Closeness of a shave

Yellow Jim

Yellow Jim

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This may sound like a stupid question, but what factors can affect how close a shave is? Obviously razor and angle can, along with the number of passes and direction of the pass. What about choice of blade is this more about reducing irritation? Can the type of soap used to make the shaving lather or quality of lather have an effect?

I'm only asking because this evening I just didn't seem able to get a very close shave. I usually use a Slim set on 4-5 and have been using Gillette Bleues pretty much solidly for the last month. This normally gives me good results if I do 2-3 passes (2 WTG, 1 XTG), not BBS but I'm not aiming for that, just a close comfortable shave. This evening I decided to use this combo using a new blade but chose to dial it up to 7 to see what this would be like. I also decided to give Cella a run out, I've not used it much but I managed to generate what for all intents and purposes seemed a good lather by face lathering with a Semogue 830.

I proceeded to do my first WTG pass and everything seemed fine, no tugging or skipping or anything. At the end of the pass I rinsed my face and noticed there was still quite a lot of stubble left. A second WTG pass didn't seem to improve things, so I dialled it down to 4 and did another WTG pass. Still lots of stubble left. Finally did an XTG pass and called it quits after this as I didn't really want to keep overshaving the same areas. Washed my face with cold water and applied some aftershave, I've not got any irritation really, a few bumps (I'm putting these down to trying a Futur yesterday) ,but no redness. I'm just much less clean shaven than usual.

Just wanted to gauge opinions on what may have gone wrong really. Duff blade? Duff lather? Forgetting the angle to hold the razor? Would dialling the razor up require a slightly different angle?
 
dodgy said:
Yellow Jim said:
I

Just wanted to gauge opinions on what may have gone wrong really. Duff blade? Duff lather? Forgetting the angle to hold the razor? Would dialling the razor up require a slightly different angle?
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Hi there,

Looks to me like you changed three things....the adjustment, the blade, and the soap that you haven't used all that often.

If I had to guess the problem, I'd say it was the lather or the blade....or maybe both if you're real lucky.....heh.

How's that,

Martin
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try for 3 passes..

1st..WTG..downwards
2nd..XTG..right to left and left to right sides of your face
3rd..ATG..upwards

you can also lightly go vertically as well which helps if some hairs grow in different directions

Good Luck!
Blades
 
Blades said:
try for 3 passes..

1st..WTG..downwards
2nd..XTG..right to left and left to right sides of your face
3rd..ATG..upwards

you can also lightly go vertically as well which helps if some hairs grow in different directions

Good Luck!
Blades
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Thanks but I've tried going ATG before and it just leads to irritation and ingrowns, no matter how light a touch I try to use. That's why I've cut it out completely.

dodgy said:
Looks to me like you changed three things....the adjustment, the blade, and the soap that you haven't used all that often.

If I had to guess the problem, I'd say it was the lather or the blade....or maybe both if you're real lucky.....heh.
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I only see it as changing one thing really and that's the soap, I dialled the Slim back down to 4 after the first two unsuccessful passes and that's what I normally use.
The lather seemed very good, a nice thick and slick lather, not dissimilar to what I produce with other soaps and creams. Could the lather have that much effect on the closeness of a shave?
 
You dialled down, like from 7 to 4 for the second pass?

Dial up. Try a 2 pass WTG shave on settings 4 then 6 or 5 then 7 and see if that improves things.

Cella can be slick but thick, I'm not sure about others but I don't rinse between passes, it's nice to have some residue to facilitate the next lather.
 
Yellow Jim said:
Blades said:
I only see it as changing one thing really and that's the soap, I dialled the Slim back down to 4 after the first two unsuccessful passes and that's what I normally use.
The lather seemed very good, a nice thick and slick lather, not dissimilar to what I produce with other soaps and creams. Could the lather have that much effect on the closeness of a shave?
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Hiya, I can tell you the lather can make a difference in how close my shaves are. Sometimes there's too much cushion, which keeps the blade from reaching my face properly. It's frustrating because I have to go over the same spots more often.

One way I can tell sometimes about cushion is by the sound. If it's more muffled than usual, that's a good sign something's up. Same thing if the shave is too loud........it means the cushion can be lacking.

Martin
 
antdad said:
You dialled down, like from 7 to 4 for the second pass?

Dial up. Try a 2 pass WTG shave on settings 4 then 6 or 5 then 7 and see if that improves things.

Cella can be slick but thick.
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I dialled down after two WTG passes on 7. Went back down to 4 and did a WTG and XTG, these two passes alone normally leave me pretty smooth.

dodgy said:
Hiya, I can tell you the lather can make a difference in how close my shaves are. Sometimes there's too much cushion, which keeps the blade from reaching my face properly. It's frustrating because I have to go over the same spots more often.

One way I can tell sometimes about cushion is by the sound. If it's more muffled than usual, that's a good sign something's up. Same thing if the shave is too loud........it means the cushion can be lacking.
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Maybe the lather from the Cella was too thick, I'll try the same blade and razor next time around with a different cream and see how the shave goes.
 
[quote="Yellow Jim]
Maybe the lather from the Cella was too thick, I'll try the same blade and razor next time around with a different cream and see how the shave goes.[/quote]


Hi Jim,

Yeah, it's worth a shot. Try dialing it up and using your go to cream or soap and see what happens.

Just the other day I was trying a new to me soap, and right away I noticed how loud the blade sounded. The lack of much cushion isn't always a problem though, as long as the soap/cream has plenty of slick. Slick trumps cushion any day. Sadly, in this case the soap had little of either.

Good luck with the next shave,

Martin

Oh, I should mention that too much cushion doesn't always mean the lather was made incorrectly. Sometimes it's just how the soap is put together, and the lather is always gonna be on the more cushiony side.
 
Some days my shaves just seem to come out better than others. Just one of those things, I suppose.

I try to avoid changing more than one element of a shave at any one time. Note that I said try. If something goes wrong, and say, for example, that I used a different type of blade, I can be pretty sure that it's the blade that is the most likely suspect.

Ian
 
JohnnyO said:
I just blame biorythmns if I have a bad shave day. It's as likely as anything else.

JohnnyO. :geek:
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Well, that's the first thing I think of too. That and those damn negative waves.

You are one of the smarter members here.
 
I tend to blame the parents, then the schools and if neither of them are good enough scapegoats, blame society, religion, politicians and/or the weather. Though occasionally it is the fault of sunspots, the CIA and/or aliens from another planet, universe or dimension (usually depending on the scale of blame needed).

Never ever ever should the g-f/partner/wife be blamed, as they will usually remind you that they are infallible and perfect in every way. As well as that, they also tend to know the best buttons to push to make your life a complete and total misery, so why bother even trying to go there?
 
Re: Closeness of a shave
by antdad » Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:12 pm

You dialled down, like from 7 to 4 for the second pass?

Dial up. Try a 2 pass WTG shave on settings 4 then 6 or 5 then 7 and see if that improves things.
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I generally use my adjustables for 3 passes on high, high and then low, ie 5, 5 then 1. Why do the 2nd pass on a higher setting Tony? I thought that the first pass removed most of the stubble then subsequent passes wouldn't need to be so aggressive as there wasn't so much stubble left. I ask as I'm relatively new to adjustables :?
 
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