Gents,
Long time lurker here; first time poster. After wearing a beard for the past few years, and having now found myself with an unexpected stretch of time at home to experiment, I've decided to shave the beard in favor of a fine, jaunty mustache. Why should Errol Flynn have all the fun?
Despite my wife and daughters' lack of enthusiasm for the 'stache (though my 13 year-old son is fully in favor; chip off the old block, that one), I'm quite enamored with the new look. As such, I've rummaged through my toiletries and (re)assembled a proper shaving kit.
To wit: Merkur 34C, Semouge 1800, Pre de Provence Shave Soap, Thayers Original, Keihl's Multi-Purpose Facial Formula (balm). Huzzah.
For my next trick, I shall embark upon a shave safari to hunt down what will become my go-to razor.
The rules:
1. I change none of the above gear, only the blade.
2. I shave every other day (as I would if the world was still spinning on its proper access).
3. Each blade gets 3 shaves.
4. For right now anyway, each shave is, more or less, a three passer: WTG, ATG, Clean up
5. After the initial round of single elimination, the top three blades will be pitted in a 5 shave contest to determine the winner.
While I consider myself a DE novice, I have previously been able to use a handful of different blades with good results and without bloody incidents. That said, this will be the first time I will be shaving regularly in more years than I can remember, and I recognize that my technique will improve and my face will adjust to the new routine. To account for some of that, I am starting with what *most* consider smoother/duller blades and working my way up(-ish). Down the road, I'll also revisit an earlier tested blade or two if they seemed intriguing, in order to make sure I'm giving them a fair shake.
Here are the blades I have 5 packs of that will be tested (in no particular order):
Derby Extra
Wilkinson Sword (German)
Gilette Platinum
Gilette 7 o'clock Super Stainless (Green box)
Feather
KAI
Shark Super Stainless
Voskhod
Astra SP
Astra SS
Personna Red (Israel)
(Note: at some point, I hope to get my hands on GSB and Personna Lab Blue to add to the test ... but, at this point, I don't really feel like paying $4 in shipping for $2 of blades from tryablade.)
My beard is moderately thick, but the hairs themselves are incredibly thick. More time will tell, but I assume I have average sensitivity, which is to say I don't think I'm probably particularly more or less sensitive than the gen pop.
I'll report my findings here. Perhaps I'll stumble across something someone else might find useful, or perhaps I'll need to consult the wisdom of the group, or perhaps the entire exercise will be super lame and no one will care, but it'll give me one more way to procrastinate when I should be doing, you know, actual work. Either way, sounds like a win to me.
Cheers,
CMP