Thread: Razor for beard-men?

Hi experts !

New member. I have some concerns about whether going for a straight or a safety razor for my case. I always had a short beard (3-4mm) and used a basic platic razor () to clean up the neck and the surroundings of the mustache. Some months ago I decided to let my beard grow longer and was thinking of a new kind of razor for different reasons :

- I tend to have hair growing inside and I wonder if classic shaving would reduce it
- with a cheap razor, it is not so easy to precisely stop shaving around the mustache exactly where you want to (the plastic frame prevents from seeing the hair)

It seems to me that a straight razor (maybe with french or square point) would be a good option for cleaning hairs around a beard. An open comb safety razor might work, but I am not sure.

Please beard-men, I would appreciate any feedback an help to choose an appropriate equipment !

Thx.

Hello and welcome! I current have a beard and use a straight razor to shave a small portion of my cheek and then my neck. It works very very nice but I had 1.5 years of shaving with a straight before I grew the beard out. The only reason I mention this is that the neck can be a challenging spot for new users, and you may be at a slight disadvantage of not having a large cheek area to practice on before you head straight for the neck.
Not discouraging you but just letting you know that I think the straight razor is the right option, but you'll just have to be patient as you learn to shave your neck.
Nothing wrong with a double edge razor either, but like you said sometimes it's harder to see exactly where you're going for precision.

After I 86'ed the 40-year beard (but not the handlebar) I went through plastic and happily settled on straights (95%) and DE (5%). I really love the feel, art and results of a straight shave and I like the sqaure footage, too. As R'Cake said above, the neck is usually some trouble for most folks super-smooth so if you get a DE you'll have a better shave there almost immediately. I have no problem working round the mustache with a straight but mine only requires grabbing a handful of handlebar and pulling it back out of the way for clean definition - it self-masks any mistkes and doesn't demand what you'd call a precision trim.

I wear a beard, I recommend you go with a straight razor for the precision you are looking for. I also recommend you go with a French point as the blade shape makes it easy to remove those stray hairs in between top of moustache and nostril. Good luck and reach out if you have more questions

Thank you guys for your feedback.

I just get a DE yesterday (Merkur 34c), and I confirm that it is not easy to trim the mustache as expected. I'll definitely go for a straight one , and yes with a french point - not because I'm french.. but a Thiers Issard most probably . I was also wondering if we could find some shorter ones? I find them a bit long for my case but the length seems a kind of standard.

Originally Posted by Badoumba

Thank you guys for your feedback.

I just get a DE yesterday (Merkur 34c), and I confirm that it is not easy to trim the mustache as expected. I'll definitely go for a straight one , and yes with a french point - not because I'm french.. but a Thiers Issard most probably . I was also wondering if we could find some shorter ones? I find them a bit long for my case but the length seems a kind of standard.

A number of people seek out badly chipped or broken razors (or they clean up razors they have accidentally broken) for the purpose you mention.

Broken razor.... I should have think about this trick myself. Let's try this !