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An Unexpected Journey: A Newbie's Walk In Wet Shaving

Looking forward to seeing what your friend digs up for you! Good learning day today.
 
Well I hope it's not an old electric!

This morning I decided to back off a bit and do a comfortable shave. I had some redness and soreness from yesterday so I wanted to give that time to remedy itself.

Today's Shave: Shave #54

Razor: QShave (Merkur Futur Clone) DE
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic
Soap: Mystic Water Bay Rum
Bowl: Walmart Salsa Bowl (plastic)
Pre Shave: PS Oil / Shower / wash with soap
Total Razor on Face Time: 15 minutes

Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face only, Cold rinse. Dry face, then immediately applied Niv
ea AS Balm to the face only. Mammoth Painting, rubbing left over soap on the neck then rinsing.

Continued with the PS Oil this morning and a really nice lather. I'm really liking pulling the soap out of the brush and putting it in the bowl about mid lather. The brush can't hog it all and I can add water in little bits as I need it. It's working for me although this morning I think my lather was a little dry. I found myself adding a little water to my face after a pass when I wanted to do some cleanup. I put in a new SB blade and the WTG was nice. I'm back to having blade exposure issues with the QShave so I'm basically using the more aggressive side and setting it to a comfortable setting there. I just need to remember to rotate the blade after a couple of shaves Looks like it's time to buy that Variant. XTG I decided to go one way on the face and cleanup the opposite XTG direction rather than do a separate pass for that. I also skipped the XTG on the neck. ATG was slow and careful and I used the cart on the neck. This shave felt great. I ended up BBS anyways! I decided not to worry about BBS and it happened anyways.

I really enjoyed the post shave witch hazel. I love watching the effect as it tightens my skin and reduces the redness. I really feel the WH has good effects for me. My face has never been clearer. The Nivea also feels great. I found my local grocery store actually carries it and some wet shaving stuff. I was told the Nivea AS balm sensitive was hard to find. Glad they have it at $5.99 which seems like a great price to me.
 
Blade-meister said:
I was told the Nivea AS balm sensitive was hard to find. Glad they have it at $5.99 which seems like a great price to me.
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I find Nivea everywhere! Walmart, the grocery store, drug stores..... just about anywhere that carries shaving supplies has Nivea Sensitive.
 
The Nivea shave creme is a thing of the past in the US, but the balm is still pretty available.
Sounds like its about time to try out that Gem. Try the pushbutton first though. Don't jump right into the open comb micromatic. At least see if you like the SE before trying the micromatic. They can be aggressive if you aren't ready for them.
I'm thinking if you like the medium aggressive you get from the futur clone, you may really like at least the pushbutton gem.
 
It's the Nivea 2:1 that you can't get in the states.

Now, I see you haven't decided to keep the run outside into cold air in your post shave routine.
 
ShawnF said:
Sounds like its about time to try out that Gem. Try the pushbutton first though. Don't jump right into the open comb micromatic. At least see if you like the SE before trying the micromatic. They can be aggressive if you aren't ready for them.
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They can be aggressive even if you are ready for them. GEMs take a light touch and the most shallow of angles. Put the flat of the head against your face and don't lift it much at all.
 
I'm not sure I'm ready for SE's yet. I've been tempted, but I want to find a DE that works long term that I can get great shaves for a while before getting into the SE's. They are on deck for sure.

I just bought a Parker Variant this morning. I should receive it by 12/11 just in time for shave #60. I've been riding on free razors ever since I started this adventure, so it's time I stepped up and invested in my wet shaving future.

NurseDave said:
It's the Nivea 2:1 that you can't get in the states.

Now, I see you haven't decided to keep the run outside into cold air in your post shave routine.
Click to expand...

It's cold enough now that I can step out on the enclosed porch and get a cold blast. Feels great!
 
Today marks the first full week of DE shaving since starting this adventure. Wednesdays I always had to skip it due to time constraints. With that said, today was a rough shave. I hesitate to say bad shave because I am decently smooth and I had no cuts or anything like that.

Today's Shave: Shave #55

Razor: QShave (Merkur Futur Clone) DE
Blade: Gillette Silver Blue
Brush: Maggard Razors Synthetic
Soap: Mystic Water Bay Rum
Bowl: Walmart Salsa Bowl (plastic)
Pre Shave: Shower / wash with soap
Total Razor on Face Time: 12 minutes

Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Witch Hazel (Walmart Brand) face on
ly, Cold rinse. Dry face, then immediately applied Nivea AS Balm to the face only. Mammoth Painting, rubbing left over soap on the neck then rinsing.

I skipped the PS oil this morning just to see if it made a difference. My lather was good and I made it less dry this morning. WTG pass seemed rough to me. It seems the QShave blade exposure issue is getting worse -weird issue but not uncommon with them from my research. Litterally one side gets no audio feedback feeling like it's set at zero while the other side feels like 3 when the razor is set at 1.2. XTG was brief and I really just tried to finish it and the limited ATG pass I did. At this point it just was an effort to limit irritation and redness. The cart came out a lot to get me to a DFS+ with some DFS / CCS areas that I just couldn't bear to hack away at. Needless to say, the Qshave is done and I'll be using my old Gillette or one of the other DE's I've got hanging around until my Variant arrives next week. Too bad, because I really loved the QShave when I started with it and still would if this problem hadn't developed. I think the blade exposure is the issue, but I'm not ruling out some alignment issues as well.

On the bright side, I smell great thanks to the mammoth painting and the shave is feeling better the further I get away from the shave. On the brighter side......the Variant is coming. I sold some bear claws and bear teeth a few weeks back so I had some money sitting around to fund the Variant purchase. I bet that's a first time hearing that on TSC.
 
Spider said:
I find Nivea everywhere! Walmart, the grocery store, drug stores..... just about anywhere that carries shaving supplies has Nivea Sensitive.
Click to expand...

I must have misunderstood which Nivea. I'm glad it's so available though. I love it and it feels great on my face.
 
I guess if you really like the QShave for aesthetics etc, you could always try another one and hope to get a better one or eventually invest in the Merkur Futur.
 
Blade-meister said:
....I sold some bear claws and bear teeth a few weeks back so I had some money sitting around to fund the Variant purchase. I bet that's a first time hearing that on TSC.
Click to expand...

Quote of the year!
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