[evercloserunion]

Hi all, I recently made the switch to a double-edged safety razor. It's going well so far, no nasty cuts or anything and I'm getting a pretty smooth shave. But I have a few questions that Google isn't answering for me, hopefully some ofthe more experienced shavers here can.

- What angle should the blade be at? Should I be trying to keep it as close to being parallel with my skin as possible, or what?

- I've heard that the most common method is to do three passes, with, across and against the grain, and that sometimes a fourth pass is necessary for extra smoothness. But which one should the fourth pass be? With, across or against?

- I'm using shaving soap with a brush, and sometimes when I lather up my face I find that after a few minutes, the lather has faded or even apparently disappeared. Should I relather in such circumstances? Or is the lather still there and I'm good to go?

- I'm having particular trouble getting a smooth shave on my neck. It seems the grain there goes in weird directions. Also, the skin there seems particularly sensitive, so after a couple of extra passes it starts to get quite irritated. Is there a standard method for cleanly and thoroughly shaving the neck?

- I'm currently shaving with this, a low-end double edge safety razor I bought in Boots in Jervis Shopping Centre. It was dirt cheap (€5); normally I wouldn't even bother with something so cheap, but it seems to have surprisingly good reviews online, here for example. I'm also using a shaving soap and a Wilkinson Sword brush. The latter two were gifts so I don't know how much they cost. I've read some articles and posts that talk about sinking up to €100 into a "starter kit" that contains all the items needed for shaving. What's the deal with that? It's not so much that I'd have a problem paying €100 if it really was an investment which would last me a long time, but it seems that by shopping cheap (like going for Boots brand stuff) I could get everything I need for much, much less. But would this leave me with woefully inadequate tools? In particular, I'm finding it hard to justify buying a more up-market razor when my Boots one seems to have decent reviews (of course, not having use a safety razor before, I cannot compare its actual performance). So how much do you guys spend on your shaving stuff, and do you think it's worth my while to put a little extra money into finding quality goods?

Thanks for all your help!

[John Divney]

Is the soap you are using drying by the end of a pass and creating friction? That will not help the sensitive neck.

I would switch to a good cream, Proraso seems to be the gold standard of in-expensive cream that is high quality, however good soaps are raved about too, research Badger and Blade soap forum for one of those.

If your beard is coarse around the neck and that is part of the problem, use a drop of shaving oil pre-lather and continue your routine, and shave after a shower.

You need to get a better blade that suits your face to stop irritaion, that is crucial. you should experiment with them, I'd start with Astras, a Russian made blade available online easily. Shaving.ie does a starter pack of blades and is delivered very fast.

Also you should invest in a good Safety Razor, the combination of blade and razor in the Boots one may not be suited to you.

[source]

to get the right blade angle, place the top of the razor against your face and slowly lower the razor head until the blade is touching the skin, this will be the correct angle for shaving.

Head over to you tube and check out mantic59's videos, all the info you'll ever need in relation to shaving.

re shaving your neck, go with just one pass until you find a blade you like, and definitely avoid going ATG for the first while.

as above, get onto shaving.ie and pick up a sample pack and experiment with the blades until you find the one that's right for you. Once you've got the right blade and you've had a few decent shaves then you can consider going for a decent razor.

shaving.ie will have everything you need for cheap, you can put your own stuff together on there for less than €60 is you look right. You can get a razor for about €20, a badger brush for less than €20 and the proraso is about €5 for a tube that will last months. A starter pack of blades will only set you back a few euro.

while the initial outlay with de shaving seems steep, It's way way cheaper in the long run. For example you can, once you've found the right blade, bulk buy, and get 100 blades for around €20, given that most will use a blade a week that's 100 weeks of shaving for the price of 4 fusion cartridges!!!

[evercloserunion]

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I will definitely invest in better equipment. I'm looking at maybe buying the Muhle R89 razor on shaving.ie, as it has great reviews, looks nice and fits my price range. Anyone have any experience with it?

I'll definitely pick up a set of blades too; in fact, I might pick up this starter pack.

[Peckham]

I'm also a recent (about 6 weeks) convert to DE razors and use that one. Works great, but I've nothing to compare it to.

[Gran Hermano]

TheMuhle R89 is well worth picking up. It is a nice balance - not too mild or aggressive. It also looks great, much nicer than the Merkur razors.

[kaiserjim]

I have the R89 myself and its a great razor. I actually started with the boots razor aswell the R89 makes a huge difference. OP pm me your address if you like and Ill send a few spare blades for you to try.

[corpo3030]

I have been using this Timor safety razor since I'm new to DE shaving myself. Its really good for a beginner, I think because not as much of the blade is exposed to the skin, it forgives mistakes easier than a more expensive razor would.

http://www.shaving.ie/products/Bronz...ety-Razor.html

[PickledLime]

Another vote for the R89 here - i'm only six shaves into my DE career and i'm never touching cartridges again!

[evercloserunion]

So I got my starter kit from shaving.ie, and had my first shave with the Muhle there, also using the Proraso cream, a Wilkinson Sword bad and the Omega brush for the first time. I did two WTG passes, which were so-so (mainly due to me botching the angle and putting insufficient lather on, I think) but then I had a really nice AGT pass, much smoother and less pully than with the cheap razor. I stopped short of giving myself a fully smooth all-over shave, really just wanted to give the new equipment a spin, in a couple of days I will see how I do on a more thorough shave.

As for the brush, I was using the Omega 48 Professional, it's nice but the bristles are way too long for my liking. I keep a goatee that I shave around, and I think that brush is more geared towards whole-face shaves as it's hard to control the bristles because of their size. I have a Wilkinson Sword brush which, although it doesn't get great reviews, is the right size for me, so I will probably stick with that in future.

Re the neck issue, I now think that ingrown hairs are the problem there, so I'll try all the usual remedies for those and see how I get on.

Thanks again for the help everybody.