Today was the sixth shave on my current Personna Red blade. Starting with that initial, rough shave using my Gillette Slim and the fresh Personna, I've continued to alternate daily between my Parker Variant and the Slim. Since that first shave, which, despite my careful, conservative approach, opened many weepers and a couple of tiny cuts, I've been shaving with an eye to still get a close shave, but one that didn't too much interrupt the healing of those first-shave-in-this-series wounds.
The Variant has been the superior razor every time so far. It offers the ability to shave as closely as the Slim but with less irritation and out-right wounds. I've been using very mild settings of these razors, but the Slim still tends to offer more risk of skin insult. Today's shave with the Variant did re-awake a few of the pre-existing wounds from that first Slim shave, but all cleared up without needing any alum or styptic.
My thinking is going toward the idea of always choosing a razor (and razor setting, for an adjustable) that best fits where the currently-in-play blade is in its life cycle. For example, as far as the Personna Red is concerned, I would never choose the Slim as my preferred razor for at least the first six shaves with the blade. (In fact, this current experiment is intended to find out at what point of blade usage does the Slim become a desirable razor option.) Clearly, when a blade nears the end of its useful life, for me, the Slim does actually become a viable, good-shave, low-insult razor choice -- as evidenced by my good shaves with the Slim and a 23rd- and 24th-use SuperMax Titanium blade.
I also remain convinced that an adjustable is a great razor option because one can adjust the razor to better suit the blade characteristics. This adjustability has its limits -- obviously. The Slim is limited in that its design just doesn't work well for me even at its mildest setting, when paired with a newish blade. Yet the Slim is further hampered by its discreet adjustment options, rather than the infinitely adjustable designs of other contemporary, truely-adjustable razors such as the Merkur Futur (and Futur knock-offs), the Merkur Progress, and the Parker Variant. Today, for example, my Variant was set to one for the first pass, but then dialed up slightly to about one and a half for subsequent strokes.
Stay tuned: more to come.
Happy shaving!
I combine the Variant and Personna red blades, that is my daily setup. Ever since I got the Variant I haven't longed for another razor, infact I'm planning to purchase a 2nd one just to have in storage.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a slim but my Gillette Black Beauty is far more irritating than the Variant. I don't know if it's Gillette's in general or not but the Variant is the winner for me.
-Stephen