Sharp Blade For Coarse Hair? Nope.

[EnderOrion]

I see a lot of advice about using a sharper blade if you have coarse hair. My go to blade is a Shark Super Chrome. Nice shaves, zero irritation, and zero ingrowns. Any time I try a sharper blade (Astra, Feather, Nacet) I always get razor burn and a few ingrown hairs.

Is anyone else like me? Do you have very coarse hair, but prefer a milder/less sharp blade? Please validate my OCD.

 

[bonbon]

I have pretty coarse hair and I think I have similar experience. Feather blades don’t work for me, but I consider Astra and Wilkinson to be pretty mild blades and they shave very nice.
Haven’t used Shark, but by mere chance I ordered Shark platinum and Shark Super Chrome just an hour ago. So it would be interesting to see how they work. Though I would get them until early June (ordered from my home country with a bunch of other things).

 

[EnderOrion]

Let me know how they work for you!

 

[BudgetShaverGuy]

Why not shave with a butter knife? That’s a pretty mild edge.

 

[DesertIguana]

Back in good old days Barbers would place warm moist towel of face before lathering.

Then lather and shave you after towel was removed, lather added, the moist warm towel softened beard.

In photo labs were used a product to make water wetter.

It was in last bath in dark room before print dryer. Water being wetter remove chemical. Photo Flow, wonder if it would help shave soap work faster. Softening beard.?🫠

 

[Alex Jr]

Quite the opposite for me. The sharper the better.

Just looking at an astra SP pack gives me irritation.

Gillette platinum and higher only. BICs rule over here.

 

[bonbon]

Quite the opposite for me. The sharper the better.

Just looking at an astra SP pack gives me irritation.

Gillette platinum and higher only. BICs rule over here.

Btw, I added BIC in today’s order as well. And Feather. Would be interesting to compare them all.

I used Astra SP back in 2014-2016. My hair has changed significantly after that (I’m 34 now), so my previous experience may be misleading. But at that time I really liked them

 

[Alex Jr]

Btw, I added BIC in today’s order as well. And Feather. Would be interesting to compare them all.

I used Astra SP back in 2014-2016. My hair has changed significantly after that (I’m 34 now), so my previous experience may be misleading. But at that time I really liked them

Astra SP is a weird blade for me. Not sharp enough and leaves my face with a weird tingling sensation even with the lightest hand.

Astra SS I found out to be quite good. Not 500 pack good, but good enough.

BICs are awesome. Smooth as butter. Easily my number one.

 

[SalS]

Physics would dictate that the sharper blade tugs less and requires less effort to shave. Thus all else being equal the sharper blade is always better. Would anyone suggest that a duller kitchen knife is better than a sharper one?

 

[BigJ]

Interesting! I probably have a ‘medium‘ beard. For me a ’mild/moderate’ razor plus sharp blade works!

But that’s for me! YMMV for sure.

 

[nlife]

I tend to prefer the mild blades as well. I don't know if its because they are more forgiving of my technique, or if they just work better for me. I've settled on the treet platinum blades for now. I have used Derby Premium as well and find them to be along the same lines.

I have tried a bunch of the sharper blades, but I get weepers and burn.

 

[Phoenixkh]

My first wet shave was with an RR Lupo aluminum and an Astra SP green……gifts from our youngest son out of the blue. I had been using Edge canned goo for sensitive skin and a Fusion Power. It was easily as bad as my worst shaves as a teen.

As I’ve mentioned before, I immediately bought a Claymore Evolution AC razor I used for 5 and a half months straight. I broadened my horizons and got into DE shaving after that but haven’t had the desire to try another Astra green shave since and he gave me a pack of 100.