returning from the darkside

brianh1978 · Post by **brianh1978** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:36 am

Hello all, after a loooong time away from the forum and several life changing events later, Im so very tired of paying a paycheck for the cartridge razors that that last 3 shaves for me with my thick coarse hair. I have a few questions to help get me back into the de/wetshaving world.

Read somewhere about using a plastic card (credit etc) to figure out hair growth, could you explain please?

Are the following (that I bought prevoiusly on impluse) decent tools of the trade so to speak =) merkur hd short handle, gilette ss dont remember the year, have 1 blade left of gillette swede (and if I understood those are discontinued right?) and 1 derby extra(?) and some dorco stainless blades. Brush is either a c/e badger (short ivory handle) and a aos badger (longer black plastic handle). For shave cream i have the porasso white soap w/pre-post shave.

I need to get a sample pack of blades obvisouly, Ive used west coast shaving, are there other choices? Hope these helps and any advice would be so appreciated, thank you in advance.

notthesharpest · Post by **notthesharpest** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:56 am

Welcome back!
In one direction, your hair feels rough and stands up. That is "against the grain". In the opposite direction it feels smoother and lies down. That is "with the grain".

Your razors are good, that's for sure. One or the other of them is almost certain to give you a great shave.

While you were gone, many (most?) of the shaving vendors have gotten on the blade sampler pack bandwagon, so you will have more choice than you can handle.

marsos52 · Post by **marsos52** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:42 pm

you dont need a credit crad or anything to know the direction of your beard growth..

notthesharpest has told you the bet way....

i think in a short period of time the dark side will become the light side

enjoy
marc

notthesharpest · Post by **notthesharpest** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 1:02 pm

True that most people don't need a credit card to find the grain.
But if you use it, it's just to find out the same thing - when scraping a credit card on your face, the raspy & difficult direction is against the grain, and so on.

bernards66 · Post by **bernards66** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:39 pm

Welcome back. You've got decent enough kit to at least get started ( plainly you will need to get some more blades, and yes, regretably, the Gillette Swedes can no longer be gotten from regular vendors...the Super Iridiums are about the best currently made substitute ). But remember; successful traditional wetshaving is based on sound technique and that sometimes takes a little while to develope. So, if things don't go swimmingly at first, don't despair, keep at it, and ask questions here. In the end I'll bet you'll be glad you came back.
Regards,
Gordon

jbc · Post by **jbc** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 4:35 am

I agree with what has been said already. I do not have any prior experience with a Merkur Heavy Duty but I have all of the different super speed models and I use each one of them and let me tell you that you can never go wrong with any of the super speed models.

In my opinion the brand of the brush makes little difference as long as its a badger. As far as the soap goes I have never personally tried Proraso's soap but I have tried their creams and they are one of the best out there.

The only thing that I would do a little different is to go buy yourself a sampler pack from either west coast shaving or shoebox shave shop. Unlike those terribly expensive cartridges double edge blades can differ a lot from brand to brand and their compatibility with your face so, I would recommend buying a sampler pack so that you can determine which is best for your face. Despite what you might have heard about the Feather blades, i would recommend that you try them at least once, some people get great results from them and others don't. I would recommend that you try Treet and Lord brand of blades. Treets are from India and are excellent blades and they make a carbon steel blade, I would recommend that you try a carbon steel blade to see if they do better on your face then a stainless steel does. Try the Merkur blades, I know that a lot of people really don't like them but you need to understand one thing - just becuase they are nto right for me makes little difference for you. Personally I use the Dorco ST300 blades, why? Becuase any thing at all works on my face and the ST300s are simply the cheapest blades I can find.

Also think of a straight razor, these take a lot of work but once you get them right you will be spending $0 for blades as you will not need any.