Hello from Melbourne!

Castcore

Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2021
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Hey there everyone!

I'm new here and was directed to this forum by being a user on the wicked_edge subreddit. I was looking for some nice shave soap/cream options in down under land and was told I might be interested in joining this community.

I have wanted to get into DE razor shaving for about 2 years now but only made the plunge just over a month ago. Picked up a King C Gillet, Proraso Green Soap and a Synthetic Brush locally and got to it. Scary stuff at first but I'm certainly getting better. Can't seem to get a smooth shave yet unless I go against the grain and even then I still have a shadow, so I'm putting that down to technique for now.

I like the King C Gillette, but can't help wonder what other razors feel like. I've decided I'd try to get an adjustable razor to have multiple "feels" without buying a few razors, either a Parker Variant or ideally a vintage Gillette adjustable but they're mostly in the US and shipping is a bit steep.

That's about all for me and my wet shaving adventures so far, good to be here :)
 
Welcome @Castcore 80% of the shave is lather. Nothing wrong with your starter kit. Sure there are better razors and blades but work on getting the right consistency of lather while awaiting a Gillette Slim or Group buy Pearl Flexi and shaves will improve immensely.
 
Welcome to P&C @Castcore - great to have you here (y)
 
Welcome aboard @Castcore, good to have another virtual voice on our little forum.

Nothing to be ashamed of with shaving against the grain - most of us go WTG, XTG and ATG if we're chasing a true DSBBS (dolphin-smooth baby's butt shave), so just enjoy what works for you :D
 
Welcome @Castcore 80% of the shave is lather. Nothing wrong with your starter kit. Sure there are better razors and blades but work on getting the right consistency of lather while awaiting a Gillette Slim or Group buy Pearl Flexi and shaves will improve immensely.

Yeah! I went from using canned foam to making my own and it's so satisfying to paint on with the brush. My current technique is to bowl lather and slowly hydrate it till it's nice and shinny with good peaks. It's a bit time consuming but my favourite part is painting the clouds on my face so it's worth it haha.

I have been looking at the pearl flexi actually, but considered the postage a bit too high, maybe I'll join the group, thanks for the heads-up!
I'm thinking I want something with a fair bit of sound feedback so I know when I'm at the right angle (easily) and from videos it sounds like the Parker Variant is pretty loud and the Pearl Flexi might give less feedback.
 
Welcome @Castcore !

Good advice from @Holiday above, although we might argue over the percentages and he would be wrong...
 
Hey there everyone!

I'm new here and was directed to this forum by being a user on the wicked_edge subreddit. I was looking for some nice shave soap/cream options in down under land and was told I might be interested in joining this community.

I have wanted to get into DE razor shaving for about 2 years now but only made the plunge just over a month ago. Picked up a King C Gillet, Proraso Green Soap and a Synthetic Brush locally and got to it. Scary stuff at first but I'm certainly getting better. Can't seem to get a smooth shave yet unless I go against the grain and even then I still have a shadow, so I'm putting that down to technique for now.

I like the King C Gillette, but can't help wonder what other razors feel like. I've decided I'd try to get an adjustable razor to have multiple "feels" without buying a few razors, either a Parker Variant or ideally a vintage Gillette adjustable but they're mostly in the US and shipping is a bit steep.

That's about all for me and my wet shaving adventures so far, good to be here :)


Hi @Castcore and welcome!

I am fairly new to this whole wetshaving, too (less than a year). Early on I experienced a lot of inconsistency with my shaves and it took a while before the technique improved. I think the big change came when I stopped focusing on maintaining a certain angle and just let the contour of my face guide the razor movement and angle.

Interestingly, I came to same conclusion that you did i.e an adjustable may be the solution for my problem. I ended up buying a Parker variant. On paper it looked like it would be the perfect solution. It generally gets very good reviews. I absolutely hated it and stopped using it after 3 or 4 shaves. I found it to be too heavy with poor maneuverability and unnecessarily aggressive even on on the mildest setting.

Experimenting with different blades is cheap and you might find that you'll be more comfortable with some than others. VSHOD has a good selection of blades and they ship for free, even for small purchases.

BTW, Proraso Green was my first soap as well since I started using DE blades last year. I have since bought and used quite a few much more expensive soaps and I still use my Proraso frequently. It is such a fantastic product. It's easy to see why it has endured so many years.
 
Hey there everyone!

I'm new here and was directed to this forum by being a user on the wicked_edge subreddit. I was looking for some nice shave soap/cream options in down under land and was told I might be interested in joining this community.

I have wanted to get into DE razor shaving for about 2 years now but only made the plunge just over a month ago. Picked up a King C Gillet, Proraso Green Soap and a Synthetic Brush locally and got to it. Scary stuff at first but I'm certainly getting better. Can't seem to get a smooth shave yet unless I go against the grain and even then I still have a shadow, so I'm putting that down to technique for now.

I like the King C Gillette, but can't help wonder what other razors feel like. I've decided I'd try to get an adjustable razor to have multiple "feels" without buying a few razors, either a Parker Variant or ideally a vintage Gillette adjustable but they're mostly in the US and shipping is a bit steep.

That's about all for me and my wet shaving adventures so far, good to be here :)


Hi @Castcore, welcome, I'm new here too.
You'll find this is a very welcoming group, helpful with much positive feedback too.
I just Picked up a King C Gillet last night from Coles for $21 (plus 5 highly regarded blades) I know it's not a holy grail razor, but I want to keep my 60 something year old Gillette flare-tip super speed for many more years longer, so I can now reduce it's usage with the new one.
One thing I learned quickly with this group, you never have just one of anything!
Let the collecting begin.
 
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