Game Changer

[halvor]

The Turmeric answer was actually the closest.
It was my diet.

(Why the Turmeric comment? Is that a thing?)

Long and the short of it is that I have been trying to work something out with what I eat.
So I was eating very few things (although quite a lot of those) and attempting to cut out and introduce as few changes at a time to minimise complications.

I am pretty sure that it was oats for me.
I cut them out and reintroduced them three times and the result was the same each time.

I have a couple of theories as to why it is, but the difference is just huge.
I wouldn’t like to put money on my theories.

But now, there is no catching and dragging, no face juddering.
Blades last much longer. (Looking forward to retrying my twin blades. I love em, but they really only lasted one shave so couldn’t justify the cost)
My stubble feels WAY softer to the touch between shaves.
This is all with zero effort pre shave.
I have been using the same soaps and razors. Nothing new there.

What is brilliant is that I now get to start all over again experimenting.
For example, no DE blade other than feather was even worth bothering with.
I might even try something else now.
My feather non folding is suddenly WAY easier to use.
I was blaming technique there for sure.
But, boy, it is a walk in the park when the blade cuts rather than pulls at the hair.

Imagine a Cheshire cat sitting here.

Good on you, you really have made an effort and found a solution! Diet clearly has an impact on skin so it makes sense that it does for shaving too. Maybe more should consider it when struggling with their shaves/ skin in relation to shaving.

 

[R181]

Well, who would have thought it would be a dietary issue. Congrats with persevering long enough with the dietary experiment to find out.

Bob

 

[Grarea]

Well, it was quite a surprise actually.
I wasn't doing it for the shave.
As I say, it has just softened the hair.

But, yes, I totally agree, diet affects skin massively.
My skin gets fragile if I eat sugar.

Stubble is only a waste product of your body, and the only thing it can be made up of is what we put into our system.

 

[Grarea]

I'd like to try a Feather shavette myself, but not willing to splurge that much money on something I'm not sure I'd like, especially when the Parker SR1, SRX and Sanguine Coolcut 9 hit pretty much all the sweet spots for me.

I almost always have bought second hand, knowing that I will not lose much money if/when I come to sell it again.
But, yes, if you have similar and they work, why change.

You may like the iKon 103 then.

I was just about to ask about this.
But then I remembered that I don't know what I like now.
Everything has changed and got so much easier.
I have a bunch of razors to re-experiment with.

I have hair that are "normal" (not quite on the skin all the time) on my face, but on the neck it's about the same as yours.
The reason why I was asking is that for curly hair and hair that is flat on the face, I generally get best results either going in comb first and using an angle that just really trims hair a bit, and/or go in in the direction between across and against the growth and then once again across, but from the other side. Makes for much more comfortable shaves, even if not quite smooth each time.

Good info.

Regarding the "oats" discovery, I find keeping a diet fairly low in carbohydrates and regular running and workouts make by body work much better (as expected), even digestion. The combination of diet and exercise gets my skin clear, neither dry nor greasy (which it tends to without the workouts and running). Although I also use a particular soap for most purposes (except for shaving - work OK only with certain razors), so there's that as well.

Anyway, congratulations on the discovery.

Yup, thanks.
Sounds like you have a great balance there. Which is what it is all about isn't it?