DE shaving after a few weeks with the Dovo Shavette
A few weeks ago I started using the Dovo Shavette razor. I won’t say that I’ve become adept at it but manage to get a decent shave without any nicks or cuts and the minimal amount of razor burn. At first I used only one hand position but now have progressed using two or three with a fair degree of confidence. The final touch still involves using the DE razor, a Merkur HD in order to reach those areas that my straight razor technique doesn’t yet allow. However, as my technique continues to improve those final touches are minimal.
Yesterday it occurred to me that perhaps my general DE technique will have improved as a result of shaving with the shavette. So I put my theory to the test. I went for a three pass DE shave with a new Feather blade and kept everything else much the same. Surely there must be some improvement I thought. But not so. On the first pass with the grain I could feel that the blade was not cutting as well as the shavette. Even though this is a beard reduction pass I have got used to a greater amount of reduction at this point. Across the grain came next and I could immediately feel some roughness and burn even with super light strokes. The final pass against the grain got me to the same level of closeness but somehow wasn’t as smooth as the shavette/DE combo.
Overall I would say the main thing aside from the smoothness aspect was that the fun was missing. In terms of the finished article it was almost as close, with some extra roughness and burn but the process lacked that extra excitement I’ve been enjoying knowing that I could cut myself up pretty badly at any moment. So I’m going to stick with the shavette for now with the final touch up using the DE. I’m loving it and I think my face is loving it too.