Learning to shave with the Feather Artist Club

Merkurologist

Merkurologist

Forum GOD!
UKRob said:
I would still contend that the length of hair doesn’t matter whether you are shaving with, across or against the grain. Consequently, I don’t see why a single ATG pass would be more likely to cause razor bumps or ingrown hairs than an ATG pass after WTG or XTG.
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I agree that the length of the hair doesn't matter, if the blade is sharp enough, it will cut the hairs regarless of length.

I never said that a single ATG pass would be more likely to cause razor bumps or ingrown hairs.

What I said and perhaps I wasn't clear enough.... when I attempted going ATG first with a SR (tried a few razors) I felt the blade wasn't sharp enough and it felt uncomfortable, even painful, having said that, I was able to shave ATG with a Feather AC and a Proline blade. I attribute this to the Proline blade being much sharper than a SR blade. SIDE NOTE: using same shavette with a Feather Pro Super didn't feel smooth going ATG IIRC, would need to do it again to be sure.

At least for me, going WTG or XTG the hairs offer little resistance in comparison with ATG. I would say that WTG and XTG work as a beard reduction ( removing layers of hairs if you like ) while ATG takes it all down in one go.

I'm not shaving today cause I want to try a one pass shave again but with 48h growth this time. It's possible that I didn't have enough growth at 24h.
 
Cheesepiece

Cheesepiece

Stickler
UKRob said:
I don’t see it that way - you are shaving at skin level, consequently the length of hair is immaterial. The hanging hair analogy is not appropriate because that is a deliberate attempt to cut hair above skin level to avoid resistance.

The upper lip exception would be because of the difficulty of getting the correct angle - I think east-west and vice versa would be easier, but even then you would still do a north-south to get immediately under the nose area.
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I don't know about you but my stubble doesn't grow perpendicular to my face. The 'grain' is such that it comes out at an angle more shallow than even 45° and my face and neck are not flat planes. That means the hairs, more often than not, are in contact with skin at the root and, in the case of longer growth, also at their ends.
ATG before a mowing down via W/Xtg pass(es) is problematic for that reason.
Shaving interval of 12-24hrs this is not an issue but anything longer and I would be opening the door to ingrowns.
 
Merkurologist

Merkurologist

Forum GOD!
Merkurologist said:
I agree that the length of the hair doesn't matter, if the blade is sharp enough, it will cut the hairs regarless of length.

I never said that a single ATG pass would be more likely to cause razor bumps or ingrown hairs.

What I said and perhaps I wasn't clear enough.... when I attempted going ATG first with a SR (tried a few razors) I felt the blade wasn't sharp enough and it felt uncomfortable, even painful, having said that, I was able to shave ATG with a Feather AC and a Proline blade. I attribute this to the Proline blade being much sharper than a SR blade. SIDE NOTE: using same shavette with a Feather Pro Super didn't feel smooth going ATG IIRC, would need to do it again to be sure.

At least for me, going WTG or XTG the hairs offer little resistance in comparison with ATG. I would say that WTG and XTG work as a beard reduction ( removing layers of hairs if you like ) while ATG takes it all down in one go.

I'm not shaving today cause I want to try a one pass shave again but with 48h growth this time. It's possible that I didn't have enough growth at 24h.
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Oh well, One pass ATG with the FAC SS and a Schick Proline blade, after 48h growth.

I'm so impressed with this blade.

The shave itself felt like the one before, with 24h growth, very comfortable. What felt more impressive was going from 2 days growth to BBS in no time.

Now that I proved this to myself, I can go back to my 3 pass routine knowing that if I'm ever pressed for time I have the one pass ATG in my locker :)
 
wintoid

wintoid

Out of control
Day 83 - Feather Artist Club DX with Kai Protouch MG guarded (3)

A really excellent shave today. However, I keep thinking about day 81's shave, because the blade scrapes more today than it did on day 81. Obviously the blade was new at that point, and I imagine that's when it performs at its best. Perhaps my shoddy technique is resulting in blades getting dull quite quickly? I'm assuming the scraping feeling is related to the blade being less sharp.

Anyway WTG/XTG/ATG. There's not much to criticise today really. I'm much more confident with my non-dominant hand going XTG on the opposite side of my face these days. I have changed the direction of the stroke on one point under my jawline on my dominant side, and that seems to work better, even if it's not properly ATG.

The gaps (in time) between my FAC shaves are increasing though. Perhaps I'm getting bored now. I've been playing with a Gillette Goodwill lately, and it's an incredible thing, far far nicer than any NEW I've ever used. I think the Feathers are now "part of the rotation".
 
Zwilling

Zwilling

Kamisori shaver
wintoid said:
Day 83 - Feather Artist Club DX with Kai Protouch MG guarded (3)

A really excellent shave today. However, I keep thinking about day 81's shave, because the blade scrapes more today than it did on day 81. Obviously the blade was new at that point, and I imagine that's when it performs at its best. Perhaps my shoddy technique is resulting in blades getting dull quite quickly? I'm assuming the scraping feeling is related to the blade being less sharp.
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Scraping is generally to do with your angle, which then should be more acute. A dull blade tugs (this could also relate to too little stretching) or leaves stubble.
 
NeilJ

NeilJ

Forum GOD!
I used my DE razor today for the first time in about 2 months as I wanted to test out a few blades and because I wanted to see how my shave compared to using the AC.

It was quite nice to relax using the DE, with the AC you have to be on the ball 100% of the time. Using the AC has certainly improved my shaving technique with regards to pressure and stretching the skin and this showed on my DE shave today. Feeling my face now it is definitely not as close as using the AC and I had a bit of irritation on my neck. I used the AC to get under my nostrils as it is brilliant at doing that. I think I'll go back to the AC tomorrow as I found that although it was nice to switch off today I missed using the AC, I think in future I'll just used my DE for when I'm pushed for time.
 
L

lloydrm

Forum GOD!
NeilJ said:
I used my DE razor today for the first time in about 2 months as I wanted to test out a few blades and because I wanted to see how my shave compared to using the AC.

It was quite nice to relax using the DE, with the AC you have to be on the ball 100% of the time. Using the AC has certainly improved my shaving technique with regards to pressure and stretching the skin and this showed on my DE shave today. Feeling my face now it is definitely not as close as using the AC and I had a bit of irritation on my neck. I used the AC to get under my nostrils as it is brilliant at doing that. I think I'll go back to the AC tomorrow as I found that although it was nice to switch off today I missed using the AC, I think in future I'll just used my DE for when I'm pushed for time.
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Interesting how it works so differently for each of us. I get the very best shaves from a razor when it gets all my attention; as in the first shaves from a new razor. Then it's just a game of chasing that back: rotating, putting aside for a while, actively forcing myself to focus. No wonder str8s work well yet I've accumulated more safeties than I should've.
 
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wintoid

wintoid

Out of control
Day 84 - Feather Artist Club DX with Kai Protouch MG guarded (4)

Mindful of the previous comment by @Zwilling I decided to try a slightly shallower angle to see if the scraping was reduced. It was, but I have to say the shave wasn't as efficient.

I also was thinking about @Merkurologist doing a one-pass ATG shave, so today I started with ATG, with the intention of stopping if the first ATG pass was enough for me. It wasn't, at least with this blade and my experiment with angle. I know, I know, too many variables!

Therefore three passes going ATG/XTG/WTG. Extremely comfortable, fairly effective, but not as close as usual. No patches as such, but just a little less sleek than usual. No cuts or nicks of any sort.

It occurred to me that the 100 shave mark is on the not-so-distant horizon now.
 
wintoid

wintoid

Out of control
A question for the group. Throughout my experiment, I've settled on what I've previously referred to as 1:3 hold. In other words, the handle is between my index finger and the other three fingers. Most people seem to do 2:2.

Is there any reason I should start trying to retrain myself to do 2:2? I found 1:3 to make following the contours of my jaw a bit easier, as twiddling the spine between my fingers felt more controllable.
 
UKRob

UKRob

Forum GOD!
wintoid said:
A question for the group. Throughout my experiment, I've settled on what I've previously referred to as 1:3 hold. In other words, the handle is between my index finger and the other three fingers. Most people seem to do 2:2.

Is there any reason I should start trying to retrain myself to do 2:2? I found 1:3 to make following the contours of my jaw a bit easier, as twiddling the spine between my fingers felt more controllable.
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Keep whatever hold feels comfortable and let’s you manouvre the razor best. Some straights have much larger and different shaped scales to others so the hold may change accordingly.
 
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