Thread: Consistency is the key... Why do I never remember that BEFORE walking into problems?!

So, I'm a few weeks into Head Shaving with DE (been SR Shaving for some time on my face) and I have been trying different Razors:

Older Gillette Travel that was PIF'd by a friend- Great as a Travel Razor.

RazoRock Mission- Great Razor but just a bit Mild.

Merkur 34cHD- Just about all-around Perfect... But, not adjustable.

So, I got to thinking... I wonder if Adjustables are the way to go. That lead me to:

Gillette Slim- After some trial and error I found that I like setting #6.

Gillette Fatboy- Thought the engineering might be similar to the Slim so figured starting on #5 would work... I could see the steeper angle and had read Posts about there being no correlation between settings but, evidently, that was not enough to sway my efforts. Stuck on stupid for sure...

And, that was when everything went tragically wrong. On top of not taking seriously the Posts I read that warned about no correlation between Vintage Adjustable settings I also swapped in a new Personna Blue/Med Prep for my next shave with the Fatboy as I'd employed a Used Personna Blue/Med Prep the shave before in the Fatboy thus giving me false confidence. I had been using Dorco Blades prior and was only 2 shaves in with a Personna Blue/Med Prep. Thankfully I did not decide to switch to southpaw or stand on my head.

I don't even know if I was 5 strokes in before getting my first two cuts and by the time I was done with the right side of my head I had about 6. I switched to the left side of my head and dialed that Fatboy DOWN to #4... My reward? About 4 more cuts... Progress! I dialed it down to #3 and then it felt about right and I could finish the shave... I stopped counting after 10 cuts but pretty sure I have about a dozen between actual Cuts and then surface weepers/capillary bleeds on my head... Definitely not the 'worst' cuts but absolutely beyond a shadow of doubt the greatest number of cuts in one shave!

I have trialed all these Razors in the last 2-3 months shaving my head weekly with each a time or few before going on to the next. Yet, it wasn't until just a few hours ago when I had blood trickling into my ears and down my face and jaw that I remembered...

CONSISTENCY IS KEY!!!!!!

So, I now know that, for me, a #6 on a Slim is a #3 on a Fatboy and that the Adjustables are very nice but maintaining rigid consistency with blade type and condition is a factor not to be overlooked when learning/adjusting technique! Sometimes lessons earned in Blood are the ones best remembered... Maybe I'll avoid the forgetting in the future.

But, have I really learned my lesson? Only time will tell... Right before going in for this Tragic Shave, I opened the package containing my new Merkur Progress Long-Handled. And, I noticed that the adjustment dial was yet again different so all that Is left is to wish myself...



Shawn
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