Afternoon folks,
I've been following the forum for the last month or so after many years of frustration of shaving finally got the better of me (i'm 34).
I've got fairly thick hair, but it is slow growing and low density (I can grow a very poor beard in a month or so). I also have a fairly prominent jawline, with some heavy angles. I've been a solid Mach III user for many years, and tried Schick quattro for the last 6 months thinking it might be better, but alas it has been much worse, although the trimmer is fairly handy.
I shave on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday is a great shave - proper smooth stuff. Wednesday ranges from good to very average, with much redness on the neck. The Thursday shave is what drove me to look at other options. Generally by this stage I will have a few ingrown hairs in the neck and a fair bit of irritation. Thursday also sees the formation of many small pimple like things on my chin (the rest of my face is fine, it's my chin and neck which suffer lots). Friday is casual day at work, so I figure this is a no shave day, and the weekend is not for shaving. If I have to have a shave on Saturday if we are going to a wedding (I won't shave for anything less), then it is generally a bloodbath. Tried different shaving gels (Nivea, Gillette) with no improvement, also tried dermatolgica after shave balm, which is nice but did not have any magical impact.
So, I consulted my father. He suggested to buy an electric, but then also commented that he rarely suffers from any form of irritation despite shaving every day. I recall my parents bought me a remington in my early years and it cause much redness and did not shave very close.
Following the advice of many people here I committed to go down the wet shaving route. A couple of days ago I took delivery of a Merkur 34C, a sample pack of blades, an e-shave set with a brush and cream, and an alum block for stopping the blood flow.
With much anticipation (and some trepidation following my father's comment about how he used to rip his face off shaving using this, and he also would like the blades as they are good for scraping paint of glass), I soaked the brush, attempted the lather and attacked my face with the Merkur blades.
The result was pretty good. Only a couple of smaller blood spots at the base of the neck where the direction of hair changes. WTG gave a fairly average shave, but then followed up with a cautious XTG. Much different feel from the Mach III - you can feel the blade cutting the hairs. I heeded the advice about only using the weight of the razor to shave, but this did not cut very close, so maybe I need more passes with no pressure.
Anyway, tomorrow will be the decider - how will my face cope with a shave the day after!!
Cheers,
Tom
I've been following the forum for the last month or so after many years of frustration of shaving finally got the better of me (i'm 34).
I've got fairly thick hair, but it is slow growing and low density (I can grow a very poor beard in a month or so). I also have a fairly prominent jawline, with some heavy angles. I've been a solid Mach III user for many years, and tried Schick quattro for the last 6 months thinking it might be better, but alas it has been much worse, although the trimmer is fairly handy.
I shave on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday is a great shave - proper smooth stuff. Wednesday ranges from good to very average, with much redness on the neck. The Thursday shave is what drove me to look at other options. Generally by this stage I will have a few ingrown hairs in the neck and a fair bit of irritation. Thursday also sees the formation of many small pimple like things on my chin (the rest of my face is fine, it's my chin and neck which suffer lots). Friday is casual day at work, so I figure this is a no shave day, and the weekend is not for shaving. If I have to have a shave on Saturday if we are going to a wedding (I won't shave for anything less), then it is generally a bloodbath. Tried different shaving gels (Nivea, Gillette) with no improvement, also tried dermatolgica after shave balm, which is nice but did not have any magical impact.
So, I consulted my father. He suggested to buy an electric, but then also commented that he rarely suffers from any form of irritation despite shaving every day. I recall my parents bought me a remington in my early years and it cause much redness and did not shave very close.
Following the advice of many people here I committed to go down the wet shaving route. A couple of days ago I took delivery of a Merkur 34C, a sample pack of blades, an e-shave set with a brush and cream, and an alum block for stopping the blood flow.
With much anticipation (and some trepidation following my father's comment about how he used to rip his face off shaving using this, and he also would like the blades as they are good for scraping paint of glass), I soaked the brush, attempted the lather and attacked my face with the Merkur blades.
The result was pretty good. Only a couple of smaller blood spots at the base of the neck where the direction of hair changes. WTG gave a fairly average shave, but then followed up with a cautious XTG. Much different feel from the Mach III - you can feel the blade cutting the hairs. I heeded the advice about only using the weight of the razor to shave, but this did not cut very close, so maybe I need more passes with no pressure.
Anyway, tomorrow will be the decider - how will my face cope with a shave the day after!!
Cheers,
Tom
