face scrape

Had my second double-edge shave this weekend.

I can't honestly say it was much of an improvement.  Obviously it's still early days so I'm not quite going to give up yet, but I have to say I'm kinda wondering what all the fuss is about.

I did my best to keep the angle right - certainly I had less razor burn than I did last time.  The key word there is "less" - I still had razor burn, it just wasn't as sharp as it was the first time.

I have a particularly tough beard.  This second time I was shaving after my long Sunday morning shower and did all the usual stuff so the beard was really at maximum softness (well, without spending half a day in the bath).  I mention this because this is always when I get my best shave out of my Mach3.  I generally change the blade and the shower + stuff gets me a super-close shave that has little burn and lasts for a good while.

The DE shave was again more like the 4th shave I get out of the Mach3.  I didn't change the blade - I understand you're supposed to get 3 or 4 shaves out of a DE, but then you're supposed to get 8 or 9 out of a Mach3 and I get half of this so perhaps that's an issue.  If I have to change the blade every time I shave I won't actually mind.  Each DE blade only cost 20p, compared to several pounds for a Mach3 blade so it'll still be massively cheaper.

What I would say is that there's a big part of me suspects I won't get a good shave out of the DE until I've had more practice and I start going against the grain.

The truth is that I really only get a good shave with the Mach3 if I go against the grain as well.  See, the problem is that that really tough beard I mentioned doesn't really grow out of my face so much as along it.  The grain of my beard is rather unusual, going strongly  in odd directions (up at the base of my neck, but down for the rest of it so I have an "anti-parting" about three quarters of the way down my neck, for example) but also the hair almost universally emerges very much in the that direction.

So if I shave with the grain I cannot possibly get a close shave - the hairs simply lay down as the blade comes near.  If I go across the grain then it will feel smooth if you run your finger in that direction, but rubbing against it feels like sandpaper and (more significantly) you can see stubble left behind.  Only by going against the grain (and I really do mean going against - the blade has to travel in all sorts of weird directions for me to achieve this) can I get what looks and feels like a reasonable shave.

Since I'm not comfortable enough to do that yet with the DE I've a feeling I will continue to have what seem (comparatively) like poor shaves.  And that's the problem really - I'm trying this because it's meant to give a good shave more consistently with fewer issues like razor burn, but so far no joy!

Tomorrow I'm going to be out at a meeting all day so I won't be posting.

It's also Shrove Tuesday, so I'll probably be stuffing myself with pancakes!