seanb, welcome to the forum. I read somewhere that thick and curly hair in particular will cause ingrown issues as it is cut below the epidermis of the skin by a cart. On a three blade system the rubbery plastic bit stretches your skin (too much if a lot of pressure is used), the first blade lifts the hair, the second cuts the hair and the third catches anything left. This means that the cut off hair relaxes into the dermal layer, when growing out again it gets stuck in the dermal layer and causes irritation and lumping before it breaks through. With a single blade this is no longer an issue because we are cutting the hair even with the epidermis and stretching is used to simply stand the hair upright. I had major rash issues with the blade “jittering” on my skin and this was sorted out by controlling the viscosity of my lather which was just not possible with canned product. I think that because I have a thick slow beard growth a cart blade was useless after two shaves, I found that a cart would have to be replaced after three shaves in one week. With a str8 I can maintain the edge indefinitely with my stones. Also remember (and this applies to a str8 I have not used a DE) pressure is key, with a str8 you need to stretch the skin and use a light touch, let the blade do the work. It is a case of hair reduction rather than out and out whacking the hair off. Good luck with your endeavours and give us some feed back about your experience.