Thread: First DE Shave

Sorry, just remembered something. A fantastic resource for DE shaving is a youtube channel called Mantic59 (I think that's what it's called). He has excellent advice and tutorials, it saved me a lot of trouble when I started

Cool, yeah I already watch Mantic as well as Geofatboy on youtube. Great instructional and my wife and I have done biz at shave nation for a lot of her new stuff as well as a Parker DE, wife recommended me to try an Astra blade of hers from a new pack that there just as sharp but seem to be more forgiving in terms of skill and so on but also might keep with the Feather already in and see how the 2nd shave goes.

Oh yeah...the wifes at work, SO think I might use her Parker DE here in a bit haha

Good luck!!! With all the information out there I'm sure you'll figure out what works for you. Sometimes it just takes time

Yup all good things take time, and I'm glad it is coming along for me pretty well. Most of the burn I got from Saturday was gone as I been applying Nevia sensitive balm a couple times a day to keep my face moisturized, also washed my face at night and after I hit it with witch hazel. When the WH dried mostly I slicked on some Proraso balm before bed.

I awoke this morning and my face pretty much fell off, meaning my dry dry skin peeled off the dead skin from the burn. I have temperamental skin that comes in the form of dryness, so when I get the burn I go through this ritual till I heal up.

SO was good to go for a shave today for the most part, used the Proraso soap and got a good lather today using the having mug prep for the lather after I made it hot. Used Proraso pre shave cream and wow that stuff is potent but worked like a charm, lathered and used my wife's Parker 99R DE. Felt way less aggressive compared to my Merkur but I kept the pressure to a null and void, did a 3 pass shave wtg, xtg and a reverse xtg and a spot clean up.

Left a bit of redness but no feeling of burn, likely it is still there from sat, so going to lay off and shave again likely wed so as to let that redness go away.

Good shave though, a single nick on the cheek trying to get these pesky cheek hairs that don't like to shave off, recessed??

Wow you really are having some skin problems. Some quick advice I would give you is to decrease the number of passes. You said you were doing up to 4 passes, that's a lot especially for somebody with sensitive skin. Also i would suggest shaving every other day or even every 2 days just to let your skin get used to the new regimen. Shaving every day with that many passes is definitely not making the process any easier. A final tip would be to only use a soap and not use any pre/post products. If you have a burn it might be a mild allergy to something.

Well only 3 passes, re lathered small spots I missed or needed it as my neck has it all directions it seems so. Usually I go 2 days if I get a burn but did not today so likely irritated the burn I had before, but no sting or anything so it's not bad just some redness that will go away by wendsday. Don't think I am allergic to anything I've used, saturday I was in sorta a rush as we had a funeral to catch...not a good situation to start DE shaving rofl.

Oh well my fault on that one, I'll let it heal up totally then have at it again as I think I will have a great shave net time as I got a really good lather today and the shave felt great will just let this redness go away before I shave again.

I think it is just that I didn't wait long enough, next time I shave after this I will go soap or cream only, and if that goes well try the pre shave and soap or cream and see how it goes. Only way to weed out IF some thing IS bothering me, know my skin pretty well and I dunno if it is an skin allergen or some thing, likely just my not waiting long enough.

Weird, redness is totally gone this morning. *shrugs*
Oh well, will see how Wednesday goes. Also taking the tip and ordering a sampler pack of blades, the pack contains Gillette 7oclocks (green), Merkur, Shark, Astra, Crystal, Feather.

Getting it from Vintage blades LLC, looks a good deal for 45 blades in all so. I feel like I am just adding to an arsenal lol.

I'm sure in all those blades you'll find one that works out better for you. I found merkur blades to be easier on the face than feathers, although I prefer Personnas.

Figuring out lathering is now my thing I think, I seem to be swaying between dry and overly wet. Also...after soaking my brush and go to load my brush in the tub of cream or soap how much water to shake out, and also how long to swirl the brush in the tub to pick up soap or cream...a couple times I think I got way too much cream on the brush, as it too a LOT of adding water to get it going...and kept drying on me through the shave.

I think it is time to refer back to Geofatboy and Mantics youtube page...lol

Figured this shaving thing out, well my own routine and what works for me I think. Shaved today using Proraso pre shave and cream after a full prep, went with a with the grain twice and once on the cheeks and neck only with a against the grain pass since I got those hairs that like to hide from the blade on my cheeks.

No redness and a fairly clean shave, left some slight stubble behind on the neck as I was more onto figuring out this strange redness on my cheeks after every shave. Got that figured out finally, so next shave onto combining what I did today with more angles on my neck area to clean up the work lacking today and should be getting a fantastic shave.

I took what I hear around here a LOT with a literalness.

Find what works, and so I am. Good thing too, I like the process I did today and got some good results. The across the grain isn't working too well on the cheeks, so will do a wtg pass and a atg pass on cheeks, do the neck as needed and do a wtg and xtg on the stash and chin areas as that is working for me.

Way cool!