New DE shaver here with a general question

[Mike M CT]

I have been a Harry‘s user for years and have generally had a great experience, especially considering how fast and convenient it was to use. I have been itching to try a double-edge because I kept hearing about multi-blades and senstivie skin, so I recently bought a Rockwell 6 series and tried it for the first time today.

I know I really need to work on the angles and I plan on staying on plate 1 for a while, but are there any easy tips for shaving the neck? With my Harry’s blade I’d really just do the neck in all downstrokes, but I know I’m supposed to really do with the grain so the sides of my neck are really upstrokes. My gut tells my I should try to do it the correct way with upstrokes there, but try to get the angle right with the DE razor is just incredibly awkward and it was a lot of trial and error.

Are there any good tips or videos to point me to, or is it really just a lot of trial and error hoping not to irritate the neck with the extra passes trying to get it right (or cuts!).

Thank you!
Mike

 

[bagman]

Welcome to ATG. your neck is often the trickiest place to shave. Make sure you map your hair growth and try a with the grain pass and an across the grain one. Once you’re happy with that try a third against the grain but NO PRESSURE for any of them. A 6S is a great razor but you may struggle to cut hair on 1, I would probably try 2 if it’s struggling

 

[Mike M CT]

I was careful not to apply any pressure and even though i probably did more than a pass on parts of my face, it was baby smooth! I’m sure I’ll move on from 1 but I kind of like the training wheels aspect of it now. I just really need to figure out the right way to do the tricky areas.

I also keep trying to figure out the best way to hold the razor to get a correct angle on the neck up (and probably) side passes too. It’s just so hard to judge the angle and what it should be as I move up the neck. I really need to figure that out.

Thank you so much for the feedback.

 

[R181]

The Harry's razor that you have been using have heads that pivot on the handle. The floating head design does not depend on the angle of the handle for the angle on the blade. With a DE the handle controls the angle on the blade as the head does not pivot but is fixed. That being the case and with your face being made up of curves, you must continually adjust the handle to maintain the same angle on the blade. You are not making huge corrections to the handle to maintain the angle on the blade but it takes time and practice to learn how to do it.

To find the correct angle for the blade on a DE, you first place the head flat on your face with the hand parallel to the floor. The rotate the handle downward till you just feel the blade edge on your skin. If you rotate the handle downward further, you go from cutting whiskers to scraping them off and that leads to razor burn.

Bob

I should add welcome to the forum.

 

[Mike M CT]

To find the correct angle for the blade on a DE, you first place the head flat on your face with the hand parallel to the floor. The rotate the handle downward till you just feel the blade edge on your skin. If you rotate the handle downward further, you go from cutting whiskers to scraping them off and that leads to razor burn.

This is fantastic advice. Thank you. I’ll definitely try this tomorrow - especially for figuring out a neck angle.

Mike

 

[murphy5542]

Welcome to ATG

 

[Mike M CT]

A 6S is a great razor but you may struggle to cut hair on 1, I would probably try 2 if it’s struggling

I may actually try plate 2 the next time. It’s closer to where I’ll ultimately end up, and hopefully still retaining some elements of beginner friendly.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Mike M CT]

I may actually try plate 2 the next time. It’s closer to where I’ll ultimately end up, and hopefully still retaining some elements of beginner friendly.

Thanks,
Mike

I may actually try plate 2 the next time. It’s closer to where I’ll ultimately end up, and hopefully still retaining some elements of beginner friendly.

Chickened out. I stuck with 1 but I think made a much better go at my neck. I’ll definitely try R2 next time. This time felt less awkward than the last time when it came to how was the best way to hold the handle. I also tried Proraso (green) cream this time instead of the Cremo Sensitive. I think it was helpful to have a little thicker lather that didn’t disappear as quick as the Cremo did. I’ll still try a few of these.

And now for the worst part - just before attempting the send shave I inadvertently knocked the 6S and stand off of the counter when trying to stop my cat from jumping up, and the ~3 ft fall caused 2 scuffs along the safety bar of the r1 plate at both corners and along the edge. Some of the matte finished looks to have come off and I can’t tell if there is a ding. I know this is the R1 plate but it shares it with the R3 plate which is the most popular and I may end up there.

The blade edges still looked to be perfectly aligned, but I’m a naturally half-glass empty person and am worrying if this might have damaged the top plate connection where the handle screws in even though nothing is obviously, and if there is a problem using that R1 plate with the edges/corners dinged. Here are a couple of pics.

Sorry for the long post……ugh. At least I’ve avoided this with my guitars (fingers crossed!)!

Mike

 

[TobyC]

It looks fine, just shave.

 

[Mike M CT]

A 6S is a great razor but you may struggle to cut hair on 1, I would probably try 2 if it’s struggling

Tried the R2 plate and it was definitely better than 1. It didn’t feel scarier to use or really any different, but I could hear the hairs cut a little more clearer which helped with the shave - especially on the neck where it was hard to tell before what was cutting or not.

I’ll stay here for a bit testing a few shaving creams ( Proraso and Cremo variations) then try the R3 plate.

Thanks!!
Mike