Loads of Gillette blades on eBay, I use the Gillette Nacet and find them great. Plenty of other options too. Looks like thats a Gillette Platinum going on Google image results.
Looks like thats a Gillette Platinum going on Google image results.
If that's the case then,
https://www.edwinjagger.co.uk/gillette-platinum-de-razor-blades.html
Hang on....I've got some platinums, I'll look
Nope. the platinum I have says 'platinum' across the blade.
There are loads of gillette. they vary lots. I found nacet ok, and really likes 7 oclock sharp edge (in the yellow box), tried 3 other 7 oclocks, blues, 365, gillette wilkinson sword..errr maybe more...still got rubie, platinum and more to try. If no one can id it, pm me your address and I'll post you one of each of the gillettes I have, maybe your dad will find one that suits.
Anybody get any nice shaving related presents then?
Little blade update from me,
I've tried Vidyut supermax blue diamond Titanium, bluebird (blade is actually marked Derby extra) and also Derby premium. Both the Derby blades are awful for me, dull, tuggy, scratchy and only do one or two shaves. The vidyut was better but still on the tuggy side and not super close cutting. Still very happy with the Gillette 7 o'clock sharp edge.
I never do but I buy myself enough anyway
A Carbon CX DE arrived Xmas eve but it’s probably not a keeper
Blimey is almost 6 months since I updated this and 18 months since I started Dr shaving. Well I can now shave DE, 3 pass, about as quick as I did scrapping away with a mach 3, and I get reliable good results. My skin is much better for it and I reckon I've about paid for the initial outlay on 2 futures, brushes and mirrors now with what I've saved on blades over cartridges. I've used 53 blades and something like 25 different ones and found my favourite is Gillette 7 o'clock yellow (sharp edge) which gives me 8 to 10 close and irritation free shaves with the futur on 2. I have a few other blades that are ok too, Gillette permasharp, nacet, sputniks, astra sp, but the yellows are my go to
Since my last update there had been a lot of second tries on blades with little change on experience except Gillette 365 which was better second try and passable.
New blades tried:
Bluebird (had two tucks from the same supplier but one set the blades were marked blue bird, the other Derby extra) not very sharp and 2nd shave resulted in lots of nicks and irritation.
Derby premium were the same.
Gillette Rubie, ok, similar to the yellows but not quite as good and only did 3 decent shaves
Gillette platinum I've tried once (it's in the razor stuck at work) and they could be as good as the yellows. We shall see.
Vidyut Supermax blue diamond ti, but tuggy and only did 3 decent shaves
Bic chromium. No! Just awful, a de version of bic disposables
Wilkinson sword classics (German made). Not as good as the made in England. Medium sharp and ok for 4 shaves
Vidyut Supermax super stainless, awful
Still got a couple of blades to try and half a dozen need a second go, but quite tempted to just buy about 1000 yellows and then be set until I'm in my 80s if I'm lucky enough to live that long!
Ye gods, primping has got excessive.
Buy razor, no need for anything but water, replace blade when it gets blunt.
The important thing is to keep it all clean.
It's just a cutting implement. The fancy stuff is just to make the cosmetics companies rich.
I've just gone back to DE shaving, now that I don't have to leave for work just after 6am I can take my time which I need to do for the first week or so until the old knack comes back. I've just got 100 Astra Platinum blades for £9.99, so much better than splurging £18 on 8 Mach III heads.
Exactly. I was using mach 3, and buying 8 packs when Sainsbury's had them reduced a few pounds I must have spent about £50 a year on cartridges. 100 Gillette yellows are less than a tenner and will last me 3 or 4 years.
No Feathers, Neil?
Well after a decade of beardiness it seems I may have no choice but to go clean shaven for a while (a work related face mask requirement).
I’ve found my old Futur razor and I packet of feathers, but not my brush nor any of the old Musgo soap I used to use.
Who can recommend me (a) a decent synthetic brush and (b) a good cream and aftershave for dryish skin?
Who can recommend me (a) a decent synthetic brush and (b) a good cream and aftershave for dryish skin?
Diamond Edge Website for Brushes
Proraso Sensitive for the delicate of face. eBay is usually a good source, lots of low priced stuff. I use the preshave, schave cream in a "toothpaste tube", and the aftershave balm.
Edit: good priced Proraso gift tin. PRORASO SENSITIVE GIFT TIN
Thanks BBS, that looks just the job.
Polsilver are my favs, though been growing a beard since November so not shaved in a while....
They seem to be getting hard to get hold of in the UK?
Polsilver
Also known as the Holy Grail. I managed to pick up some in Bulgaria in 2016, normal stock in pharmacies. Long gone now, should have bought more in hindsight. I'm a Feather user normally.
cougar, no not for me. I tried the feather 3 times (3 blades), once stropped and twice without, once on a moderately aggressive setting when it shredded my face, and once on the least aggressive setting where it was still harsh on my skin for the first 2 or 3 shaves before smoothing out and doing okay for few shaves. Generally i have found i like a sharper blade, but the feather i did not like at all.
Polsilver super iridium are no longer made so getting harder to find and more and more expensive. I have a tuck and am yet to try it. I did try another blade marked super iridium which holyzeus sent me but he couldn't recall what it was. I think possibly a wizamet si, these are thought to be the same blade as polsilver so if you like the polsilver, see if you can find wizamets more easily.
Bump for this one, I'm getting to the end of my stack of test blades that @neilnevill kindly sent. I have been impressed with the Feather blades that came with my razor, and with the Astra, various Gillete and Wilkinson Sword blades from the stack of testers. Next question is where to buy a longer term supply
I've seen a place offering 100 Feather blades for £39 which seems a fair chunk - I can get 100 Astra blades for £12 (plus 99p postage) from https://bladesandwhiskers.co.uk/. Any other places worh looking at? Am somewhat wary of bulk packs on ebay given the stories of fakes...
had a quick look at the usual suspects that i use, some were £30 or more, these 2 came out at around £24 i think. i didnt check the postage tho.....
EDIT: at half the price, the astras look a good deal. i think in general feathers are real sharp but a bit unpredictable, and not as smooth, whereas astras are maybe not quite as sharp but are smoother and maybe last a shave or two longer.
I got most of maybe all the blades I tried from eBay.
Feather do seem expensive. I bought 1000 Gillette 7 o'clock sharp edge yellows for £79 and am sorted until I'm in my 80s I think!
NBT.
As sadexpunk says Connaught Shaving is my usual source for Feathers. In general they are more expensive than others, but for me it's worth the extra expense. And TBF we're not breaking the bank at 39p per blade. 24p from Connaught Shaving.
Be careful of cheap Feathers from eBay and Amazon, the cheap ones are invariably fakes, I got caught out early on and they were like shaving with rusty barbed wire.
Cheers guys. Yes the Gillette 7 o’clock sharp edge yellows were good, but think for the moment 100 Astras will do me - that's a few years worth at least
Thread resurrection time! 🙂
I've been DE shaving for 3 weeks now so I can ditch the disposable multi-head jobbies. I bought a Gillette King C one to test the water, now got a Merkur 23C one! (Can't tell much difference if I'm honest).
I just wondered what 'products' - blades, creams etc., are the most eco-friendly? Can't see the point in ditching disposable blades if I'm then going to buy blades and creams in plastic packaging or ripping down rain forest for palm oil.
I should add I've not had a single nick yet - maybe I'm just lucky.
Ta!
I use Proraso stuff - cream is in a metal tube, pre-shave cream is in a glass jar (plastic lids on both TBF but they eah last aaaages, I've just finished the pre-shave jar after a year of shaving three times a week), and an alum bar in a cardboard box. Nivea balm in a glass bottle.
I’m a Proraso convert. Preshave, shave cream in the tube, post shave balm.
I use about two of each per year, three to four saves a week.
blades - some come in plastic boxes (eg Feather, shame as they're good blades if rather expensive). I got 100 Astra for a very good price from here and they're in cardboard / paper
I got a bar of shaving soap from a local eco-shop that came wrapped in paper, that's almost gone so I'll be looking for something to replace it - might try some shaving cream this time
I'm on a Merkur 34c with feather blades. Depends alot on your beard as to what works best. My beard isn't mega thick, but the bristles are.
I've found a sharper blade works better for me and the more effort with softening the bristles the better.
I've not found the 'let the weight of the razor do the work' advice to be faintly true for me, I still have to drag it through to cut, but its important not to push when you do that otherwise you'll be taking slices off your face.
Feather or Astra blades and proraso for shaving soap and after lotion
Then Brut 33 or Old Spice
Posh aftershaves for special days lol
Will add I have a full beard so my blades last for years. They may have invented better stuff since I last had to buy any
^^^^ Look at my post from a short while ago - not OP's from 2 years ago! 🙂
A 100 pack of Bolzano blades comes in cardboard, with all blade in waxed paper
as for soaps - there's loads in metal tins on Etsy (oatcakesoap is one I've used, but he's taking a break), or buy a stainless steel nibbles pot (got mine in Home Bargains for 75p), and just buy soap (like https://nonplasticbeach.com/products/shaka-shave-bar)
personally, I buy (and prefer) Tallow soaps. There's no palm oil, and it's a waste product, so....
At the moment I like https://www.phoenixandbeau.uk/ from the UK, or https://murphyandmcneil.com/collections/murphy-and-mcneil-shaving-soaps/murphy-and-mcneil from further away. They are in plastic, but they do last a long time. Some Razorock stuff does come in a glass jar, with a metal lid https://shavingtime.co.uk/collections/razorock-razors/products/copy-of-razorock-dead-sea-shaving-soap-150g - and their aftershaves are all glass. https://shavingtime.co.uk/collections/razorock-razors/products/razorock-dead-sea-aftershave-100ml
The best thing I ever did shaving-wise was switch from cans of squirt to using a brush. Though I found little practical different between an expensive brush made from dead badgers and a supermarket special, so the yogurt-knitting option here isn't a huge compromise.
The ghetto answer for cream is Palmolive shaving sticks, they cost like £2. Arko are supposed to be good also but I've not used them so can't really comment beyond passing on recommendations from others. Whether either are the most eco-friendly I'm not sure, but the Palmolive stick comes in a cardboard box and a stick lasts about two decades so it can't be that bad.
Blades, in moving away from cartridge razors at £10 for 5 you're already saving pandas. I'd choose quality over packaging here and this has been discussed at length on this thread. I like Feathers and one of the other STW-popular brands - either Derby or Astra, I can't remember now - cut me to bloody ribbons. A kind soul from this parish sent me a small selection box a year or two back which I'm quietly working my way through still, you just need to experiment here and find what works for you.
HTH.
I’m a Proraso convert. Preshave, shave cream in the tube, post shave balm.
I use about two of each per year, three to four saves a week.
Plenty of Proraso shaving product range currently available at TK Maxx so check them out. Price wise is reasonable.
WRT environmentally products.
Gillette blades come in card, not plastic boxes. Others that I can remember off the top of my head are Astras, Sputniks. A few plastic boxes aren't that bad - good for holding the used blades.
Soap sticks (as Cougar mentions) come in cardboard with a foil around them. I like Palmolive and Arko.
No idea about the Palm Oil content in these products.
Palm oil is not bad in and of itself - if anything it's quite a green way to get oil, as palm produces about four times as much oil as any other plant for given coverage. The issue with palm oil is the way that proper forest and other habitat is being destroyed to plant palms
I missed this resurrection!
Most of the blades I tried came in card. I kept the 3 or 4 plastic boxes as they are handy for storing blades for a trip away.
I settled on Gillette 7 o'clock sharp edge (the yellow box). Bought 1000. No plastic just card and waxed paper wrapping.
Arlo does indeed come in paper wrapping and I find it ever so slightly better than Palmolive, both good though and is you buy a pack of 6 or 8 they are less to than a couple of quid and will last ages. Think Derby do a stick in paper wrapping too.
Johnson's aloe Vera oil does come in a plastic bottle unfortunately,, but a bottle lasts me 18 months so not too bad.
After several years of de shaving I wish I'd found this 30 years earlier. My skin feels great these days
