Welcome to Anniversary Month! I’m entering my second year of safety razor wet shaving by trying something new.
As you’ll have seen a couple of days ago, my son gave me a slightly early birthday gift of a Parker 55SL Semi-Slant razor. It’s one I’ve talked about here for a while and one I’ve wanted for a couple of months. It fills a space in my razor collection that needs filling (at least in my mind): I’ve got a standard cheap butterfly (the Van Der Hagen), an entry level three-piece (King C Gillette), an adjustable (Rockwell 6C), a lightweight mild (the Henson AL13), and now a slant razor.
I did a lot of research and reading of reviews about this one. As you can imagine, there are many slant razors out there, but not nearly as many different models as there are standard razors. And I’d heard two different reviews of slants in general, and about the Parker specifically: it could be too mild for some or too aggressive for others. As someone who prefers a milder shave, this is an important point for me. But after shopping and narrowing the field down to 3 different models to try, I opted to try the one that ultimately seemed fairly mild but also the cheapest. (The other contenders were the RazoRock L1 (or L1+), which goes for $130; and the Rex Supply Konsul Slant Adjustable, which sells for $350.) I have a hard time convincing myself to buy a razor that costs over $100.
I spent the better part of a day trying to decide what blade to use with the Parker in its debut shave, so I chose the Gillette Nacet. It’s easily my favorite blade, delivers a great shave across my razors, and seemed like the logical start.
But it was uncomfortable and probably too aggressive for this setup. I’m pretty certain, in thinking about the shave now, that I need to learn to improve my technique with the Parker in addition to finding the razor/blade combination that works best for me. Again, as a refresher, a slant razor torques the head so that the blade contacts the beard hairs at an angle, theoretically making the actual cut a slicing motion rather than a chopping one. It felt different than other shaves, and made a distinctly different sound. So for my next shave, I’ll likely try a milder blade, and pay more attention to technique.
More learning to come!
The Rating
Shave #156. The First Parker Semi-Slant Shave.
The setup:
- Razor: Parker 55SL Semi-Slant
- Blade: Gillette Nacet
- Pre-Shave: Proraso Pre Shave Cream White Sensitive
- Brush: Proraso Boar Shaving Brush
- Soap/Cream/Gel: Proraso Shaving Soap White Sensitive
- Alum Block: Stirling Soap Co. Alum
- After Shave: Proraso White Sensitive After Shave Balm
I got a very nice thick lather that did a great job of cushioning the shave, and probably should applied more for the additional passes I made on my neck, but I didn’t. After the experience of building lather in my shave mug after loading outside of the mug, I decided to try it with the Proraso white soap: I loaded it in the cup it comes in, where I usually do the lathering, and then moved the brush over to the mug and kept going. It produced a beautiful, moist but dense lather that went on well and seemed to provide great protection.
The setup worked well on my neck with the exception of the middle and the corners of the center of my neck–those spots on either side of the centerline that transition from the middle of my neck to the outside. There’s kind of an angle there that had some stubble remaining after my normal three-pass neck shave, so I attacked it with some extra passes, and that was likely a mistake as I did end up with a couple of nicks that bled for a little bit.
But overall, it was a close shave that will be the basis for improving my technique going forward. In other words, not perfect, but there’s a lot to learn from here.
Comfort: 4.250 out of 5
Quality/Closeness: 4.750 out of 5
Overall: 4.500 out of 5
