gel for sensitive skin (Nivea for Men), closing off with Nivea for Men sensitive after shave balm. The neck area I only shaved WTG, but everything above it was WTG and ATG. He had one advice for me: throw that garbage away ASAP (his exact words) and switch to a single razor blade. My skin was way too irritated to handle four blades.
He told me - something I already knew - that my beard is very coarse. He had to use a lot of pre shave oil to soften up my beard. In the end he could only shave me twice, because any further shaves would be a nightmare for my skin. Some of the other tips he gave me were to use an exfoliating lotion the night before the shave, get a non soap shaving cream, to spend a minimum of two minutes lathering up, and use talcum powder after the after shave to further reduce irritation.
Long story short: for a free demonstration that was supposed to take 30 minutes tops I spent nearly 45 minutes in his chair. With a Timor safety razor, a basic badger brush, some exfoliating lotion, Proraso shaving cream, talcum powder, a brush to apply the talcum powder and a brush stand I left the building.
The first couple of days was really strange and I had to completely re-invent the way I shaved. The number of nicks and cuts decreased rapidly after finding out how much pressure to apply. In the mean time I checked B&B for the basic shaving techniques. A big thank you for all the information that is available.
I've added some accessories to my 'den' in the mean time, with a razor stand and stainless steel bowl. I also purchased a sampler pack containing Derby Extra, Merkur, Astra Platinum (Green), Astra Stainless (Blue), Feather, SuperMax, Shark Chrome, Shark Super Stainless and Dorco blades (I think I'm going to start collecting all different types, looks fun to see how many there are). Currently I'm using the Timor blades that came with the razor, going through them at a rate of 1 per week.
My current shaving routine is as follows:
- Apply exfoliating lotion night before shave
- The next day: when going into the shower, I soak my brush (partially due to size of the brush) in my bowl filled with hot water
- When ready to shave, I empty the bowl, put about an inch of cream in the bowl and start brushing it up to a foamy lather
- Fill up the sink with hot water and start to apply some of that water on the skin
- Start to brush on the lather, building up in consistency every stroke until it's thick and white overall
- Dip the razor in the hot water and start shaving, frequently cleaning the razor and not applying too much pressure to avoid nicks and cuts (only WTG, sometimes XTG, never ATG)
- When done shaving, apply cold water on skin and clean the brush as well
- Dry the brush on towel and hang out to dry
- Apply alum on skin
- Apply after shave balm (still the same as before)
- Apply talcum powder
My shaves are getting better every time, the ingrown hairs appear to be a thing of the past, but it seems I still get irritation after shaving XTG, especially at the bottom chin/jawline intersection and the jawline, sometimes the neck as well.
My only concern is the time it takes to get a proper shave. Where in the past I could be done in 6-7 minutes tops, I now take more than double that time. Currently I have that time, but chance is that's about to change real soon.
For the near future, I plan to buy Proraso red cream because of my coarse beard. In the long run I plan to get a high quality brush (silver tip badger) and another razor, preferably a TTO/butterfly.
The thing I would like to throw into the group: who has tips to help me improve my shaves? Any suggestion can be helpful. Thank you in advance.
A short introduction: my name's Mark, 26, Dutch, and a DE razor user since three weeks. I would like to tell my story and hope to get some tips and tricks in return.
A couple of weeks ago I went to a free demonstration of a master barber at my local drugstore. His first reaction (a bit exaggerated): my God, your skin looks terrible! As it turned out I had a lot of ingrown hairs in my neck area. He asked my shaving habits. These were every other day with a cartridge razor (Wilkinson Quattro - probably used for way too long) with shaving gel for sensitive skin (Nivea for Men), closing off with Nivea for Men sensitive after shave balm. The neck area I only shaved WTG, but everything above it was WTG and ATG. He had one advice for me: throw that garbage away ASAP (his exact words) and switch to a single razor blade. My skin was way too irritated to handle four blades.
He told me - something I already knew - that my beard is very coarse. He had to use a lot of pre shave oil to soften up my beard. In the end he could only shave me twice, because any further shaves would be a nightmare for my skin. Some of the other tips he gave me were to use an exfoliating lotion the night before the shave, get a non soap shaving cream, to spend a minimum of two minutes lathering up, and use talcum powder after the after shave to further reduce irritation.
Long story short: for a free demonstration that was supposed to take 30 minutes tops I spent nearly 45 minutes in his chair. With a Timor safety razor, a basic badger brush, some exfoliating lotion, Proraso shaving cream, talcum powder, a brush to apply the talcum powder and a brush stand I left the building.
The first couple of days was really strange and I had to completely re-invent the way I shaved. The number of nicks and cuts decreased rapidly after finding out how much pressure to apply. In the mean time I checked B&B for the basic shaving techniques. A big thank you for all the information that is available.
I've added some accessories to my 'den' in the mean time, with a razor stand and stainless steel bowl. I also purchased a sampler pack containing Derby Extra, Merkur, Astra Platinum (Green), Astra Stainless (Blue), Feather, SuperMax, Shark Chrome, Shark Super Stainless and Dorco blades (I think I'm going to start collecting all different types, looks fun to see how many there are). Currently I'm using the Timor blades that came with the razor, going through them at a rate of 1 per week.
My current shaving routine is as follows:
- Apply exfoliating lotion night before shave
- The next day: when going into the shower, I soak my brush (partially due to size of the brush) in my bowl filled with hot water
- When ready to shave, I empty the bowl, put about an inch of cream in the bowl and start brushing it up to a foamy lather
- Fill up the sink with hot water and start to apply some of that water on the skin
- Start to brush on the lather, building up in consistency every stroke until it's thick and white overall
- Dip the razor in the hot water and start shaving, frequently cleaning the razor and not applying too much pressure to avoid nicks and cuts (only WTG, sometimes XTG, never ATG)
- When done shaving, apply cold water on skin and clean the brush as well
- Dry the brush on towel and hang out to dry
- Apply alum on skin
- Apply after shave balm (still the same as before)
- Apply talcum powder
My shaves are getting better every time, the ingrown hairs appear to be a thing of the past, but it seems I still get irritation after shaving XTG, especially at the bottom chin/jawline intersection and the jawline, sometimes the neck as well.
My only concern is the time it takes to get a proper shave. Where in the past I could be done in 6-7 minutes tops, I now take more than double that time. Currently I have that time, but chance is that's about to change real soon.
For the near future, I plan to buy Proraso red cream because of my coarse beard. In the long run I plan to get a high quality brush (silver tip badger) and another razor, preferably a TTO/butterfly.
The thing I would like to throw into the group: who has tips to help me improve my shaves? Any suggestion can be helpful. Thank you in advance.
