which razor, blades, soap, cream, brush etc has disappointed you the most?

[saj]

Synthetic shaving brushes. After all the rave reviews I finally bought one. The face feel was horrible, it didn’t hold any lather in the knot and flicked lather everywhere. I still can’t understand how people can like these things.

which synthetics you tried?

 

[saj]

Blade - Voskhod. No matter what razor and soap combo I use, these blades feel like I’m trying to sand the hair off my face.

Soap - Crabtree & Evelyn Nomad. First “good” soap I bought so it’s possible that user error is to blame, but it just never worked for me.

Have only ever owned 4 razors and 3 brushes and no complaints about any of them.

yea i remember being hyped about the voskhods years ago after watching a youtuber raving about them and showing off the sleeves he'd got

and trust me when i say he got soo many, even i was like wth this must be a cracking blade and was going to order a sleeve but good thing i did, below average just does nothing for me and if anything causes me way too much irritation due to having to go over the same area time and time again

 

[DarkMatter]

Razor: Karve CB razor. This truly was a major bummer. I really wanted to like it because of the aesthetics and build quality. Everybody and their uncles raved about smootheness gallore, THE razor to smite any philestine razor daring to challenge it. Alas, after trying the brass in A —> D in closed comb and AA —> B in open comb, I was left with a irritated face and a sad soul. Sooo I tried the aluminium. A —> C in closed comb and stopped there. My face just didnt like that razor. Yes, I rode the cap and the unicorn and the T-Tex of that razor, tried at least 5 blades on each plate but the best results I got was facial modern/abstract art.

Soap: Noble Otter Barr Barr. ”THE barbershop scent!!!”. ”Its like eating a barbershop whilst being a barbershop in a barbershops barbershop!!”

Its smells like cardamom cookies. Im sorry. Scent is subjective and all that. Great base and awesome owner though.

(Dis)Honorable mention. Grooming dept. Soaps. Wait, wait, hold up. Put the gun down!! Now, the artisan is a really good guy and a magician. But, the soap base smells terrible to me. At least the Mallard base and Nai. Smells funky, damp and with a hint of chemicals. I Can’t get past that smell no matter what the scent of the soap.

Blade: Feather. I just can not for all the sand in antartica get a good shave with this blade.

 

[Dave himself]

Bulldog shaving soap if anyone wants a challenge you can't win buy this stuff. Wasn't even good as a shower soap got slam dunked into the bin .

 

[dfs]

I still haven't found the perfect razor, but so far the best ones that i've used are - GC .84 p, Lupo DC/.95, Schick M adjustable. The GC is my perfect autopilot DE razor and I just wish it was slightly more efficient. The Lupo is much better in terms of efficiency compared to the GC, but it's slightly less smoother and the solid bar pattern feels a little bit rough. The Schick is fantastic. It combines the best of both worlds - very effitient and extremely easy to use like an autopilot razor.

I like razors with at least a slight blade feel or as most folks call them - with a positive blade exposure. I also find razors with slimer profiles to work much better in general compared to the razors with more bulky heads.

The 6S for me is too bulky, it doesn't glide very good, it's hard for me to shave under the nose and i'm not sure if it has a negative or a neutral blade exposure, but it feels very mild to me and for me the only ''usable'' plates were from 4 to 6.

I like razors that feel precise and extremely easy to use while feeling very comfortable and combined with a high amount of efficiency. Not many razors fit into that category although and while I can shave with pretty much any existing vintage and modern razor ever made, some are just a pure joy to shave with while others just feel like that I have to force them to shave and even if they get me a BBS, I just don't enjoy the trip. The end goal - getting a BBS is very important without a doubt, but the process of getting there is just as important.

You would like a blackland Vector I think?

 

[Medivh]

You would like a blackland Vector I think?

I have the Yaqi Vector clone, which shaves good, but I find injectors to be a bit better and I also find the AC blades to be absurdly expensive and it's a huge deal breaker for me.

 

[njpaddy]

Synthetic shaving brushes. After all the rave reviews I finally bought one. The face feel was horrible, it didn’t hold any lather in the knot and flicked lather everywhere. I still can’t understand how people can like these things.

I HATED my first two synthetic brushes. One I PIF'd to another member, and the other is only good for cleaning crumbs from my keyboard. My 3rd synthetic was great, a 24mm RazoRock Plissoft knot in a now-discontinued handle. I may not use it as frequently as my 2-band Shavemac and Thaters, or my favorite 3-band Simpson and Rooney, but if that synthetic was available when I first started, I might have actually saved some money, instead of buying 25+ brushes over the past dozen years in my search for the perfect brush.

 

[Bosh Hog]

The Gillette Slim I bought a while ago. Was so excited when I got it but... Ya. Must of had alignment problems or maybe even cursed. Just had to get rid of it.

 

[njpaddy]

My biggest disappointment, besides the pure badger Omega shave brush I started with, was MdC (Martin de Candre) soap. After getting a sample of unscented from another member, I ordered a jar of MdC Rose for about $80 from a US vendor. I don't know if I even got 5 shaves out of that jar before giving it to a son-in-law who wetshaves. I usually offer him first dibs on stuff I don't like, but I never ask if he uses it.

 

[cdnguyen729]

For me it has to be the Feather AS-D2 razor. It was just too mild of a razor even though I prefer a razor with little to no blade feel.

 

[Alberez]

hey people so i obviously know like anything YMMV but i thought this would be an interesting thread

so for the the ikon x3 slant i was very disappointed as its just way too mild for me
saying that i suppose i didnt feel too bad as i got a nice stainless steel handle with it which i use with other heads

i was really looking forward to trying out the treet black beauty and was below average to me anyways

some of you guys got way more products and experience then me so ill be interested to see what names pop up and if the same names keep popping up too

There are several products that have disappointed me, like most razor blades; I use only Feather, Polsilver, and Personna Red; the rest are a tug o' war. But the product that disappointed me the most was my Semogue Owner's Club brush. I loved how it felt and made lather, but every time, EVERY TIME I used it intermittently for at least two years, it would shed three or four hairs. It ended up being so annoying and disappointing, that I threw it away.

 

[WilsonLaidlaw]

The worst razor I ever tried was a german device that used two standard safety double edge blades one above the other. My face looked like it had gone through a plate glass window afterwards. It went straight into the bin.

Wilson

 

[Bill Wood]

Regrettably, The Fendrihan closed comb. I understand the razor now is $20. Think I paid $50 a year ago. Certainly glad I didn’t opt for the stainless steel. I think a steak knife would have felt better. I purchase a lot from this vendor, all reviews were great. I was so mad I didn’t even keep the handle. I hope they’ve changed something since last year. I’ve stuck with Merkur, Timless, and Karve since then. I was so disappointed.

 

[Ebberman]

Razor: DE89 head kept coming loose while shaving
Soap: Herban Cowboy could never get a decent lather
Blades: Treet--don't last long

I know of ten types of Treet blades. Which one are you talking about? I love Treet Platinum.

 

[Ebberman]

I tried the Wlkinson blue bowl (not sure if there is a difference), and the only thing I liked was the container, to improvise a Palmolive puck in.

The Wilkinson blue uses glycerine, the black uses sheep products.

 

[Ace_Of_Blades]

My biggest disappointment was the Merkur Futur I bought in 2001. I paid about $45 for it. Way too aggressive, too heavy, too chunky.

 

[Snowflake 12]

hey people so i obviously know like anything YMMV but i thought this would be an interesting thread

so for the the ikon x3 slant i was very disappointed as its just way too mild for me
saying that i suppose i didnt feel too bad as i got a nice stainless steel handle with it which i use with other heads

i was really looking forward to trying out the treet black beauty and was below average to me anyways

some of you guys got way more products and experience then me so ill be interested to see what names pop up and if the same names keep popping up too

I would say a major disappoinment would be the Holy Black Razor. I could never get a nice nick free shave. I set it a drawer twice for a long period of time. Sometimes one's technique improves and the product works fine. But this never happened plus they don't answer emails. The silver mountain Yaqi badger brush felt like sharp pins on my face..... I used it daily for a month because I spent $42 on it. It finally got usable and better / softer. But Yaqi isn't a brand I would repurchase anytime soon.

 

[Ebberman]

All you people who have a razor that is far too mild: That's what I want for myself and my son. If you live in UK then can you contact me and suggest a reasonable price?
Worst Blades Ever: Dorco Titan. Used in a mild razor, I lacerated myself. I like Dorco blades, but the Titan is out of spec. The blade is too wide and juts out dangerously. I'm not sure if it is true of all the blades in the pack, but I won't risk trying them all to find out. I can pass them on if you are fairly local.

 

[Ebberman]

My biggest disappointment was the Merkur Futur I bought in 2001. I paid about $45 for it. Way too aggressive, too heavy, too chunky.

Surely it is mild if you turn it down to 1? Do you want to part with it?

 

[mulciber]

I have six brushes in regular rotation, and that group's been refined down to a variety of styles and fibers I love. I also have a Vie Long horsehair. I'd always been curious about them, but at the time I purchased this one, mostly on the basis of the cool handle (I think the model # is 14080) I didn't know that some horsehair is from the mane, some from the tail, and that there are a variety of grades. I've done everything to make that Vie Long viable. I've soaked it in just about everything I can think of to take the edge off the prickly, rigid hairs, but no matter what I tried, using that brush is inviting sheer pain. These days I use the stiff fibers to fluff up my other brushes...