Ok where to start *scratches head.
A couple of birthdays back my son gave me a Wellington Super Badger Brush, some Luxury Shaving Soap and 1805 Aftershave balm all from Truefitt & Hill (his nickname is Heineken coz, yes, you’ve guessed it, he’s probably the best son in the world – sorry couldn’t help myself). Since then I’ve thrown away the WS brush and been regularly shaving with these using a Gillette Contour and alternating the T&H soap with the more frequently used Palmolive Classic Cream – don’t really like the shave I get with the T&H soap. Having never really had a satisfactory shave with the Contour, a couple of months back I started reading various shaving forums with the intention of going back to DE shaving from which I’d been away from for over 20 years.
So after lurking around the forums I took the plunge last Saturday and ordered a Goodfella Black from The Shaving Shack – great near lightspeed service from them, thank you. Now I know what you’re all thinking, not the best razor to be starting off with on your journey down the DE shaving path. Yes, I know that now and knew it before I bought it really but I have a nasty habit of buying things that look sexy and sexy the Goodfella certainly looks *thinking Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman here
So, on Monday morning just as I was getting in the bath my postie knocks on the door - no, not the bathroom door, the front door - and delivers my Goodfella. Lovely I thought, rip open packaging, carefully open the box and ohhh my what a purrrty little thing you are *yep Michelle Pfeiffer. Insert one of the included Derbys, have bath, and prepare face for shave.
Begin to shave. AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH that hurts!!!!!
Those are vicious teeth! Adjust angle. Better, but still not good, not good at all. I was lucky enough not to have nicked myself but boy was I suffering all sorts of rashes, heat bumps and irritations especially round my chin, load up the face with copious amounts of the T&H AS balm *AAAAAHHHHHH that’s better. To top it all off it wasn’t the closest shave I’d ever had, in fact a shave with the Contour was far far closer.
Try again Wednesday but with the T&H soap, less of a rash, fewer bumps and less irritation but still not good.
What to do I thought. Try different cream. Browse t’interweb thingy and buy a tube Musgo Real - being of Portuguese extraction and having read good things about it, I thought I’d give it a go - and a sample pack of blades from Connaught Shaving – again near lightspeed service from these guys too, thank you also. Thursday package arrives. Hmmmm. Nice selection of blades, but which one next?
Anyway, woke up this morning with that the weekend starts here feeling. Jump into the bath – next time I might even fill it first - prepped face, inserted an Astra Platinum - went alphabetical - and lathered up with the Musgo Real.
WOW!!! What a difference. No burns or rashes, very little irritation around the chin and a much closer shave. Now I don’t know whether this is down to the cream, blade or an improvement in my technique, but over the next couple of weeks I’m going to change one step of this shave and see what happens, and since the Goodfella is already loaded with the Astra I think I’ll use the T&H soap with the next couple shaves, which will be Monday morning and get back to you guys at the end of next week.
So my conclusions from this week’s shaves are. . .
Should have gone with the advice given out by you guys on which razor to buy first – I do feel a bit of a n00b
The Goodfella – Not the best razor to start with but getting used to it, I think. The comb teeth do feel a little sharp and on my chubby little face I find I have to stretch the skin almost off my face just so they don’t catch. I will tame it eventually I’m sure.
The Astra Platinums I can’t really evaluate as I don’t know enough to tell the difference between blades yet, but feeling my face as I type this it does feel much smoother than it did after using the Derbys but again this could be just down to technique.
The Musgo Real – Beautiful stuff. Creamy rich lather and hasn’t dried out my skin as much as the Palmolive.
So until next week ;-)
PS. All puns might or might not have been intended!
A couple of birthdays back my son gave me a Wellington Super Badger Brush, some Luxury Shaving Soap and 1805 Aftershave balm all from Truefitt & Hill (his nickname is Heineken coz, yes, you’ve guessed it, he’s probably the best son in the world – sorry couldn’t help myself). Since then I’ve thrown away the WS brush and been regularly shaving with these using a Gillette Contour and alternating the T&H soap with the more frequently used Palmolive Classic Cream – don’t really like the shave I get with the T&H soap. Having never really had a satisfactory shave with the Contour, a couple of months back I started reading various shaving forums with the intention of going back to DE shaving from which I’d been away from for over 20 years.
So after lurking around the forums I took the plunge last Saturday and ordered a Goodfella Black from The Shaving Shack – great near lightspeed service from them, thank you. Now I know what you’re all thinking, not the best razor to be starting off with on your journey down the DE shaving path. Yes, I know that now and knew it before I bought it really but I have a nasty habit of buying things that look sexy and sexy the Goodfella certainly looks *thinking Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman here
So, on Monday morning just as I was getting in the bath my postie knocks on the door - no, not the bathroom door, the front door - and delivers my Goodfella. Lovely I thought, rip open packaging, carefully open the box and ohhh my what a purrrty little thing you are *yep Michelle Pfeiffer. Insert one of the included Derbys, have bath, and prepare face for shave.
Begin to shave. AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH that hurts!!!!!
Those are vicious teeth! Adjust angle. Better, but still not good, not good at all. I was lucky enough not to have nicked myself but boy was I suffering all sorts of rashes, heat bumps and irritations especially round my chin, load up the face with copious amounts of the T&H AS balm *AAAAAHHHHHH that’s better. To top it all off it wasn’t the closest shave I’d ever had, in fact a shave with the Contour was far far closer.
Try again Wednesday but with the T&H soap, less of a rash, fewer bumps and less irritation but still not good.
What to do I thought. Try different cream. Browse t’interweb thingy and buy a tube Musgo Real - being of Portuguese extraction and having read good things about it, I thought I’d give it a go - and a sample pack of blades from Connaught Shaving – again near lightspeed service from these guys too, thank you also. Thursday package arrives. Hmmmm. Nice selection of blades, but which one next?
Anyway, woke up this morning with that the weekend starts here feeling. Jump into the bath – next time I might even fill it first
- prepped face, inserted an Astra Platinum - went alphabetical - and lathered up with the Musgo Real.WOW!!! What a difference. No burns or rashes, very little irritation around the chin and a much closer shave.
Now I don’t know whether this is down to the cream, blade or an improvement in my technique, but over the next couple of weeks I’m going to change one step of this shave and see what happens, and since the Goodfella is already loaded with the Astra I think I’ll use the T&H soap with the next couple shaves, which will be Monday morning and get back to you guys at the end of next week.So my conclusions from this week’s shaves are. . .
Should have gone with the advice given out by you guys on which razor to buy first – I do feel a bit of a n00b
The Goodfella – Not the best razor to start with but getting used to it, I think. The comb teeth do feel a little sharp and on my chubby little face I find I have to stretch the skin almost off my face just so they don’t catch. I will tame it eventually I’m sure.
The Astra Platinums I can’t really evaluate as I don’t know enough to tell the difference between blades yet, but feeling my face as I type this it does feel much smoother than it did after using the Derbys but again this could be just down to technique.
The Musgo Real – Beautiful stuff. Creamy rich lather and hasn’t dried out my skin as much as the Palmolive.
So until next week ;-)
PS. All puns might or might not have been intended!
