A cheapo Remington beard trimmer with the guard rolled down/off cuts my beard back to a healthy stubble, which suits me fine.
>>5401 really nails it here, though. If I want a proper clean shave I use a safety razor with replaceable blades. Shaving soap before and a bit of balm afterward works wonders. I always shave in the shower, for the convenience of washing away the smaller stubble hairs. What >>5562 has posted looks like a very good kit.
>>5564 Make sure the blade isn't left wet after use, make sure your technique is correct (you use the weight of the razor to almost fall down and cut, you don't need to press it right against your skin), and if all else fails try a different brand of blade. I think Astra blades are a good balance between sharpness and forgiveness. You can buy a trial selection of a load of different brands and see which best suits you.
I replace the blade any time I feel the slightest pull, which usually means I get around 3-4 shaves out of one.
With a Mach 3 type multiblade, you get the best shave by just pressing the cartridge against your face and taking long strokes. With a double edge, it's the opposite - use very light pressure, take short strokes and control the angle of the blade.
Blade angle is absolutely critical. Get used to the feel of the blade as it just starts to bite into the hair.
First, wet your face. Dip the end of the stick in water, then rub it on your face like a big crayon. This will lift the hair and evenly coat it in soap. With a slightly damp brush, lather up on your face. The brush will hold enough lather for a second pass, if needed.
It's faster than lathering up in a bowl or mug and gives a better shave. It works well with a cheap little boar-bristle brush. Most sticks come in a plastic tube, so they're ideal for travel.
>>5572 Electric shavers aren't really sharp, they basically just obliterate the hairs by smashing into them. I hypothesise that the split ends look thinner than the flat neat cut of a wet shave.
>>5572 It can change how your face feels if the hairs are cut at a different angle but it's not going to increase your follicle density or how fast they grow back.
>>5574 >Electric shavers aren't really sharp, they basically just obliterate the hairs by smashing into them
I know it doesn't really make any practical difference, but seeing the extreme close ups of shave hairs put me off electric razors entirely.
Orthodox Judaism forbids shaving (more precisely, "destroying" the beard). Trimming a beard is considered permissible by most rabbinical scholars. Some kinds of electric shaver technically trim the beard very short rather than removing it completely, so some scholars believe that those shavers are permissible. This interpretation has provoked a bitter, decades-long row over whether electric shavers are kosher.
>>5411 Definitely a foam, I accidently bought a gel one time and when I used it I kept cutting my self. Plus I much prefer the feel of foam, I normally get Palmolive shaving foam.
>>5579 I get that with gel sometimes, but I find that so long as you use plenty of it (more than I would with foam) it's alright, I guess because it doesn't expand like foam does.
>>5579 Palmolive is old-school but way the best shaving material. It comes in a toothpaste tube but lasts forever, is very good at lubrication once it gets going and is kind of old-fashioned - my Grandad used to swear by it. Highly recommended.
>>5583 Of course the do, the old testament isn't really a Christian thing, it belongs to an older religion.
The new testament however, well that's a different kettle of fish.
>>5583 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled."
>>5578 isn't about inconsistencies, but the exact opposite. I find orthodox Judaism fascinating, because it is a completely rational set of beliefs based on a single erroneous assumption - that the Torah is the literal and perfect word of god. Aside from that assumption, there's really very little difference between my secular rationalist mindset and the mindset of an orthodox Jew. It's like the butterfly effect, one little difference that changes everything.
To orthodox Jews, anything in the Torah that looks like a loophole must have been put there deliberately; to argue otherwise would in fact be blasphemous, because it suggests that there are mistakes in the Torah.
The Torah says that married women should cover their hair, but it doesn't say what you should cover your hair with. Logically, there's nothing wrong with wearing a wig rather than a headscarf. You're not allowed to show your hair, but you are allowed to cover your hair with someone else's hair. It is both utterly daft and perfectly rational.
The Torah says that you can't perform work on the Sabbath, and classifies "transferring objects between types of domains" as work. Carrying something around your house is fine, but if you take it out of your house then you've transferred it from a private to a public domain. What happens if you put a fence around a group of houses? Rabbinic scholars say that it becomes one private domain, called an eruv. The fence needs to be a physical structure that completely surrounds the eruv but it doesn't need to be a practical enclosure. Orthodox communities string wires between the lampposts surrounding an entire community, creating one massive "private domain" in which objects can be carried on the Sabbath.
I just think it's an extraordinary display of human ingenuity.
>>5591 You might enjoy The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. It features a hardboiled alcoholic detective in an alternative universe where the Post-War Jews were resettled in Alaska and involves eruvs and such.
I heard they're better for dealing with razor burn so I got a Merkur 34c, no razor burn, which is great, but fuck me does it give a shit shave. No matter how many passes I do, with the gran, along side the grain, again the grain, I just cant get a clean shave. What am I doing wrong? I've tried the blade that came with it and a Shark one.
Use shaving soap and a brush, not the squirty stuff in a can. A shaving brush lifts and softens the hair.
With a safety razor, blade angle is crucial. You need a bit of practice to get a good close shave without cuts. The correct angle is very different to that of a cartridge-type razor. Use short strokes and very light pressure, controlling the blade angle throughout the stroke. With the right technique, a safety razor can give an incredibly close shave.
>>5596 I am using cream and a brush. Thanks for the video though, I've watched a few but none had that trick for getting the angle, I think I may have had the safety bar to close to my skin.
>>5605 >>5596 With these 'traditional' creams and soaps and what have you, are they meant for traditional safety razor and/or a cut-throat razor only or will they be fine to use with a standard issue Gillette jobby?
Some razors are quite mild and won't give a very close shave without an against-the-grain pass. If you have coarse stubble, you'll probably need an against-the-grain or across-the-grain pass with most razors. A super-aggressive razor like the Muhle R41 will give a very close shave in a single pass, but they'll rip your face to bits if you don't know what you're doing.
>>5746 The Aldi hair clipper I bought was unsatisfying. Technically worked, took ages. Relegated to spare of last resort, with a proper one bought for thrice the price.
