This is a community of enthusiasts, hobbyists and artisans who enjoy a traditional wet shave: brush, soap, and safety or straight razor. We are a part of the WetShaving community found on Reddit, Discord, and IRC.
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Do you have any budget you are aiming for? Also, where are you based?
I'm not using much my DE razors anymore, but there are very good ones around. Contrary to @LOLseas@lemmy.zip, I rather like my Merkur 34C. I mostly use a GreenCult II with the 2 plate theses days (which is closed comb, and very efficient), and sometimes an open comb Mühle 41. Generally, consensus seems to be AFAIK that efficiency and closed vs. open comb are rather orthogonal.
My budget would be around 40 to 60 dollars and I am based in South East Asia.
There arre quite good affordable chinese razors (Baili), also Pearl from India makes ok razors, even if QC is uneven.
I will check out Baili. I've tried 2 pearl razors. One was fine for the price the other not so much.
Oooooh no. No. And no.
That Merkur 34C almost turned me off entirely to DE wetshaving, full stop. It's just a bad razor (I got it while budgeting tighter than nowadays). I can't badmouth the Mühle 41. I'm slightly bemused about your feelings on the Merkur 34C... you may compel me to root around in my attic to see if I still have it or PIF'd (Pay It Forward) to someone just getting into wetshaving. With my 20+ years of technique finally finessed, and with an okay shave den by now, I might (if I find the cursed thing) give the Merkur 34C another try.
Were I to start all over again at 18yr old, my pick would've been a vintage Gillette Red Flare Tip Super Speed ('55-'60), or a Mühle R41. And don't get me started on Parker razors, either.
@PorkButtsNTaters666, what blades do you use in your Merkur 34C?
I use Astra Greens. I bought 100, and they do the job.
Can't knock 'em. I'm still working off a 100 pack of those and a 100 pack of KAIs. Still got +/- 8 tucks of Derby Premium (black-themed box) that have done well for me. But Feather is my fave.
👍
The Merkur was a decent starter for me. I ended up with a Gillette Fatboy and haven’t looked back. I think it ran me like $65-ish US buying it on eBay. I hardly shave at all anymore, but I can still get a good shave out of it on the occasions I need it. I think I have a Feather blade in it at the moment, but I prefer the Astra Platinum.
Edit: apparently spelling “Feather” is difficult
Had a Merkur 34C as my first closed comb DE razor. I hated it. Tried various blades (Persona blue/red, Feather, Shark, generics from the NEX or Navy EXchange store on base, Gillette Silver Blue) and I could never get a BBS from it. I hated that closed comb razor.
Still, after 20+ years in DE wetshaving, I didn't learn my lesson and decided to shell out +/- €100 for a Pearl Flexi (Indian company) closed comb DE razor. I hate it, too, for the same reasons.
Can you see I'm steering you away from closed combs? There was one exception over my 20+ years: my 1955-1960 Gillette Red Tip Super Speed. I loved it so much, I paid a company (Back Roads Gold in the US) to clean, repair, and replate it. Lost it moving overseas. I loved her so.
I'm assuming you are using open comb now. I never tried one, are they really aggressive?
Closed comb vs open comb does not play into aggressiveness as much as people think. There might be a correlation just based off the fact that most open comb razors sold are also aggressive... but it's not a hard and fast rule.
This picture does a great job explaining the geometries involved, and it applies to open comb and closed comb alike.
People might enjoy open comb razors for other reasons. They're sort of designed to let long whiskers get through to the blade easier, but even that is debatable.
Either way, there are mild and aggressive open comb razors, and there are mild and aggressive closed comb razors. A vast majority of safety razors are closed comb.
To answer your question about suggesting a razor, can you clarify what you mean by mildly aggressive? Do you want something mild and efficient? Something with blade feel? Something in the middle?
I just started shaving my head 2 years back and have been using an indian brand called Pearl, for the price it's fine. I also tried another brand called Hajamat which was also okayish. I use Gillette platinum blades mostly. I wanted to try something like Merkur, Edwin Jagger or Parker since I got a bigger budget now, but not sure which one to go for.
I wonder if in your technique,
/ universal "you" /
Well, I've had only 2 open combs to date, but have had 9 closed combs over the years. Mostly vintage Gillettes.
It's important that when you're doing A-B comparisons, that you stick with a blade you've had great success with, so you can track how well that razor works for you. When I started my journey, I was all about the Derby blades. Having honed my technique, now I'm a Feather guy. It took 20+ years to find my matches, technique can never be stressed enough.
The best advice I can give: go slow and steady (you want to maintain a 30° blade angle to your skin), be sure to use a good quality shave soap or cream (Proraso and Tabac are great for me), don't use Barbisol or aerosol cans, and remember to have fun and enjoy the experience! I love my shave routine, it's Zen for me.
There's a great site that still holds strong to this day for all things wetshaving: BadgerAndBlade.com