Cartridge vs DE razor shaving - my experiences so far

I'd say don't jump to conclusions...

I've been wetshaving (DE) since 2013 and it took more than a year before I got really great consistant shaves. I may be slow, but that's me :)

Today I get awesome shaves with DE. No so with carts (have Mach3 on the shelf and Contour as well). I'm not saying they're rubbish for everyone, but I'm saying if you've only been in the game for a few weeks, heck even few months, don't think it can't get any better, because the best is still awaiting... :)
 
a sold month of daily or at least every other day DE shaves, with no cartridge shaving in between, according to a forum I was once on just barely puts you into the category of "hey, I can hold my razor".

It takes time to learn anything. And shaving takes more time to learn than one thinks.
 
it takes longer to soak my brush and wet my soap then it does to actually shave. I really cant make it last any longer because 4-5 minutes of shaving and nothing left to remove.


Wilkinson sword classic is popular, plastic, but apparently very mild.
 
Some progress has been made!

I actually bought another razor in the end and got some new blades to try out. I went for a Muhle R41. I also have some Feather, Derby and Personna blades to try out. However, for my first shave with the Muhle R41, I used the single Muhle blade that was included with the razor. The Muhle blade doesn't seem to be great - I imagine it's a re-badged blade made by someone else.

However, the shave was a lot quicker and felt more comfortable. Just a couple of the tiniest nicks were produced. In comparison to the Merkur 34C, I could actually feel the blade against my skin. I did read many, many reviews of the Muhle R41 and was expecting an instrument that would be more suited to giving blood, but it wasn't as aggressive as I expected it to be.

It definitely shaved my stubble a lot better than the Merkur 34C. The general 'flow' of the shave was a lot smoother and I felt the razor more comfortable to hold and navigate around my face. Perhaps this is something to do with the weighting/balance? I imagine with some 'proper' blades it'll be awesome. Of course, I exercised some care given the reputation of this the R41, however I did feel a lot more confident with it.

So I'm getting there - next steps will be to try out the Derby, Personna and Feather blades to see which ones provide the best shave.
 
Glad things are looking up for you evoke, the current 41 has been fine tuned a tad since the original head and seems to be generally very well thought of. For what it's worth I'd suggest the Feather blade allied to a very light touch is going to float your boat. Enjoy.

JohnnyO. o/
 
evoke said:
The majority of my shaves over the last few weeks have been with my Merkur 34C razor with Astra SP blades. It's been quite a learning experience as I've tried out various shaving soaps and creams and also varied my technique. My beard bristles are extremely thick and tough - a point that would be a major factor in my overall conclusion.

So, in terms of a comparison, here's the products I use for an end-to-end shaving experience:

DE Shaving Items
  • Merkur 34C razor
  • Astra SP blades
  • TOBS sandalwood shaving cream
  • Vulfix 404 shaving brush
  • Haryali London Classic Stainless Steel Shavign Bowl
  • Nivea Sensitive Post-Shave Balm
  • TOBS Sandalwood After Shave
Cartridge Razor Shaving Items
  • Gillette Fusion ProGlide Power razor
  • Gillette Fusion ProGlide Power cartridge
  • The Real Shaving Co Super Slide Shave Gel
  • TOBS Sandalwood After Shave
Preparation
DE shaving requirements a fair amount of preparation: soaking the brush and preparing the lather (around 10 minutes). Cartridge shaving requires no preparation.

Shaving Experience
The shaving experiences are significantly different. DE shaving is more of an 'event' - something that I plan. I have to concentrate a lot more on technique and there's usually one or two very small nicks on my skin, no matter how careful I am. The shave takes a lot longer too - around 30 minutes in total. This is down to being extra-careful, several passes required and applying lather before each pass. There's also a lot more 'mess' created with DE shaving with water and lather splashes around the basin area. Cleaning up also takes much longer. However, the most negative aspect for me is that the blades struggle to cut through my facial hairs. I can feel the blade edge pulling on my face no matter how well lubricated my skin is. I think it's just down to the lack of stiffness in the Astra SP blade.

Due to this, my skin does feel a bit sore after the shave so I need to apply the post-shave balm. I'm also finding that the shave isn't as close as I was hoping for, even if I perform multiple passes over an area.

The cartridge razor shaving experience (for which I've got decades more experience) is a lot more straightforward. With zero prep, I just apply the shave gel to my wetted face in seconds and then shave away. The shave is over in about 9 minutes which includes multiple passes, with no reapplication of shaving gel required between passes. Cleaning up takes about 1-2 minutes at most.

Now, the most important aspect for me with cartridge razor shaving is that the blades are able to cope with my facial hair quite easily. The shave is extremely close and my skin feels very soft afterwards with no nicks and no post-shave balm required.

Cost Per Shave
Since the shaving soaps, brushes, creams are generally common across both types of razors, it's only the blades that affect the cost per shave. Due to the DE blades struggling with my facial hairs, I change them after each shave.

DE blades: £9.46 for 100, 1 blade used per shave = approximately 10p per shave.
Cartridge blades: £24 for 8 cartridges, 3 shaves per cartridge = £1 per shave.

So from a cost perspective, cartridge shaving costs me 10 times as much as DE shaving. However, the convenience and better results from cartridge shaving outweigh the cost-savings of DE shaving for me at the moment.

I still enjoy the experience of DE shaving and will continue to enjoy that at weekends when I have more 'my time'.
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Hey I can go with that straight forward assessment. I too used carts during my kid rearing and working years just because of the time factor - I had none.
 
I have been watching the YouTube channel of Big John, the Mad Scientist of Wet Shaving. He advocates using the same razor, cream/soap , brush and type of blade for between 30 and 90 days. His rationale is that temperatures, humidity and other things change over time and during this start up phase the "newbie" will be able to gain muscle memory of the shaving process. Changing things causes a level of confusion to the process which is not good for re-learning how to shave. Thoughts?
 
There's no law that says you can't use an apply once shave oil or gel and do a multiple pass DE shave. I make my own and use it for perhaps three quarters of my shaves.

The Astra blade is as rigid as any other DE blade. I'm guessing any issues you have with it are much more likely to come down to technique, or much less likely to the choice of razor.
 
I saw a description of Wet Shaving once that said "Bring pleasure to a chore". That describes it pretty well for me.

Some people may or may not get ingrown hairs from cartridge shaving. They are more expensive but no one saving money from wet shaving if you get into it. It's largely about making what was a boring chore into something more pleasurable that you look forward to.

It if doesn't do that for you, stay with cartridges. :)
 
David68 said:
I have been watching the YouTube channel of Big John, the Mad Scientist of Wet Shaving. He advocates using the same razor, cream/soap , brush and type of blade for between 30 and 90 days. His rationale is that temperatures, humidity and other things change over time and during this start up phase the "newbie" will be able to gain muscle memory of the shaving process. Changing things causes a level of confusion to the process which is not good for re-learning how to shave. Thoughts?
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good topic for a huge discussion.

in general its good use the same things when you start using a DE razor at any time. the only issues is that doing so, can force a person to use a bad soap/blade combination to the point they give up entirely on shaving and grow a beard like a hippy.

I mean, when I started out with the DE, I used my weishi and my van der hagen blade. I tossed the blade half way through the first pass and pulled out a Wilkinson sword blade. been a happy shaver since.
using that van der hagen blade would have led to 30-90 days of hell similar to a 30-90 day stretch in jail.

And using crap soap is going to do the same thing.
 
David68 said:
I have been watching the YouTube channel of Big John, the Mad Scientist of Wet Shaving. He advocates using the same razor, cream/soap , brush and type of blade for between 30 and 90 days. His rationale is that temperatures, humidity and other things change over time and during this start up phase the "newbie" will be able to gain muscle memory of the shaving process. Changing things causes a level of confusion to the process which is not good for re-learning how to shave. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Be weary of watching too many Youtube shaving vids, I'm sure some of them don't even have a blade in their razor...:eek:
 
A little more progress made this week. I had a Christmas shave this morning with the Muhle R41 and used a Personna blade. The blade was a lot sharper than the Muhle blade that came with the razor. Still some tugging/snagging AGT on the moustache area though, but overall it was a good shave.

Next blade to try will be a Derby blade, then that will be followed by a Feather blade.
 
Hi evoke. I've enjoyed reading of your progress in DE shaving.
I'm a young nearly 70 year old, and only been DE shaving for just over 50 years now.
My experience, for what it's worth, is don't try the Derby. Go straight to a Feather.
I found Derby to be a tad dull, and pulled a fair bit.
The Feather just slices through nicely.
Yeah, Muhle blades are not good.
My normal ritual starts with a morning shower, then on to the shave.
Lather up with whatever I have (Arko at the moment, but Proraso sometimes), then grab the razor and get stuck in!
Seriously it takes maybe 5 minutes at the most to shave. Good razors help. I use either an IKON 101 Shave Craft, or my latest buy a 1930 Gillette 'NEW' LC (restored/replated) by Nick at Sportshaving http://www.sportshaving.com/razors.html
The shower helps soften the whiskers and skin, and I use a variety of blades that I find good. Mainly Feather, Gillette Yellow, and Gillette Silver Blue.
So try some 'better' blades too. You will find that 'ideal' blade to suit your skin/beard.
Have fun.
 
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A couple of shaves later with various combinations of razor and blade produced the following results:

Merkur 34C + Derby blade
Not a bad combination at all in terms of smoothness. The shave wasn't very close but was good enough. This was a surprising combo given that Derby blades are not that highly rated, but they seem to work okay on my stubble in a Merkur 34C. This combo was close to my cartridge razor shave in terms of comfort and closeness of the shave.

Muhle R41 + Feather
Oh, dear Lord! This was beyond sharp! It was a shave of two halves: the positives being the incredible sharpness and closeness of the shave. I've never experienced a shave as close as this. However, the negatives were a few shaving nicks (but nothing too bad) and the soreness of the skin immediately after the shave and for around 18 hours thereafter. It really was extremely uncomfortable, even to the touch.

Next combo to try will be Merkur 34C + Personna blade, followed by Muhle R41 + Derby blade, followed by Merkur 34C + Feather blade.

I'm just trying to find that sweet spot of razor + blade.
 
Feathers are better second and third use, then bin them
Feel they will be a bit much for you at this stage though, try Polsilvers, Vokshods amongst others.
Agree with the above though, I'd stick with the best you've found so far and concentrate on technique
 
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