This was my introduction to DE shaving razor. It was a gift from my wife one Christmas. It's sexy, it's adjustable, it's aggressive, has a long handle and it's heavy. With that said, I would not recommend this razor to a beginner. I had a very hard time with this razor with a lot of irritation and control issues. The angles are slightly different and the weight, feel and head geometry make it tough to maneuver comfortably. I almost got rid of it. You'll notice, I have it on 2 1/2 setting. That's the setting I use when doing an ATG pass. It took a lot of improvement in my technique to get to that point. I set it aside several times in frustration but kept it in the back of my mind and would bring it back out. This last Christmas, I used it almost every day while on vacation. In the right hands this razor can do wonderful things and it gave me consistently great shaves but, I still need to respect it. NO PRESSURE! The beauty of this razor is the weight can do most of the work for you. I'll keep this one around for sure.
I received a Merkur Futur DE razor this past Christmas myself. I like it a lot although I still use my HD hefty often enough for nostalgia's sake. The only comment I have is that it took a little while to get used to such an efficient shave with the Futur. What I mean is with my HD, I can "feel" the blade gliding across my face and sort of sing as it knocks down my whiskers. The Futur, on the other hand, is so "substantial" that I would sometimes inadvertantly plow it across my face without a sense of feel as to how much of my beard it's taking. I made the mistake of loading a Feather blade into my Futur razor the first time I used it. The combination of heft and the sharp blade made me realize the damage I could do without even knowing it should I momentarily lose my concentration. The only thing more efficient at cutting cleanly is a guillotine!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great blog, Richard!