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Hi everyone

M

malgonquin

Member
Hi everyone,

Saying hi as a new member after lurking for a while. I'm in my 40s and am pretty new to wet shaving - started about four months ago. I had tried a whole bunch of different cartridge razors over the years, and kept getting bumps and irritation, no matter what I did, so I thought I'd do something different.

My daily driver is a Parker Variant - 3 on the face and 1.5 on the neck. I've only tried a couple of soaps so far, and Tabac is my favourite (though I'm sure I should be able to lather it better than I can). My one real indugence is a Phoenix Moonscape scuttle - warm lather on a crisp morning is a beautiful feeling.

Shaving my face is going well so far. The neck is trickier - I mapped my neck hair, and it grows in some strange patterns. I get the best combination of smoothness and a lack of irritation by doing four passes (WTG, 2 x roughly XTG and 1 ATG) on a fairly mild setting.

I'm mostly holding out against RAD, but I did order an old GEM Clog-Pruf SE - should arrive in a few weeks. Looking forward to trying it out!

Have a good day,

Mal
 
malgonquin said:
I'm mostly holding out against RAD, but I did order an old GEM Clog-Pruf SE - should arrive in a few weeks. Looking forward to trying it out!
Click to expand...

Welcome @malgonquin, you do realise resistance is futile and you have just unlocked the door by joining P&C :)
Interested to hear how you get on with the SE, a rabbit hole I have avoided to date, but I hear good things and am intrigued.
 
Welcome to P&C @malgonquin - great to have you here (y)
 
Hello @malgonquin welcome to the forum, there’s plenty of comrades to help you with your blossoming RAD here, though in all seriousness this art is so much more enjoyable than canned foam/gel and $40 for eight Mach 3 blades, your skin will love you for it and if you have a misses she will love the BBS nights almost as much as you will!
 
Thanks, everyone, seems like a friendly place to be.

Schmicko said:
there’s plenty of comrades to help you with your blossoming RAD here, though in all seriousness this art is so much more enjoyable than canned foam/gel and $40 for eight Mach 3 blades
Click to expand...

There is way, way too much tempting stuff out there. DE, SE, AC, all these brass and stainless steel razors... You could do some serious wallet damage pretty quickly. It's all too tempting!

And you're right - it's been a long time since I actually looked forward to shaving, rather than seeing it as a chore to get over and done with as soon as possible. So far, so good.
 
Welcome @malgonquin - another Canberran!

Do you have SE blades for your Gem?
 
malgonquin said:
Hi everyone,

Saying hi as a new member after lurking for a while. I'm in my 40s and am pretty new to wet shaving - started about four months ago. I had tried a whole bunch of different cartridge razors over the years, and kept getting bumps and irritation, no matter what I did, so I thought I'd do something different.

My daily driver is a Parker Variant - 3 on the face and 1.5 on the neck. I've only tried a couple of soaps so far, and Tabac is my favourite (though I'm sure I should be able to lather it better than I can). My one real indugence is a Phoenix Moonscape scuttle - warm lather on a crisp morning is a beautiful feeling.

Shaving my face is going well so far. The neck is trickier - I mapped my neck hair, and it grows in some strange patterns. I get the best combination of smoothness and a lack of irritation by doing four passes (WTG, 2 x roughly XTG and 1 ATG) on a fairly mild setting.

I'm mostly holding out against RAD, but I did order an old GEM Clog-Pruf SE - should arrive in a few weeks. Looking forward to trying it out!

Have a good day,

Mal
Click to expand...

Very interested in the Variant, did you buy it locally? I see them for around $75.

I just started and I get a bit of a rash on the neck area, so thought that an adjustable would be good. Pleased to see that is working for you.
 
Hi malgonquin, and welcome 😊

Holding out on RAD might be possible (if silly), but holding out on SAD is not, except for the current failures in supply chain..
 
Mark1966 said:
Welcome @malgonquin - another Canberran!

Do you have SE blades for your Gem?
Click to expand...

Thanks, Mark, it's good to see a few Canberrans around the place.

Thanks for checking. I do have some GEM blades around - the coated ones. I've heard that they can be a bit rough to start with, but calm down after a couple of shaves.
 
talisker63 said:
Very interested in the Variant, did you buy it locally? I see them for around $75.
Click to expand...

Thanks, talisker63. I got the Variant at Beard and Blade, which I think has an EOFY sale on at the moment.

I like it a lot. It has a good range of aggression. The low end is mild enough for my neck, and even the middle of the range is efficient enough for my face (my hair is fairly thick).

There's also a lot of audible feedback - you can really hear if you are cutting anything or not. I find this helpful, because I am still working on my technique.

The only other DE I've used is a DE89. Not sure what the standard weight is, but the Variant is quite a bit heavier. Also, the head is fairly bulky and has a bit of weight in it - you get used to it, but it can be a bit of a squeeze fitting it under the top lip.

I found it easier to nick myself with the Variant than the DE89, but this is much less of an issue now than when I started.
 
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