Morning gents,
Shaved with the RX Asylum for the second time last night with a couple of days’ growth. The first shave with the Feather Pro blade left a close result, but as previously reported, I had a couple of small nicks, multiple weepers and some irritation on my neck. Nothing traumatic, but not great. Having given the trouble spots a couple of days to recover I was ready to tackle the Asylum again, but this time with the polar opposite Feather Softguard blade.
Though my picture shows my Shavemac brush, as I was using the Wickham’s Irish Fern sample in the mug, I decided to actually use my Men-U Premier Synthetic brush. I took a bit more from the sample than I did with the Classic 24 and this time was rewarded with the kind of lather I’ve come to expect from Wickham’s. The scent was also more up my street than the Classic 24, this could be one to look out for, I liked it.
On to the shave and things were generally positive. The softguard blade is an interesting one, there is a lot less feel from it than the Feather Pro and this shows in its cutting power. Whilst it got through my beard in my usual two passes, leaving no irritation and no weepers, it did struggle a little on my upper lip which is an area of thick growth for me. It felt a little tuggy here and along with a couple of other places did not feel smooth, but everywhere else was well looked after and the result was a very good one. I do tend to go atg on my upper lip and couldn’t with this blade, it was too uncomfortable, but an xtg pass did the job well. I’m actually very impressed with this blade, as a daily driver blade this could be a winner and I think it dials down the aggression level of this razor considerably. For my next shave, hopefully tonight, I am going to try a Kai Mild blade to see what this is like with only a day’s growth.
To compare this shave with my first is an interesting paradox, I didn’t enjoy the shave as much because of the minor tugging issues, however the result was far better in terms of irritation, weepers etc. With the Feather Pro, there were no cutting issues, but the blade feel was actually a little too much, it demanded a lot of care, whereas the Softguard was a much easier experience. They were just very different shaves, both were enjoyable in their own way, but neither were shaving nirvana. I wonder if the Kai Mild blade will be the right balance… we shall see!