Thread: Hello new member here, not sure what I thought.

Hey guys how's it going. I have been DE shaving for a whole week now.
I don't know but for some reason I thought I was going to get as close of a mach3 shave with one pass of a DE. Wrong I have read a lot here and want to learn more. My shaves aren't too great just yet. I am using my new Edwin Jagger DE89 with feather blades. Don't have a fancy brush yet just cheapo boar brush. I am wondering if I should change the blade sooner. I could get a week of shaves out of the M3 but not sure with these blades. My whiskers are pretty wiry and grow every which way. I am using light pressure only so no burn well the first two days there was. So I seek your refined shaving wisdom, and thanks in advanced.

You'll want to do two or three passes. Think about each pass slicing the hairs a little shorter until the third pass cuts it off at the skin.

Haven't tried three passes yet kinda waiting to let the skin get used to the new shave. I think this next week I will do two passes each morning and see how that goes.

If you think about the concept of a Mach 3, you're getting three passes in one. What's more there are a lot of "training wheels" on a Mach 3 that you have to take responsibility for with a DE.

I use a vintage Gillette Slim and once it "clicked" I began getting better shaves in two passes than I could get from a Mach 3 in one or two passes. And IME the DE blades (regardless of type) last longer than the cartridges. My beard's not terribly thick; about average I think, but very very wiry and coarse.

Keep working at it and you'll find your shaves improve to surpass your prior experience with the cartridge.

Peace,
Jim

Knowing the hair growth direction of my face helped me. My face is relatively uniform but my neck it gets squirrely. But with a 2 or 3 pass shave with a DE I can get way better shave than with using a mach 3 or fusion. It takes a lot of practice, I'm still learning too.

Thanks guys did better this morning. Except right under and on the jaw line, don't have the angle right there yet. Did okay two passes but tried a third in that area trying to get BBS and hav a little burn. I'm not bleeding though.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is stretching the skin. It can make a heck of a difference to a shave - whether DE or straight.

Hang in there and it probably won't be long before you're getting better shaves with less irritation than you ever have before.

It'll come with time and practice You just have to play with angles and such, like Jim said, you have 3, 4, or 5 "blades" on a cartridge whereas now you have just 1 so doing a couple light passes will be required.

I hope so I have figured out (some of us are slow learners) that my EJ is still shaving very well even if I am not feeling that scraping feeling I was used to with the cartridge. I am closing in on that perfect angle, now if I can do it on my whole beard, lol.

Take heart my friend, it will get better. If, for whatever reason, I was unable to use my straight razors for the rest of my life I'd be perfectly content to use my DE's rather than any other method of shaving. A DE yields a far superior, and smoother, shave than a cartridge could ever hope for. An extra pass or two is all it asks, which will provide nice irritation-free shaves, which is more than the Mock 3/4/5 can say. As well, the EJ89 is a very well regarded razor, so you are already a leg up with the right equipment.