I'm here listening and cheering for you! It sounds like you keep on making improvements, way to go!
Supply SE trouble
- Thread starter CrazyChemist
- Start date
Devil’s advocate…if it’s not a razor, blade or technique issue, then it can be a skin issue.
It doesn’t say where you live, but a lot of guys that live in more northern places have more tender skin during the winter due to house heating causing drier air, therefore skin. They have winter routines and summer routines. Could this be a contributing factor here?
In any case, if possible, give your skin a chance to heal between shaves or else you’re just aggravating the situation.
It doesn’t say where you live, but a lot of guys that live in more northern places have more tender skin during the winter due to house heating causing drier air, therefore skin. They have winter routines and summer routines. Could this be a contributing factor here?
In any case, if possible, give your skin a chance to heal between shaves or else you’re just aggravating the situation.
- Thread starter
- #43
That is generally a useful comment and I agree summer shaving is different than winter shaving (NE US here), but in my case, we already have winter and the OneBlade was doing wonders while there supply isn’t. I am giving the skin 1.5 days (otherwise wife and daughter hate me
). With a multi-blade cartridge I could go 2 days - but who wants to use a cartridge ???I’ve always been curious about SE razors, but the limited number of blade suppliers kept me away.
Tried about a dozen DE blade brands over the years, most are fine, some are great and some are absolutely so awful that if they were my only choice, I would gladly go back to cartridges. Perhaps it is the situation here.
You already have two SE razors, so it seems to be your preference, but (don’t know if you know this) there are several new SE razors from several manufacturers that use 1/2 DE blades (you can purchase 1/2 blades, or easily snap any blade yourself with your fingers). So one gets the compact head design with possibly hundreds of cheap blade choices.
Don’t have one myself, but am toying with the idea.
Sorry This post won’t help with your Supply issue, but rather help point out options, should you eventually decide to return it.
Tried about a dozen DE blade brands over the years, most are fine, some are great and some are absolutely so awful that if they were my only choice, I would gladly go back to cartridges. Perhaps it is the situation here.
You already have two SE razors, so it seems to be your preference, but (don’t know if you know this) there are several new SE razors from several manufacturers that use 1/2 DE blades (you can purchase 1/2 blades, or easily snap any blade yourself with your fingers). So one gets the compact head design with possibly hundreds of cheap blade choices.
Don’t have one myself, but am toying with the idea.
Sorry This post won’t help with your Supply issue, but rather help point out options, should you eventually decide to return it.
- Thread starter
- #45
My idea was to transition slowly from cartridge to a razor with one blade - whether that is an SE or a DE didn't really matter in my initial thought process.
I (apparently correctly) assumed that a non-pivoting head would give me a really hard time, leading to all sorts of undesirable side-effects.
So I tried a reverse learning curve. Go with a pivoting single blade (OneBlade) which gave great shaves but at the expense (pun totally intended) of the lack of blade choice, while accommodating to light(er) strokes over the face.
After ~60 shaves (and getting consistent, BBS shaves) I decided to go with a razor that should still prevent nicks and cuts, but with less expensive blades. That lead me to debate Leaf Twig/Thorn and Supply SE. Since Supply had a snafu on their website for the Supply SE starter kit, I decided to take advantage of that and see if they would cancel the order or deliver.
I am still quite determined to make the Supply SE work, as I favor the "no contact" approach with the blades over the "snapping a DE blade in half" approach.
Having said that, I don't think I would mind trying that - but I think I should get more comfortable with the Supply SE before I consider looking at another razor.
Also, I was quite unaware of the fact that apparently, the used shave cream can have a significant impact on your experience, as I find the Supply cream either too runny or too solid with not enough cushioning. I will also keep experimenting with that, but for now, I am keeping the variables to the razor and will only re-evaluate their cream once I am sure I am getting the best possible outcome from the razor.
Sorry for rambling, but I am an analytical chemist who is doing technical sales for a living ;-)
- Thread starter
- #47
So - after two more shaves:
The razor and I are not friends.
I may have less irritation, but there still is irritation. And my hairs on the neck that grow all over the place can’t be tamed by the supply. And the cheek bone is a complete disaster, as I can’t find a way to get the hairs off with this razor. I either don’t or I irritate my skin.
I will run this blade out (5 shaves in, so probably 3 more) and try one from the second pack, but I don’t feel a rigid shaver is for me.
The razor and I are not friends.
I may have less irritation, but there still is irritation. And my hairs on the neck that grow all over the place can’t be tamed by the supply. And the cheek bone is a complete disaster, as I can’t find a way to get the hairs off with this razor. I either don’t or I irritate my skin.
I will run this blade out (5 shaves in, so probably 3 more) and try one from the second pack, but I don’t feel a rigid shaver is for me.
Oh well, not every razor works well for everyone. I shaved with my Supply SE this morning to refresh my memory. The only things I could think of that would cause irritation is if your razor is defective (which it could be) or the pressure one uses with the OneBlade is come over to the Supply.
- Thread starter
- #49
I am quite sure, I still have bad habits with regard to the pressure, but what makes it so difficult for me is that I can't find an angle with the Supply SE to gently shave the cheekbone. I can't pull the skin up, as everything is lathered up and if I "double chin" on purpose to give exposure to that area, it is a ton of skin folds that make it equally hard (for me).
I will keep chugging at this, as I have a ton of blades to burn thorough and will update occasionally.
Thanks for all your support here!
I admire you for wanting to keep trying. Unless the razor is defective, it should give you very good shaves. I had one and it always performed well for me. I can't second guess what you might not be doing right. Be observant in your shaves and hopefully you will master this. I might suggest getting some yellow packaged Schick injectors to try or even some Personna injectors which come rebranded often from Ted Pella and even Supply that are in a white plastic cartridge.
Happy to support you and be with you for the ride, @CrazyChemist! I'll be shaving with the Supply SE for at least 14 days, since I popped in a fresh blade. So I'm with you in that sense as well.
Since I used the Supply SE soon after the OneBlade as well, perhaps we have some things in common. My initial SE was one of the first/kickstarter and it had a defect - a very large gap, so I was getting nicks. They replaced the guard and that fixed it. When I ran my finger from the cap towards the fins, I felt quite a large drop off of the blade to the fins with the defective one. One the guard was replaced, I feel nearly no drop. Now the shave is very smooth. I assume/hope that they have fixed that for all razors since.
I put the cap flat against my face and then rotate it down just a couple degrees, just until it starts cutting. That's the angle I use. I also have developed a trick to counteract the weight. It is a very heavy razor, so if you grip it lightly closer to the head, you can hit a balance point where the razor head has nearly no weight against your skin. Then it is easier to go with a light touch.
How many passes are you doing and in which directions with respect to your grain?
I have Always wanted to get a supply SE injector razor But I never find one in my budget price range... One day I will find one and I will see what all the fuss is about....
- Thread starter
- #53
I am attaching two pictures of my razor. I feel a drop, but not a large gap. Also, no bleeding, just burning. So I think I am good in that regard.Happy to support you and be with you for the ride, @CrazyChemist! I'll be shaving with the Supply SE for at least 14 days, since I popped in a fresh blade. So I'm with you in that sense as well.
Since I used the Supply SE soon after the OneBlade as well, perhaps we have some things in common. My initial SE was one of the first/kickstarter and it had a defect - a very large gap, so I was getting nicks. They replaced the guard and that fixed it. When I ran my finger from the cap towards the fins, I felt quite a large drop off of the blade to the fins with the defective one. One the guard was replaced, I feel nearly no drop. Now the shave is very smooth. I assume/hope that they have fixed that for all razors since.
I put the cap flat against my face and then rotate it down just a couple degrees, just until it starts cutting. That's the angle I use. I also have developed a trick to counteract the weight. It is a very heavy razor, so if you grip it lightly closer to the head, you can hit a balance point where the razor head has nearly no weight against your skin. Then it is easier to go with a light touch.
How many passes are you doing and in which directions with respect to your grain?
And here I was thinking I am taking a scientific approach ;-) As much as I think I have done exactly that, how would I even know I am doing that consistently and reproducibly ? Also, it is quite difficult to maintain any position without pressure around the cheekbone.
With regard to the passes:
Usually 2 passes, WTG and ATG, followed by a clean-up. But as the hair on my neck and cheekbones seems to swirl, I am sure this is not exact science on my part.
I don't see any pics, want to share them?
I think you're taking a very careful approach, @CrazyChemist, but this isn't science and this hobby can be extremely frustrating! I've had so many folks here help me, so I am trying to repay my karmic debt. I'm also a scientist by training, physicist.
Given the way the Supply SE works, if it is at the wrong angle it mostly doesn't cut. It basically has a fixed angle. So if you are having irritation, my best guess is that the cause is too much pressure. That's just a hunch, of course. So I would suggest focusing on reducing the pressure. It will be a lot less than you use with the OneBlade. One option for that is to choke up on the handle towards the balance point so that you don't have this heavy razor adding pressure or you having to counteract it.
There are many approaches to trying to get a consistent angle and do that reproducibly. I don't think humans can do that precisely, so you'll have to just do your best. I am sure you are doing this, but with a fixed-head razor one should take shorter strokes, not the sweeping strokes you take with a cartridge or OneBlade. Also mentally organize your face into a collection of mostly-flat sections and using fixed-angle, short strokes to do each.
You said you were going for BBS, so you might not like this option, but let me throw it out there anyway... What about letting go of the BBS goal just until you reduce/remove the irritation? Then you can raise your expectations and see how it goes, iterating until you're satisfied. I'm impatient, so I struggle with this, but when I do it, I seem to master new razors more quickly, which is a little counterintuitive. One approach would be to do a 2-pass, WTG and XTG and leave it at that, all the time focusing on lightening the pressure and no irritation. Thoughts on that option?
I find no matter which plate I use, I have to use a shallow (handle almost parallel to the face) angle in order to engage the blade with the beard. I'd say maybe about 30 degrees or less from the face. My other Schick injectors are not as shallow as with the Supply razor.
FWIW
Agree that the Supply SE requires a much shallower and narrower effective angle range as compared to the Schick injectors. Unless I use it regularly, the Supply SE is difficult for me to dial in. Not so with the Schick. When I do get it right, the result is comfortable and close.
All that being said, the Twig SE has worked great right out of the box for me. I have used many different blades, soaps, preps and all have worked well and with ease. Breaking the blades in half is simple, or you can buy half DE blades as well. I recommend the Twig to anyone making the transition from cartridges to safety razors.
Agree that the Supply SE requires a much shallower and narrower effective angle range as compared to the Schick injectors. Unless I use it regularly, the Supply SE is difficult for me to dial in. Not so with the Schick. When I do get it right, the result is comfortable and close.
All that being said, the Twig SE has worked great right out of the box for me. I have used many different blades, soaps, preps and all have worked well and with ease. Breaking the blades in half is simple, or you can buy half DE blades as well. I recommend the Twig to anyone making the transition from cartridges to safety razors.
- Thread starter
- #57
I didn't want to post until I had a least succeeded twice, so here it goes:
I solved my irritation problem and it involved two things that are counter-intuitive (at least for me):
1. Hold the razor so loosely that I (almost) drop it, while maintaining control. This acts as a buffer, replacing my lost pivot (compared to the OneBlade). I got that idea from watching a guy explain how to hold a guitar pick and the thicker the pick gets, the less strong the grip should be in order to maintain control. Talk about a lightbulb moment
2. Don't rinse the face with water after the shave
I had to sit down on this one as well, as I have ALWAYS splashed the face with cold water after the shave, patted it dry and applied after shave lotion. But for some reason, it aggravates the skin when using the Supply SE - I tried different shaving creams and after shaves - it was independent of these.
I am not at BBS yet, because wildly different directions on my face, but we seem to at least have cured irritation and that is an awesome starting point!
- Thread starter
- #58
I have toyed with the idea of the Twig as well and there is the Thorn as the more aggressive companion. Once I go through all my OneBlade blades and all my Supply blades, I will test that. So 2024 or so ;-)
Continued progress in a positive direction, yay for you, @CrazyChemist!
I wonder if part of #1 could also be reducing pressure? It is great to see things improving for you.
I wonder if part of #1 could also be reducing pressure? It is great to see things improving for you.
- Thread starter
- #60
I thought I said that. But yea, of course that probably took care of the pressure problem!
Thanks for you support here. You all rock
