Rookie's journey

[Onimaho]

I recently (re)started my wet shaving journey. After looking around I settled on the Mühle r89 (with complimentary derby blades) as this is a very mild razor. Boy did I regret this... I came from shaving with a Gilette fusion under the shower without any product having no issues but a bit of pinchy skin and reddnes in one spot where my hair grain goes in all directions. And after that shave I had a dozen cuts a patch where I seemed to have just taken off a patch of skin and my face burned like there was no tomorrow.

I quickly bought some products in the super market (Nivea protect shaving creme and shaving balm). After a couple of days of healing I tried again with a better result but still a couple of nicks and serious razor burn on my neck. I did notice however that the blade tugged very strongly around the mouth.
Therefore I bought a bunch of try out blades and cella preshave/soap and balm. I tried a bunch of blades (derby, Astra platinum, steel, Mühle and feathers) and I quickly noticed that the burn was noticeably reduced using sharper blades when there was less tugging and pulling. The cuts however did not improve.
In somewhat a frustion shopping I bought a Mühle r41 head and tried that one with a Mühle blade. First try no irritation, no cuts. I limited myself to two passes on the face and one the neck. My face was a dfs and my neck a ccs+ and I was sooo happy. I was able to repeat this with the Mühle blade for two more times and am today I tried an astra steel and this would have been a wonderful shave had I not tried a third pass under the nose when I clearly felt tugging and I had to brute force pull it through.

Anyhow, apologies for the very long post. I'm planning on continuing to document my journey here and if any experienced people wanna share their advice and insights then I would very much welcome and appreciate it!

 

[Phoenixkh]

First of all, welcome to the B&B community from Gainesville, Florida.

Congrats on the beginning of your wet shaving journey. I'm fairly new myself, by B&B standards. I started in Feb. of 2022.

 

[thombrogan]

Welcome to B&B and its journals section!

Hoping your Happy Razor Fun Time is injury-free enjoyment soon

 

[Guido75]

Welcome to B&B. Great razors to start with for sure! Both are staples of wet shaving history.

The thing that sets your DE shaving apart from the Fusion shaves is “no pressure”!!

Enjoy!

Guido

 

[blethenstrom]

Welcome to B&B! We are so happy that you decided to join us.

Getting cuts and nicks are never fun. I have a couple of recommendations. Slow down and lighten up the pressure.

 

[Jay21]

Welcome! I made many mistakes when first transitioning from cartridges to DE. I put this together based on what I learned. Maybe it can help you.

Jay's Easy Cartridge to DE Guide for Noobs

For many people, the transition from cartridges to DE wet shaving is easy. However, for others, like me, it was required a steeper learning curve. I decided to share the method that worked very well for me. I understand that this is very much a YMMV lifestyle. What worked for me may not work for...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[Eric_75]

Hello from Nashville, TN.

Welcome to B & B!

 

[cajunrph]

Welcome to the B&B from the Texas Gulf Coast.

 

[Onimaho]

First thank you all for the warm welcome!
Next some musing. I do agree with the statement that too much pressure is a hurdle to overcome. I do believe that this is the reason that I currently prefer the r41 over the r89. If I unconsciously increase pressure then the blade feel with the r41 gives me the feedback to reduce the pressure while with the r89 I do not pick up any signals to reduce pressure until later when I see blood and redness.
Thank you Jay21, I read through your blog and I'm trying to pay more attention to my angles! Luckily the water is so hard in my neighborhood that we bought a water softener so making lather seems easier for me compared to most? Or I'm doing it wrong and I'll probably kick myself for it later on. One thing I'd like to add is to 'pick your battles'. Don't feel like if you do multiple passes on the cheeks that you need to also perform multiple passes on your neck or other challenging or sensitive areas.

Finally the shave of today was with my Mühle r41 in combination with an Astra superior steel (second use).
Preshave was from cella extra extra bio as was the cream and aftershave.
Three passes on the cheeks, two on the lips and chin and finally over pass and pick ups on the neck.

Result is a ccs on the neck dfs on the face with very little feedback on an allum stone and no blood or redness.

I'm really happy with the shave today and wish you an even better day after reading this.

 

[blethenstrom]

First thank you all for the warm welcome!
Next some musing. I do agree with the statement that too much pressure is a hurdle to overcome. I do believe that this is the reason that I currently prefer the r41 over the r89. If I unconsciously increase pressure then the blade feel with the r41 gives me the feedback to reduce the pressure while with the r89 I do not pick up any signals to reduce pressure until later when I see blood and redness.
Thank you Jay21, I read through your blog and I'm trying to pay more attention to my angles! Luckily the water is so hard in my neighborhood that we bought a water softener so making lather seems easier for me compared to most? Or I'm doing it wrong and I'll probably kick myself for it later on. One thing I'd like to add is to 'pick your battles'. Don't feel like if you do multiple passes on the cheeks that you need to also perform multiple passes on your neck or other challenging or sensitive areas.

Finally the shave of today was with my Mühle r41 in combination with an Astra superior steel (second use).
Preshave was from cella extra extra bio as was the cream and aftershave.
Three passes on the cheeks, two on the lips and chin and finally over pass and pick ups on the neck.

Result is a ccs on the neck dfs on the face with very little feedback on an allum stone and no blood or redness.

I'm really happy with the shave today and wish you an even better day after reading this.

I am so glad that you had a great shave. No blood nor irritation is a win in my book even if it might not be as close as we would like it to be. In time they will be closer.

My take on this might be a bit controversial, but I dare say that it takes more skill to get great shaves with an R89 vs the R41. the reason I say this is that the R89 is fairly mild and requires you to have quite consistent shave angle to mow down whiskers efficiently whereas an R41 can use much more varied angles and still shave well. Now it is easier to cut yourself with an R41, but to your point it also gives you a bit more feedback in the form of blade feel that tells you to lighten up.

I have personally found this to be true during my own journey. My starter razor was the KCG and I found it just too mild for me and I could not get great shaves from it. I ended up with irritation etc etc. A handful of months ago I determined to pick it back up and now I get very good, comfortable and close shave by it. What changed? My skill level. I bet after a while you will find a similar thing.

 

[Onimaho]

I am so glad that you had a great shave. No blood nor irritation is a win in my book even if it might not be as close as we would like it to be. In time they will be closer.

My take on this might be a bit controversial, but I dare say that it takes more skill to get great shaves with an R89 vs the R41. the reason I say this is that the R89 is fairly mild and requires you to have quite consistent shave angle to mow down whiskers efficiently whereas an R41 can use much more varied angles and still shave well. Now it is easier to cut yourself with an R41, but to your point it also gives you a bit more feedback in the form of blade feel that tells you to lighten up.

I have personally found this to be true during my own journey. My starter razor was the KCG and I found it just too mild for me and I could not get great shaves from it. I ended up with irritation etc etc. A handful of months ago I determined to pick it back up and now I get very good, comfortable and close shave by it. What changed? My skill level. I bet after a while you will find a similar thing.

Glad to see someone with a similar experience as me! I will keep on practicing with my r41 now a'd improve my angles and pressure.

 

[Eric_75]

My starter razor was the KCG

Same here. I still remember my very first shave with it.

 

[Jaybyrd]

Welcome! It only gets better from here, stick with it and you will be rewarded.

 

[Jaybyrd]

Welcome to B&B! We are so happy that you decided to join us.

Getting cuts and nicks are never fun. I have a couple of recommendations. Slow down and lighten up the pressure.

Also, listen to Boris he helped me out a ton when I started! Everyone is great here so if you need anything just fire away.

 

[Onimaho]

Got myself a couple of samples of Taylor of bondstreet and used the coconut one today. First thing I noticed is that this is more of a cream compared to the soap of cella. It foamed up wonderfully but the scent was not strong enough for preference. Coconut is out of the race.

The shave itself: preshave proraso white postshave balm Nivea sensitive.
Mühle r41 with an Astra superior steel blade second use.
Two passes over the whole face and my neck feels a bit more sensitive compared to previous time however only slightly. Still overall happy with the shave. Smoothness is somewhere between ccs and dfs.

 

[blethenstrom]

Got myself a couple of samples of Taylor of bondstreet and used the coconut one today. First thing I noticed is that this is more of a cream compared to the soap of cella. It foamed up wonderfully but the scent was not strong enough for preference. Coconut is out of the race.

The shave itself: preshave proraso white postshave balm Nivea sensitive.
Mühle r41 with an Astra superior steel blade second use.
Two passes over the whole face and my neck feels a bit more sensitive compared to previous time however only slightly. Still overall happy with the shave. Smoothness is somewhere between ccs and dfs.

Have you mapped out your whisker growth pattern yet? I get sensitivity many times if I go against the grain too quickly and do not do a proper whisker reduction beforehand. Look at each pass as a whisker length reduction pass and not so much as you have to take it all.

 

[Onimaho]

Have you mapped out your whisker growth pattern yet? I get sensitivity many times if I go against the grain too quickly and do not do a proper whisker reduction beforehand. Look at each pass as a whisker length reduction pass and not so much as you have to take it all.

Good news is, now 2 hours later I no longer have any sensitivity so that is good.
As for growth pattern, yes I have mapped it and it is really difficult to shave along the patern especially in my neck. Two thirds of my neck grows in along the clock from left to right in an arc. The other third on the left side of my neck grows up and makes a left hook. It is also this part that caused issues when I shaved with a cartridge.

In general I try to shave with the grain and then across the the grain when and where possible. Against the grain is currently only possible on the cheeks as the whiskers around on the lip and chin are hard to cut causing skin lifting which in turn causes cuts and razor burn. I don't even try against the grain in my neck as the directions are too wierd. I did try across the grain today as this would be going up for most part of my neck (except a small wierd place where the hair does grow up).

 

[blethenstrom]

Good news is, now 2 hours later I no longer have any sensitivity so that is good.
As for growth pattern, yes I have mapped it and it is really difficult to shave along the patern especially in my neck. Two thirds of my neck grows in along the clock from left to right in an arc. The other third on the left side of my neck grows up and makes a left hook. It is also this part that caused issues when I shaved with a cartridge.

In general I try to shave with the grain and then across the the grain when and where possible. Against the grain is currently only possible on the cheeks as the whiskers around on the lip and chin are hard to cut causing skin lifting which in turn causes cuts and razor burn. I don't even try against the grain in my neck as the directions are too wierd. I did try across the grain today as this would be going up for most part of my neck (except a small wierd place where the hair does grow up).

Sounds like you are on it and well on your way. It looks like you are keeping your razor and blade quite consistent and that is good when you start out. Too much variability can skew our ability to judge if a shave is good or bad and how it compares with the previous one. Try to keep the same setup for a while. Then you can venture out, if you want to.

Yeah our growth patterns can be very strange indeed. Just keep at it and over time you will find that it will get closer shave. It does not sound like you are chasing that elusive BBS too much and that is good, because it will give you irritation. BBS at least for me is just an occasional occurrence that happens only when the planets align.

Also try to use different angles which you shave at. Try to ride the cap more on one shave, ride the bar/teeth on another and one neutral and see which one that works the best from a stand point of efficiency and irritation or the lack thereof.

Sounds like you are fairly new to shaving cream/soap and brush use as well. This also has a bit of a learning curve. The tendency we have is to make the lather too thick, almost to the consistency of shaving foam you get out of a can. This lather will not be as lubricating as it can be. Water is lubrication so we need to make our lather wetter than that and whip it until it is kind of like yogurt consistency without bubbles. It should look shiny. There are many great tutorials on lather making here on B&B. I would recommend to check them out.

Hang in there it will get closer and better with each shave that you do.
-Boris

 

[Onimaho]

Sounds like you are on it and well on your way. It looks like you are keeping your razor and blade quite consistent and that is good when you start out. Too much variability can skew our ability to judge if a shave is good or bad and how it compares with the previous one. Try to keep the same setup for a while. Then you can venture out, if you want to.

Yeah our growth patterns can be very strange indeed. Just keep at it and over time you will find that it will get closer shave. It does not sound like you are chasing that elusive BBS too much and that is good, because it will give you irritation. BBS at least for me is just an occasional occurrence that happens only when the planets align.

Also try to use different angles which you shave at. Try to ride the cap more on one shave, ride the bar/teeth on another and one neutral and see which one that works the best from a stand point of efficiency and irritation or the lack thereof.

Sounds like you are fairly new to shaving cream/soap and brush use as well. This also has a bit of a learning curve. The tendency we have is to make the lather too thick, almost to the consistency of shaving foam you get out of a can. This lather will not be as lubricating as it can be. Water is lubrication so we need to make our lather wetter than that and whip it until it is kind of like yogurt consistency without bubbles. It should look shiny. There are many great tutorials on lather making here on B&B. I would recommend to check them out.

Hang in there it will get closer and better with each shave that you do.
-Boris

Hi Boris

Thank you for the insights! I was indeed planning on keeping the current setup for a minimum 1 month without changes to the blade and razor itself. I will try out a sharper blade in the hope of less stuttering on the lips and chin.

As for BBS chasing I already commited to not chasing it except for the cheeks (sometimes). As it is fun when my wife comments on how smooth and silky the skin feels. Anywhere is (especially with my current skill level) not worth the pain.

I am indeed new to soaps. What you say seems consitent with the shave I had today. Today I added less water than usual as it already foamed up quite a lot but during the shave it felt less lubricated/drier then before. Next shave I will continue using more water again.

I very much appreciate your advice!

 

[blethenstrom]

As for BBS chasing I already commited to not chasing it except for the cheeks (sometimes). As it is fun when my wife comments on how smooth and silky the skin feels. Anywhere is (especially with my current skill level) not worth the pain.

You are well on your way to shaving bliss. BBS on the cheeks absolutely! That is the easiest and most straightforward area. It will be fun to follow along on your shaving journey.