Shaving machines, expensive cutting heads

[jacob]

@brute - Not sure what you mean. Example link?

[BRUTE]

[vexed87]

there are open safety razors that don't have the bar protecting the blade. it's not as smooth a shave, but the problem with long beard hair goes away completely. brute has shaved a 12+ month beard off with such a razor and didn't usually need more than 1 stroke. while the bar makes the shave smoother for every day shaves, it also traps long hairs quickly, making it unusable for more than maybe half inch long hair.

Oh wow, this explains a lot. I've taken to trimming with an electric UMG device as MMM puts it if I go over a week without shaving for this very reason, then going over with the DE safety razor. If that dies, I'll be investing in one of those. Thanks Brute.

[KevinW]

if Solvent is cutting up his face, something is wrong. brute gets both a closer shave, and almost never cuts himself. there is a certain technique to it, very small strokes at a certain angle. none of that dragging the thing all over the face that many humans do with the mach 3.

+1

Shaving with a safety razor takes some practice. As with a chef's knife, applying force will tend to mash things rather than slice cleanly, so you want to apply just barely enough pressure to guide the razor and let its weight do most of the work. My first two shaves were bloody but after that I got better at it.

Also one of the features of a safety razor is that you can stop and re-lather as much as you want. I have a thick beard and it usually takes three passes to get a 100% close shave, with re-lathering in between each pass. If I nick myself I'll avoid that area in subsequent passes. With a Mach 3 you are forced to lather once then do 3 blade passes all at once with no opportunity to re-lather or adjust in between.

So maybe try making multiple light passes and using plenty of lather.