Committed Blasphemy

Been a really long time since I posted...

But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing for me. After having issues with one blade, buying another, then having the first blade re-honed, I realized that my blades were dulling entirely too fast. By the time I was finishing with just my face the blade was starting to pull. Now for the blasphemy: I bought a shavette and some blades. This was originally an experiment but I realized something in the process; blades that others are getting 7 shaves from on average are only lasting 2/3 of my face before they dull and start pulling. Even a DE is dulling after 2 face shaves using a feather blade. I know I can't be messing up that bad. I'm holding the blade at 30 degrees or less and generally going WTG and pulling my skin. There is no reason a blade would dull that fast unless there is something going on, is there? It even takes 4 blades to shave my head!

It seems that a better face and beard prep is in order. Yes, that takes more time but saves a lot of skin and, over time, some money.
Also, think of blade angle not razor angle. There can be a very large difference between razors as to the angles which a razor presents the blade to your face..
Look carefully at the head of the razor from the side. What is the actual angle of the edge of the blade? Yup try a 10-15º angle of the blade to your face.
Good luck!
~Richard

Ditto to Geezer's suggestions. Beard prep is the first line of defence to a good shave, regardless of what type of razor you are using. Try adding a face rubbing of hair conditioner on your face several minutes before you lather up. I do that just before I get out of the shower. Don't rinse it off.

Are you using a Feather shavette system or just feather blades with another shavette? HUGE difference! I have a pretty touch beard, but I can easily get 5-10 shaves using my Feather SS with pro blades. I had another Parker shavette with Feather blades, and it's not even comparable.

You can find numerous threads on face prep. With your story I would do as many different approaches as possible and then eliminate the steps that do not help.
For example:

Thoroughly wet face (well, you really can't skip this one)
Cleanse face and hair using one or the other:
Shaving soap
Bar soap
Noxema
Rinse off the above
Take shower
Apply hair conditioner, preshave oil, Noxema, etc
Apply a good shaving lather. New people generally do a little better with creams but that is your choice
You may want to start making your lather in a bowl. After getting the hang of lather you can, if you want, go to face lather
Shave
Rinse
Moisturize the more you do the softer the beard (generally)

The key to all of this is water, water and more water. You want the hair to be fully saturated.

Hopefully some of the advice here will help. If not there are several Mentors in S. Florida

Oh yeah, have fun.

With a DE 3 shaves is what most folks seem to get. You can push it but for me I draw the line at 3 and that is with the feather blade. it doesn't matter which DE I use as a matter of fact if I use the R41 it seems to put more stress on the blade and I only get 2 shaves with that.

See this thread highlights the differences in whiskers and skin we all have. I've often posted that I cannot do more than 2 passes & maybe a touchup under the jawline with a straight or a DE, without getting irritation. Most guys are doing 3 passes routinely with no problem. I can get 6 or 7 shaves out of a Feather in a DE. Now I must qualify that by saying when I shave with a DE I do 1 ATG and call it good.

So if a guy is doing 3 passes per shave he is getting more with 3 shaves than I am getting with 6, but it may be that my beard is just that much softer than average, and my skin is more sensitive. To the OP, I hope someone gives you something good to go with here that can improve your results ........ :gl:

I have tried to limit my beard prep as much as possible. The more beard prep I do (ie hot towel, conditioner, soaking in hot water, etc.) the softer my skin got and the easier it was to shred my skin instead of cutting hair. My smoothest shaves have been from cold water with some AoS pre-oil and my new soap, I forget the name. It's a Himalaya soap but not the one mentioned in another post. Actually I trimmed the edges of my goatee dry with a fresh blade and that was amazing... I'm starting to wonder if I should just burn through blades and just shave dry. They were pretty cheap on Amazon.

How do you shave, is it straight on like a guillotine (many hairs at once) or do you bring the blade across like a Paper cutter (less hairs at once)? Hope you understand what I'm saying...

First cut is always full on since I start on my side burns and work down, but after that I try to limit to 50-75% of the blade. I also take short strokes (.5 inch at a time).

it could be that your dulling your edge by making a head on cut. Now that I think about it the guillotine was a bad example as a head on cut. It's probably the best example of the shaving stroke you need to make. The blade is at an angle and slices through it doesn't chop it, you know what I mean...or that's how I see it, could be part of the problem on top of beard prep

Just thought of something else - you said about the more prep you did the worse it shredded your skin - lighten up on the pressure and let the blade do the work, and keep the number of strokes you're doing in one area to a minimum.

Maybe.... I think the videos JimmyHAD posted to boob toob had the blade in a direct cut pass... I may have seen it wrong also since it is hard to catch all details in a few passes even.

Could be, I've never seen Jimmy's video. Just trying to help, and make suggestion's....:beer1:

wow ,angle and pressure is the only thing that ever shredded my face , I would think that has a lot to do with , I,m like you I have cable wire beard but I don't dull my good blades that fast ,, only my lesser ones, but any time your irritating the skin your using too much pressure and angle or the blade just isn't ready ,, as for the feather shavettes the blade is great , but dulling to soon, I tried mine one time to see how long it would last and I got 7-8 shaves without any issue ,, but I tend to just change every shave because I don't use one very often, and I wonder abut them rusting tc

Something that really helped me stop irritating my skin was truly focusing on where my pressure was applied. I initially was placing pressure of edge to skin vs. spine to edge while gliding over the skin. Think about what you are feeling as you shave and adjust accordingly; forward pressure not downward pressure. Another helper was going from a 3 pass shave to a 2 pass. If you can't get it in two the third will be no different and just cause skin issues.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EngineerJim

I'm holding the blade at 30 degrees or less and generally going WTG and pulling my skin. There is no reason a blade would dull that fast unless there is something going on, is there? It even takes 4 blades to shave my head!

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How are you calculating that 30º ? Is the spine quite close to your face while you shave ie blade almost flat ?

Blade is near flat to my skin and I don't press against my skin aside from the minor pressure of trying to keep my hand from shaking. It is barely enough pressure to dimple my cheeks a little bit they are soft and my neck does not dimple at all. The funny thing is, my skin never gets irritated. I don't get razor burn. At all. I just get leaking blood along my neck. It never hurts or gets irritated. I gave myself razor burn on my cheek the other day trying a dry shave but that is the only time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EngineerJim

Blade is near flat to my skin and I don't press against my skin aside from the minor pressure of trying to keep my hand from shaking. It is barely enough pressure to dimple my cheeks a little bit they are soft and my neck does not dimple at all. The funny thing is, my skin never gets irritated. I don't get razor burn. At all. I just get leaking blood along my neck. It never hurts or gets irritated. I gave myself razor burn on my cheek the other day trying a dry shave but that is the only time.

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Sounds about right on angle & pressure. The only time I see blood like that is if using more pressure than needed
If you get this across the board with all blades I wonder if it's not a soap allergy tho it doesnt explain the rapid blunting ?
On the plus side it sounds like your blade is sharp. :)

My head shaves are hard on DE blades & I won't bother with a straight but my prep is non existant.