Quote Originally Posted by CplOfMarines View Post
I've noticed a lot of things that have helped me so I'll pass them along at the end.

I start with a hot shower. I scrub my face with a regular old bar of soap and if I have more than a days worth of growth I condition it. While I'm in the shower, I have my brush soaking in a bowl of steaming hot water (another reason I love my jet-boil). After drying my face I use the AoS Pre-shave oil. I use about a dime size of it and rub it quickly in my hands for a good minute until its a little bit warmed up. I apply it pretty thick on my neck and chin then get the sides of my face. I shake my brush out just a little bit and put a fingertip of AoS cream in my brush and I lather. I've noticed that for me the razor glides a lot better if the lather is a little bit "watery", rather than being rich and thick. I almost get it to have like a slimy slick feel to it. Then I shave, I go with the grain and against the grain. For the right side of my face I use my right hand, then I switch to my left hand for the left side. After re-lathering and completing my second pass I splash my face with COLD water several times. Then I wet my allum block and dab it all around my face. I don't wipe it around or rub it on my face, I just dab it like using a paper towel to get something out of a rug. After my face dries a little I use the AoS Moisturizer. Same thing with that, I don't rub it on my face like I'm smearing sun screen. I do about 3 pumps into my fingers, rub it around between my hands and pat my face down.

The big things I've noticed that have reduced the irritation are rinsing with very cold water, watery shave cream, and not rubbing my face with the allum block and moisturizer. The last one was the biggest relief for me, made a huge difference in my shave.

Let me know how your shave goes, I'm anxious to hear.
Well, it sounds like you've got a pretty solid process and using good products. Mine is similar to yours but I don't do a cold water rinse, water down my shave cream (using Taylor) or use album block. So maybe I'm more different than similar...

Anyway, I was also anxious to try out the new razor (Aust 5/8 from SRD) so I didn't go through my whole process. Didn't even wash my face...just went at it! I'm still a noob, but these are my observations:

The feather razors in my Dovo shavette were sharper than the razor. Not tons sharper, but definitely sharper. I've got a beard right now so I'm only shaving my neck and cheeks.

The Aust had a tendency to skip a bit coming down the cheek. I'm chalking this up to me not following my normal process and my face was probably really dry. The good news is that had I skipped the shavette like that I definitely would have had a cut. I got nothing from the Aust at all. I thought it was really simple to use honestly.

Feel in the hand:
The Aust feels completely different to me. It's quite a bit heavier because of the full blade. I actually liked it a lot! It's not balanced very well because I just got the basic, cheapest one with plastic scales. Still, I prefer the feel of the blade much more than the shavette. The Dovo with a Feather blade felt like I was wielding a scalpel. This feels more like a tool.

Closeness of shave:
The shavette would win, but just barely and this is only my first shave without my normal process. I think if I followed my normal process this would be a dead heat. The shavette definitely gives you a close shave, but man I had some bloody mornings trying to use that thing. To me, the Aust feels a lot more forgiving. I know that probably sounds strange since shavettes are supposed to be more forgiving with angle, and that's probably true. But maybe it's really more of a case of me being able to feel what the blade is doing a lot better.

To me, after one shave, it's no contest. The Aust all the way.

I applied the AoS balm and it definitely helped a lot. Plus the scent is great. My neck wasn't near as irritated as it normally is with the shavette. There was some slight redness, but nothing crazy.

I'm going to try your cold water rinse, watery lather and allum stick in the morning and see what happens. It should be a good test for irritation since I already shaved tonight.

I know it's not a ton of information to go on, but I definitely think the straight will be better in the long run. Just one noob's opinion...take it for what it's worth.