This. A swish of witch hazel on a cotton ball to tighten pores and clean any nicks, then the cheap white bottle.
The Skarp really need to be crossposted in the “What could possibly go wrong?” thread.
D.R. Harris Aftershave Milk for me (but only when necessary).
Diego
Oh man.
I just swung back around to my DE shave kit I’d kind of ignored for the last 4-5 years and decided it was time to refresh it a bit.
My old EJ89 was starting to look a bit worn in the finish, but perfectly serviceable. I discovered that my old blades that used to work fine no longer up to the task around my chin area. It seems being older has turned those hairs quite coarse and the Derby or Shark blades were not up to the challenge.
Annoying, but ok.
Got a blade sampler and after trying out multiples I found the Gillette Nacet blades to be quite wonderful. Almost Feather sharp, but more comfortable and not irritating to my face.
I also tried some new soaps, got a very nice lathering bowl and my first synthetic brush. My badger is still fine, but since I was trying new stuff it felt like a good idea. Honestly I’m really loving the synthetic and have another bigger one on the way. Soft, lathers great, dries fast and basically zero maintenance.
Now to the most splurgy dad gift to myself, a new razor. I’d narrowed it down to a few I was interested in and the Canadian made Karve was basically out of stock and no idea when I would be able to get one, so I went to option 2.
https://homelikeshaving.ru/t-obraznye-britvy/start/
A newer company with great reviews and all stainless steel construction. I got the polished version with the 0.69 and also snagged the 0.90 base plate. It took a while to get, got stuck at JFK for almost 2 weeks, but it is incredibly good.
This is pretty easily the closest, most comfortable and irritation free 2 pass shave I think I’ve ever gotten in my life. The tolerances are incredibly tight and it’s just a joy to use. Not cheap, but worth every penny I paid.
So at least my quest for blades and a razor are seemingly over, so now it’s just soaps and brushes to play with, but I’m super happy now with what I’ve got.
/end of giant shave nerding.
Still loving the razor. I let it go for a good 4 days and the 0.90 plate just plowed through with no problems and zero irritation. Didn’t clog at all either.
I think I’m going to order the open comb plate and I’m kind of tempted by one of the alternative handles they offer, but other than that I’m just trying other brushes and soaps.
Always hated shaving, but actually enjoying it these days.
So I’ve been shaving my dome all the way down for a few months now, because omg you guys it looks so much better and I’m so much happier with my whole situation (next to lose a hundred pounds, but that’s another thing).
Started with an electric dome shaver, despite my general distrust of electric shavers. Worked pretty well! But yo, we’re in month three and apparently the head is just clogged to shit and the driver is unequal to the task of spinning the blades any more. Sigh, that’s $70 or whatever.
Luckily, I got seduced by a selection of YouTube Beard Dudes into fucking with a safety razor. The benefits are thus:
- Cheap as fuck razors forever, once you have a handle that doesn’t suck.
- Don’t murder your skin like a more modern cartridge X-blade razor.
- Now you’re a man! A man, man, man!
I wasn’t all that sold at first, tbh. But this morning was my third go-round with the safety razor on my dome and it was a huge improvement. I’m very happy with the shave, didn’t cut myself, and my skin is happy as can be.
You know how the back of your neck just absolutely hates the shit out of anything removing hair from it? Yeah, I’m smooth and happy with nothing more than a gentle post-shave balm that I put over my entire dome.
Something like $65 for the whole kit – shaving handle $30, soap $9, razors $9, brush $17 – and it’ll keep me for literally like 10 years.
I am very pleased.
This just strikes me as ill-advised.
I got one of these on sale at cvs ($24) to trim the back of my neck hairs, only used it once but so far so good. As of now it is the only trimmer I own that doesn’t seem to give me razor burn scars on my neck. It will also do some light duty goatee maintenance with the comb attachment.
Accurate
I have one of those also. I like the form factor and it works well enough for facial hair trimming and the occasional rough shave.
I had one of those and was deeply unimpressed. Threw it out.
I now use this Wahl trimmer. It’s an absolute beast, blazes through my beard no problem, and the battery lasts months. My uncle cuts hair for a living, I told him I got a beard trimmer and it was a Wahl and he gave an impressed nod of approval. Obviously it is much more expensive.
I loved the Wahl, but I could not find a comb with the length I want/need for my beard. Either a bit too long or a bit too short. Tried to find one online but no joy. I’m now using a Norelco that I don’t like as much but it has a built in length control that has almost unlimited options.
You must have strong opinions about that sort of thing, I’m fine with the 1/8th inch graduated combs that came in the box. I mostly want the thing to 1) just work and 2) that’s it.
Very impressive, 3x the price tho. :P
This conversation is important to me as my last beard trimmer looks like it’s giving up the goat after about 10 years. I will be shopping for a replacement pretty soon.
I use a Wahl Peanut for my beard and love it. Only downside is it’s a plug-in, not battery. Great trimmer.
For actual shaving, I use a Feather saftey razor, which I adore. While the razor itself is pricey, the blades are super cheap compared to disposables and there’s less waste for landfills, which I like.
Prior to the Feather, I used a Merkur 34c, which was also very good. It’s a touch more aggressive than the Feather, so I had to be a bit more careful to avoid razor burn.
Merkur and Feather is indeed The Way.
It’s probably dangerous but I got a USB adapter for my Aquatouch 890
I love my Merkur, though I haven’t touched it since I grew my beard out to the point where I just use scissors for shaping and trimming.