The Progress will give you facility to adjust aggressiveness for various areas but blade angle and good preparation is the key to a clean shave. I like the Progress for its weight and it can be dialled down for sensitive areas like the upper lip.
Is it still worth owning both and is the progress easy to clean/rinse out?
Very true, your ears will let you know when you have the angle right as I found on my first use of this razor this morning. Once I had the angle correct it was a joy to use.@Eagle
Update for you.
I read more online about using the Progress.
Do you need a Progress as well as a 37c? Well, do I need an extra helping of chocolate cake? So far I am warming to the Progress with each additional use.
- I had a go with a Derby as suggested. This choice showed as much about the limitation of a Derby as it does about the capabilities of the Progress. One of the better shaves I have had using a Derby, although that is not saying a great deal. But certainly very close shave.
- The angle is different. It's suggested to have the razor more parallel to the face. This makes a BIG difference. The sound of cutting became quite audible, the shave felt smoother, and an earlier sense of the razor being a bit tuggy on the first pass disappeared. This may be connected with an increased familiarity with the razor a few days in.
Yes, but it looked dangerous!@Blademonkey
Have you noticed how massive you can make the blade gap? Notionally, this thing goes up to 5. However, you can just keep on twisting the knob past 5, and thus increasing the blade gap until such time as the razor cap actually disconnects. The sky's the limit.
It gets to a point where the gap is so big that it's effectively a shavette rather than a DE! Not that I am going there. I went to 4 this morning and that was fine at this point. I think I'll be out to 5 fairly soon.
@Eagle I am only two shaves in. I reckon I will need a couple of weeks to get a proper feel for it. Some observations so far:
- Seems very easy to clean/rinse out. It is certainly no more difficult than a 37c.
- It's a very different feel to the 37c. Wound up to 5, the blade gap starts to appear quite significant. It feels more "blade on skin" than the 37c. Aggressive is the wrong word here - it's more that I can feel the blade. This is a new feeling and I have been going very carefully with it as I adjust to this. I suspect it would work well with coarse hair. I have been using it with Sputnik blades, which I no longer like particularly, and over the next few days I am going back to an Astra SP, which I have been using a lot of lately and have come to really like.
- I've shaved so much with the 37c that I can really zip around my face with it. I'm not there yet with the Progress. That needs more time.
- Feels nice to hold, and I like the plastic knob as it looks retro and cool.
- Lots of talk on forums about blade alignment. I don't notice this. I learned how to load the blade in a 37c from this video here and using the same technique in the Progress achieves sound results.
- Some talk on forums about quality - mine looks immaculate, and the tolerances are fine. It's not the same as a £250 stainless steel artisan razor, but it doesn't cost £250 either.
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