Considering Double edge razor - Need advice!

noobstu

noobstu

Messages
135
Hi guys.

Joined the forum to ask this question, and apologies if it has been answered before!

I am considering chucking my Gillette fusion razor and taking up traditional shaving. I have never done it before, and am slightly nervous to be honest.

Do you truly get a closer shave this way, and is it reccomended for guys who have sensitive skin, occasionally prone to razor burn?

Also, I am interested if anyone can reccomend me a good brush/razor combo, and also does the choice of actual blades make a difference? Which would be best for a noob like me?

I have been eyeing up the "Scimitar" in the Bluebeard range and also an Edwin Jagger number. They look quite similar though.

Thx for looking, and i would really appreciate some expert advice!

Stu.
 
You need to give us a budget before anyone can make any brush or razor suggestions.

That said, I would recommend a Gillette Superspeed as a good starting point - talk to Max AKA FrenchBlade on here - he can sort you out with one. I have an Edwin Jagger 87 and that's a nice razor too - and would be another good starter razor.

I loaned a Gillette Superspeed to a workmate who was growing a beard because he found shaving painful. Other than him being a muppet and not tightening the blade in properly (resulting in him slicing a lump out of his cheek) he shaving with the Superspeed a comfortable experience and he is now looking for a razor for himself.

Brushes range in price from a fiver to in excess of £150. For a first brush, you probably wouldn't want to spend huge amounts of money. For a tenner, you can pick up a Vulfix 404 which contains both badger and boar hair. Many say this is a good brush.

As for blades, they can make a huge difference in the shave - although results vary from person to person and from razor to razor. Decent blades to start with are Astra Platinums and Gillette 7 o'clock Greens. You can get a selection pack from the likes of Connaughts which gives you a good choice to start you off.
 
Well sir, thankyou for such a speedy response.

To be honest, im happy spending a few quid to get it right.

I was thinking around 100 quid to cover me a razor, brush and bowl maybe.

Does lathering in a bowl make a lot of difference though? And is pure badger hair always the way to go with brushes?
 
Until recently, I'd only used badger brushes and never had any problem lathering any of the soaps/creams I have. Some say that boar hair brushes are better for hard soaps. Some don't like "floppy" brushes, others love them - it will take time for you to decide on what you like.

As to bowl lathering and face lathering, that's a pure personal preference. I always use a bowl, I like whipping up a lather in the bowl and then painting it on my face. Although, as well as just painting, I do use the brush in a good scrubbing motion to - akin to what you would use for face lathering. But I like to get the lather built up decently in a bowl, I find it gives a little more control over the soap/water mix.

As for hair type, there are generally three types commonly used in brushes: badger, boar and horse. I've also just acquired my first horse hair brush and am loving it. They are inexpensive to buy but that doesn't mean they aren't worth considering. I'm already looking to getting another :)

Don't forget your soap. A decent soap is very important - the lather is what cushions your face from the blade. Nanny (on these forums - NannySillSoap) makes some fantastic soaps. You won't go far wrong with a puck of her hard lavender soap - you can pick it up for £10 in a tin - and it is equally as good as soaps at two, three or even four times the price!

One last thing, this can be a very expensive "hobby" - and very addictive...
 
noobstu said:
To be honest, im happy spending a few quid to get it right.

I was thinking around 100 quid to cover me a razor, brush and bowl maybe.
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There's really no need to spend so much on something you may decide isn't for you. I suggest you look out for a Wilkinson Sword Classic razor - it's good for beginners because it gives a fairly mild shave. Larger branches of Boots have them, or you can get them on Amazon, and a razor with a set of blades will only cost a fiver.

You can always buy a dearer razor once your technique improves.
 
Twist To Open said:
There's really no need to spend so much on something you may decide isn't for you. I suggest you look out for a Wilkinson Sword Classic razor - it's good for beginners because it gives a fairly mild shave. Larger branches of Boots have them, or you can get them on Amazon, and a razor with a set of blades will only cost a fiver.

You can always buy a dearer razor once your technique improves.
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Whilst I agree that £100 is probably too much to spend on your first set up, I would recommend choosing a better razor than this - it's where I started and I noticed a huge improvement when I got my first "decent" razor.

  • For just £15 you can get a decent first razor - either Gillette Superspeed or an Edwin Jagger 87 or 89, for example.
  • Another £10 and you can get the Vulfix 404 brush.
  • £10 for a decent soap. As I said, Nanny's are decent soaps - any of the available ones on this page would be good: click me
  • Then look for a large breakfast mug in a charity shop for your shaving bowl - I picked one up for 50p for use when I'm visiting and staying at my Mother's.
  • Lastly, you need some blades, you can get a selection pack for £9.00 from here: click me

Not a bad setup there and costing you less than £50. Your shaving experience will be better that way. IF you don't get on with it, then you can sell the stuff on - a vintage Gillette wouldn't lose value, the rest you could sell for around half price or maybe more.

Anyway, it's obviously your choice.
 
noobstu said:
Well sir, thankyou for such a speedy response.

To be honest, im happy spending a few quid to get it right.

I was thinking around 100 quid to cover me a razor, brush and bowl maybe.

Does lathering in a bowl make a lot of difference though? And is pure badger hair always the way to go with brushes?
Click to expand...

No need. Spending big doesn't buy better shaves, or better gear. Technique rules and you can get excellent results with good quality, cheap gear. I've got $100 badgers and $80 razor, but can get just as good a result with a $10 Omega boar and a Merkur HD or Vintage slim which cost $20. In fact I prefer Omegas boars to any badger.

That said, I wouldn't go too cheap on a modern razor; learn on something good. Merkurs and EJs are solid. Bowl is not neccessary either. Pure badger hair is the lowest grade and is likely to be scratchy.

The main improvement will be in ditching 3-5 blades and working with one GOOD one. After you've tried a DE blade you'll realise a blade is actually sharp. If you go back to a cart afterwards it will feel like mowing your face with a blunt lawnmower. Covered in treacle.
 
Morning Stu.

You can get as good a shave from a second hand razor which cost £5 as you can from a £100+ Feather or Ikon. It all depends on your technique and how the razor works for you.

EVeryone's beard is different. The spacing of the follicles, the thickness of the hair, the cross-section of the hair, the depth of the root, the responses of the skin to different products, etc... The best way to figure out which razor/blade/soap is best for you is, simply, to try a few out.

Nonetheless, there are some very good mild razors out there which are fantastic to learn with. I suggest having a quick look at this thread for more:

http://www.theshavingroom.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?tid=11790&highlight=merkur+heavy+duty

Good luck!
 
Ey up,

Lots of good advice already so here's my tuppence worth!

go for it! Connought Shaving are well known and well priced and provide a good service.
I can only echo what has been said above but for me Gillette blades work very well.
The vintage Gillette superspeeds offer a easy ish shave and I've found though they differ in model type they are all remarkably similar.
I have found that fixed head razors deliver a closer shave (Merkur 1904 closed comb one's that don't open up barn door style) and the barn doors one's are more fun!
For me it's not the end result that's important actually.
It's the time and space and care created over giving yourself a bit of TLC in the mornings. So I like the process (hot water soap lather brush smell and so on) and enjoying those eventually leads to a close shave.
Look at mantic59's you tube channel. Technique rules and this is a good starter.
Try not to go for a 'close shave' but remove the lather in a couple of passes that go with the grain (WTG) of your beard growth.
take it slowly easily and gently. Try not to go over any areas where the lather has already been removed. Lather rules too and you cannot go over old ground without any!
Mach3 or whatever are very forgiving and you can do multiple passes in various direction with one of those. This exercise contains more discipline and a little more care.
Don't worry at all if at first you don't think the result is that close. Stick with a couple of gentle passes and practice every day!!
That IS the fun part. After a month or so it will come together.
By which time you will have bought too much of everything and wonder why you hadn't tried it earlier.
Cheers,
Timslick.
 
Everybody else seems to be answering the questions about hardware, but one of your questions, a very important one in my humble opinion has not yet been addressed. (except for Slick, who posted his reply whilst I was writing this one!)

noobstu said:
Do you truly get a closer shave this way, and is it reccomended for guys who have sensitive skin, occasionally prone to razor burn?
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Well the answer is yes, but it's going to take you some time, patience and practice. Once you have your technique sorted, hopefully the issue of sensitive skin and razor burn will be things of the past, but while your getting there you may have some issues - it's all part of the learning curve.

Shaving with a cartridge razor is a fairly effortless exercise, but DE shaving requires that you pay attention to technique. Things like blade angle and pressure. Also, you need to learn how your beard grows.

Have a look at the videos on youtube by mantic59, especially the early ones, they were a great help to a great deal of us.

Ian
 
Lots of sound advice above. You certainly don't need to spend £100 on your starter setup. One thing to remember is that you will be learning a new technique with a DE, as well as learning how to make lather with a brush, and finding a blade that works well for you - so there are quite a few variables at the start.

My recommendations would be:

Razor: Edwin Jagger de87, Merkur HD 34c, or a vintage Gillette Superspeed.
Brush: Semogue 1305, or a Vulfix boar (both less than £15).
Cream: Palmolive cream. I'm a huge fan of Nanny's soaps, but for a beginner you can't go wrong with Palmolive - It's very cheap and available in High Street stores and supermarkets, but most importantly it performs brilliantly.
Blade: Get a sample pack from Connaught - here's a link http://connaughtshaving.com/samplepack.html

There's no need for a bowl, unless you really want one. Watch Mantic59's tutorials on YouTube, and read previous threads here for advice on technique.

Don't expect stunning results straight away, be patient and persevere. Good luck!
 
Do you truly get a closer shave this way
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To start with, and to be honest, no. It takes a couple of weeks to learn and you'll initially aim for comfortable and presentable (and safe) rather than close. Then you'll inevitably go really close and get a bit sore. Then you'll find the right balance eventually and from then on you'll probably:
1: Shave every day reasonably close but with the accent on comfort (probably 5 days a week), and:
2: Shave really close safely, only if and when required. I only go mega smooth about once a week and then have a day off next day.

and is it reccomended for guys who have sensitive skin, occasionally prone to razor burn?
Click to expand...

Yes. A single blade is kinder to your skin. Once people are proficient they find that all skin burn, bumps, rashes etc go away for good. The hard pressure of 5 blades being mashed against the skin does a lot of people no good at all.


£50 or thereabouts would buy you a really good razor, a great soap, and a decent enough brush. Check out some of the starter sets from Traditional Shaving, my first kit came from there (Merkur 34C, Edwin Jagger brush, Truefitt and Hill hard soap). I still use all three nearly every day a year later. (The soap has been replaced like for like).
A bowl is a bowl. Find something suitably large enough and use that, I use a terracotta tapas bowl that came free with some meatballs. It's only used for mixing, doesn't really affect the shave. Some face lather instead, you'll try both and settle on one probably.

I disagree with Hax on one matter, namely that I'd probably go modern with your first razor and leave the vintage stuff til later. I only say that as I've never had a great shave from any vintage, you may well differ but it's taking one variable out of the equation early on when you need simplicity. The Edwin Jaggers that he mentioned are very good (I have an 87) and they're mild enough to start off with. The Merkur 34 is also regarded as a good razor to start with but it's good enough for you to "grow into", i.e. I think you learn more from it and it stands a chance of being the only razor you'll ever need.

Blades have been discussed and try before you buy is a good mantra. When you buy your setup, you could buy a smapler or you could ask on here for blade samples and people will happily send you some.

Welcome to TSR.

(Edit - All that typing and Ian M beat me to the most important question!)
 
Go for it !

I was nervous at first too. But, I watched Mantic's stuff on YouTube and read the advice given here, and I now get he best shave ever. Yes you will get the odd nick and you won't like all the blades and stuff you try. But that's half the fun.

My number advice would be, take your time shaving, go slow and allow more time for your shave.
 
There's a lot of great advice here - so like the rest of us you will now do what you think is best for you. I started out with a £4 brush, a cream for around £3 - but
I did splash out on a Merkur 34C for just over £30. I then spent a few weeks reading up and applying advice about how to use the stuff. Shaves quickly improved. Then I got the urge to try different things - and spent a small fortune. And had much fun.

So welcome to TSR, stay around, read a lot and ask any questions you like. And you will soon be advising someone else sooner than you think.
 
Keep the fusion for now (you are used to it) , go to Tesco pick up a Wilkinson boar brush, Palmolive soap and cream for about six quid.

Start reading about proper preperation and lather and study the mantic59 video guides, that should improve your shaves no end.
 
Start at the cheaper end - Wilkinson Sword Classic or Boots own brand DE razor. And Body Shop shaving products or pharmacy or supermarket. Then, over time, add more decent stuff.

The English Shaving Company
Connaught Shaving

and other online suppliers have razors starting from £20 upwards, but they work out cheaper in the long run due to the blades being cheaper than cartridges.
 
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