I've got a cheap-ish Braun electric shaver and whilst it's ok there are always some hairs that take soooo long to mop up. My Mach-65-Turbo-RGB-Eleventy-Blade razor can get them but the heads are laughably expensive and it hurts like hell shaving under my nose. I thought I'd try one of these fancy new DE razors all the kids are talking about and picked up a King C Gillette for £13 from Sainsbury's*. First shave went well and amazingly no cuts. I say amazingly because everyhing thing I've read suggests the inexperienced user will end up looking like they've had a face rub from Edward Scissorhands. My only issue, and it's one I get with the disposables too, is when going against the grain on my neck I a) can't get all the hair nice and smooth, and b) i'm left with lots of soreness and blood spotting. Not cuts, just like blood is pooling on the surface. I'm wondering if I need sharper blades? Any suggestions? I've read a bit online and it seems a highly personal choice but there's got to be a good starting point surely? *my other kit includes Arko soap and a not-that-great Wilkinson Sword brush
Erm, no NVM. I'm old, and used to shave many many many moons ago, back then the accepted wisdom was to not shave against the grain. If they're not shaving whilst going with the grain soften the hairs first
Dive in at the deep end and straight razor it. I used to get razor burn from the Gillette max pro fusion explosion 3 or whatever it was when I shaved, and I'd go through a head a week maintaining the ol' face. I never had a shave like it before and I haven't shaved much since I decided to just beard up.
Perhaps settle for across the grain and two passes. Sampler packs of blades are available and might help. My bristles are a bit thick and were whipped off in short order by feather blades, Derby not so much. Prep is probably more important, moisture and warmth mainly, e.g. straight out a humid shower. Quality soaps like Taylor's and Truefitt are enjoyable. Brush is largely irrelevant imo as long as you get a good lather, some barbers have ditched the brush as an applicator due to hygiene. There's a lot of opinions online about what works and what doesn't but most of that's noise and you're forced to engage in a bit of trial and improvement.
Going against the grain always caused me issues, but then shaving generally has always caused me issues. I'm a neckbeard now, stubbornly pushing back against the awful trend in our culture to shame neckbeards as a sign of ungentlemanly slovenliness. Some people really can't shave without ****ing up their skin. You may be one of those too. Electric shavers don't cause any of this, because they don't get right onto the skin itself; the trade-off is you'll never get a really close shave, just a maintenance-friendly sandpapery stubble cut. At the end of the day, dragging a sharp blade right across the surface of your skin isn't something we should expect to be able to do with zero irritation or issues, and it's more just good luck for some people that they can get away with it. That said, if you want to know for sure, go to a really good professional barbers and have a full hot shave. That's the best-case scenario, so if that still irritates your skin and feels unpleasant, you know you're just not meant for the shaving life.
