[Closed] Artisan shaverists to the forum pls.

http://www.shaving-shack.com/shavettes/ shavettes apparently?

"Shavettes"? Are you sure? That sounds like something for girls, not for aspiring wood stove owners!!

shavettes is right. i have a couple and can pass one on to you if you want to try them?

Yep, shavette.

Although a double edged safety razor is perfectly acceptable, and a whole lot easier.

Still can't fathom why folks spend so much on fancy cartridge ones. A box of 100 quality DE blades for ~£10 will last for years, and is much better for the skin!

Edit: Sorry, rant over. Feeling rough.

I've got one of those 'straight' or 'cut-throat' razors. Never used it. I think it was an ill-advised gift from years back. It's a bit vintage... are these things obsolete technology? It'd obviously need to be sharpened somehow but is it worth it? Too dangerous etc?

Worked through various DE razors & shavettes over the years, go to razor of choice for me now is a 50yr old Schick L series injector.

Saponificio Varesino "70th Anniversary" Shaving Soap for a nice scented lather.

Worked through various DE razors & shavettes over the years, go to razor of choice for me now is a 50yr old Schick L series injector.

Thanks, sadexp, that's a kind offer, but I don't think I can bring myself to use another man's shavette - a bit boundary-breaking for me 🙂

Why I even bother with this is that I'm thinking it might be better for shaping the edge of my beard, which is a bit obscured by the head of the DE razer I have, leading to beard asymmetry - yes, imagine! the horror!!

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A Parker shavette can be had from Ebay for under £20.

Been using one for around a year now and it's much better than the old cartridge I used.

There's a lot of nonsense (IMO) talked about shavettes on forums etc but I've got on with it and have had minimal slicing trauma. It's not a tool to get distracted while using. Learn to use it both left handed and right handed.

I can thoroughly unrecommend Lord blades. Currently trying out Treet (good) Astra platinum (also good) and Feather (very good). You can get half blades but usually only in larger quantities, so it makes sense to buy DE and break them if you want to try different brands.

ps it's good for beard trimming.

Doesn't one have a barber?

Have a look on GEO Trumpers website or ideally go into the shop on Curzon Street in London near Picadilly Circus

Still can't fathom why folks spend so much on fancy cartridge ones. A box of 100 quality DE blades for ~£10 will last for years, and is much better for the skin!

Because I can give myself a PERFECT shave - without spilling a drop of blood - in less than a minute with a Gillette Mac3.

And I can do it in the dark or without a mirror if necessary.

I also have a Merkur, it takes about 20 minutes to achieve a second rate shave and the risk of cuts and razor burn are far higher, particularly if you try and speed it up!

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Hat image is my last 30 plus odd years shaving.....So grew a beard saves a lot of pain and blood.....

Councilof10 - I bet it's not as close as a DE or SE razor. You're not doing it right with the Merkur if you're getting razor burn. IME the advantage of a safety razor over a multiblade is that one [b]doesn't[/b] get razor burn, or ingrown hairs. I can shave in under 10 minutes with the shavette; not cut myself; do 2 passes and get very close. A multiblade is quicker but not by much once you've run water and applied soap, and is nowhere near as close.

Surely if you do it without a mirror you'll miss some bit of your face, and why would you even want to do it in the dark?

Whilst we're on the subject of artisan shaving, any recommendations for a shaving brush.

Yeh I know I should whittle my own handle and hunt a badger for the hair but life's too short.

I found Edwin Jagger synthetic brushes to be a good compromise of quality and cost. Silvertip 2 or something like that. The plus point is the brush doesn't need soaking for ages to absorb the water. Oh and no ickle badgerwadgers were harmed either......

Councilof10 - I bet it's not as close as a DE or SE razor. You're not doing it right with the Merkur if you're getting razor burn. IME the advantage of a safety razor over a multiblade is that one doesn't get razor burn, or ingrown hairs. I can shave in under 10 minutes with the shavette; not cut myself; do 2 passes and get very close. A multiblade is quicker but not by much once you've run water and applied soap, and is nowhere near as close.

Utter rubbish! I get no hint of razor burn off a Mac3 and it's practically impossible to cut one's self.

A Mac3 shaves closer, in one pass and as for getting less ingrowers with a DE, what on earth are you talking about???

I run a bowl of water, use an Arko shave stick and a badger brush. Takes around a minute. Each to their own but life is FAR too short to fanny about with an archaic, dangerous and inefficient shaving system!

Utter rubbish! I get no hint of razor burn off a Mac3 and it's practically impossible to cut one's self.

A Mac3 shaves closer, in one pass and as for getting less ingrowers with a DE, what on earth are you talking about???

I run a bowl of water, use an Arko shave stick and a badger brush. Takes around a minute. Each to their own but life is FAR too short to fanny about with an archaic, dangerous and inefficient shaving system!

I think it really does depend upon the person and type of beard, for a large white guy, i have a very "afro" beard as told to be my old barber in East London, in that if i grow a beard more than a week, the hairs curl back on themselves. For the first 25 years of my shaving life i suffered really badly with ingrowing hairs, tried every Gillette or Wilkinson system going and whilst i never drew blood, i continued to suffer with ingrowing hairs.

Once i switched to using a Bluebeards safety razor and learnt to use it properly, i get the occasional one, but it is night and day difference form that to the cartridge razors.

But i do think it is about the type of beard you have, lots of friends just use cheap supermarket branded disposables and are fine, my neck is red and covered in ingrowing hairs if i use them for a fortnight.

Same with electric razors, simply cannot use on where loads can.

As much as I love my beard, the GF does not and a decent growth of it _does_ make me look like a tramp. I also need to keep a clean chin whilst on duty, so have to shave on a regular basis.

This time around, I'm sticking it to the man and keeping the sidies.

I think it really does depend upon the person and type of beard, for a large white guy, i have a very "afro" beard as told to be my old barber in East London, in that if i grow a beard more than a week, the hairs curl back on themselves. For the first 25 years of my shaving life i suffered really badly with ingrowing hairs, tried every Gillette or Wilkinson system going and whilst i never drew blood, i continued to suffer with ingrowing hairs.

There's no earthly reason why any shaving system would cause more or less ingrowing hairs. A razor simply cuts the hair off close to the skin. Ingrowers are pretty much defined by the shape of the follicle before it ever exits the skin, or the skin it has to push through ie. if it's scrarred etc. This is why people tend to suffer from ingrowers in the same place.

The best thing you can do to solve ingrowers is to exfoliate. It doesn't matter whether you use a cut-throat, a single or double edged, a multi blade or a kitchen knife!

Skin texture changes as we age which is why ingrowers, pimples and rashes are more common in younger shavers and less as a problem as we get older.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/ingrown-hairs/Pages/Introduction.aspx#Causes

So NHS advice is to avoid shaving close, which is why they suggest a single bladed razor!

But those who are disagreeing with me on this thread are extolling the closeness of shave from a DE razor and suggesting that I can't possibly get as close a shave with a cartridge! 🙄

That's not quite what it says. It doesn't give a reason for using a single blade, the advice not to shave too closely is a separate point. Anecdotally, my skin is a lot less pissed off after shaving with a DE, which stands to reason I suppose as it's had one blade dragged over it rather than fifteen; maybe that's why that advice is given?

TBH, having used both I'm not convinced that DE is inherently any more or less close than a cartridge razor, you can get a decent shave with either. Of course, DE is considerably cheaper.

I remember the old advert, "the first blade shaves incredibly close, the second closer still!" - why not just have the second blade then? If you've got one decent blade the rest are surely pointless.

I don't think it takes a rocket surgeon to work out that some hairs block others, or are lying in a direction that isn't cut by the first blade.

I have decent skin, no particular problems with ingrowers or sensitivity, but if I use a DE, I end up with raw patches under my jawline. The reason being that I have to make several passes over that area to make it smooth (spiral growth on a soft concave area). And a DE blade is far more savage than a cartridge so damages the skin.

However, one pass with a cartridge leaves those areas as smooth as a baby's bum. So whilst a simplistic description of what's going on is that I've shaved it 3 times, anyone with half a brain would understand that I've actually only shaved it once, but with 3 blades lifting and cutting in slightly different ways.

Avoid razor burn by:

Heating your face and neck with a hot towel to open the pores.

Rub on a thin layer of pre-shave oil.

Make sure the blade was wiped clean (preferably at the end of the previous shave) and palm-stropped.

Don't press into the skin, just let the weight of the razor do the work.

Rinse the skin and apply more oil before any subsequent passes (I normally do three, each in a different direction).

Avoid razor burn by:

[s]Heating your face and neck with a hot towel to open the pores.

Rub on a thin layer of pre-shave oil.

Make sure the blade was wiped clean (preferably at the end of the previous shave) and palm-stropped.

Don't press into the skin, just let the weight of the razor do the work.

Rinse the skin and apply more oil before any subsequent passes (I normally do three, each in a different direction)[/s].

..using one of these and decent shaving soap.

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I can get closer with a cartridge than my DE Merkur if I shave in a hurry. If I have loads of time and do a four-pass shave, then I imagine the results would be the same for either.

The only reason I've exclusively used DE for the past few years is because I'm tight 😀

Having tried DE razors as well as a shavette I've come to the conclusion that a decent modern razor even with bog standard shaving gel is just much easier for a consistently better shave.

From start to finish I can be done in 2 minutes, no cuts or razor burn and an acceptable level of closeness. In contrast the DE razor probably takes a good 10-15 minutes, can give better closeness but can also give much more razor burn.

I quite like the faff and theatre of messing around with badger brushes and shavettes etc but in real terms it's just not worth the hassle.

In contrast the DE razor probably takes a good 10-15 minutes, can give better closeness but can also give much more razor burn.

To avoid razor burn:

Etc etc

From start to finish I can be done in 2 minutes, no cuts or razor burn and an acceptable level of closeness. In contrast the DE razor probably takes a good 10-15 minutes, can give better closeness but can also give much more razor burn.

YMMV

I can be in and out of the bathroom in under 3 minutes with my DE, no razor burn and no ingrowing hairs since I started using it (used to regularly have them with cartridge)

For me the difference is that the blade is more open and doesn't get clogged with cut hair / skin / soap, and secondly because it's pennies a blade, I change it every 3 shaves whether needed or not. At a squillion quid per cartridge I'd use them until they were blunter than a blunt thing.

councilof10 - Member
There's no earthly reason why any shaving system would cause more or less ingrowing hairs. A razor simply cuts the hair off close to the skin. Ingrowers are pretty much defined by the shape of the follicle before it ever exits the skin, or the skin it has to push through ie. if it's scrarred etc. This is why people tend to suffer from ingrowers in the same place.

My experience is that cartridge razors give a (much) closer shave and that is what causes the ingrowing hairs. I went from plucking out infected hairs with a needle 2-3 times a week to 0 over night after changing to a DE.

In fact weren't cartridge razors once advertised on the back of cutting the hair below the skin for a better lasting shave?

I'm using feather blades, so it is not because my blades are blunt! 😀

Sorry, maybe I should have written:

In contrast the DE razor probably takes a good 10-15 minutes, can give better closeness but can also give much more razor burn even when using the following:

Heating face and neck with a hot towel to open the pores immediately after a shower.

Using pre-shave oil.

New blade every time.

Shaving soap, badger brush, bubbles to the recommended consistency.

Not pressing into the skin, just letting the weight of the razor do the work.

Rinsing the skin and applying more oil before any subsequent passes.

Cold water rinse.

Styptic pencil if/when required.

Rinse again.

Pat dry.

Post shave balm.

All that pissing about, the purchase of razor, blades, pre-shave oil, shaving soap, brush, bowl, post shave balm, moisturiser and aftershave and at best it's a tiny bit closer, a worst it's less close, more painful, more expensive and a much longer process than a mach3 and some supermarket gel.

Pile of bolox, IMHO

Have shower and wash hair and face. The heat from the shower opens the pores and softens the beard already.

No need for fancy oils or soaps (although admittedly nice soap is nice) - but for day to day I use Palmolive cream or similar at £1.99 a tube

Dab in a bowl, lather up instantly with a £7 brush from Boots

One pass shave is easily close enough for a day to day experience

Why change blades every day, I change every 3-4 shaves. Maybe I don't have wirewool stubble, but that's plenty.

All that stuff about rinsing and reapplying - maybe if it's a special anniversary but for day to day..... get outta here; it's about looking presentable.

Likewise post shave balms and all that fancy stuff.

You might piss about like a dandy, I shave like my Dad and Grandad and Great Grandad did, for functionality rather than any 'experience'. If i wanted an experience, I'd save up all the money I'm not wasting on P&G's marketing and pay a Naomi Harris lookalike to do it.

The biggest treat you can give yourself is to get a decent shaving soap.

Most of these born again double-edged evangelists tend to try it after using a disposable and aerosol foam. They buy a Merkur, a handful of blades and then think, "while I'm at it, I'll try some of that old-fashioned soap and a badger brush - that'll look awwwwsums next to the sink with my shiny razor."

Then they start having nicer shaves, their skin feels better, and they think it's due to their reproduction 19th century razor, or their 80-quid albino badger pube brush...

It's not. It's the soap. Yep, sorry to break it too you, but that 2 quid stick of Arko is what's cured your cornbeef-hash complexion, the rest is just hipster kidology.

Not in my case, at any rate. I got a brush years before I got a proper DE razor. I agree though, that does make a big difference.

Me too. I had the brush and the soap before I had the shavette. The shavette causes much less irritation than the cartridge I used to use.

I concede that the closeless feeling may be in the prep, but it *feels* closer.

Don't know why you're getting bent out of shape about it councilor, especially when the OP asked specifically about shavettes. He's gone quiet though - maybe he's still shaving with it, or has slit his throat by mistake.

They buy a Merkur, a handful of blades and then think, "while I'm at it, I'll try some of that old-fashioned soap and a badger brush - that'll look awwwwsums next to the sink with my shiny razor."

Then they start having nicer shaves, their skin feels better, and they think it's due to their reproduction 19th century razor, or their 80-quid albino badger pube brush...

Hmm. Interesting. Did Ipsos do a survey?