Merkur HD- What am I doing wrong?

[Mike in VT]

Okay, I know the Merkur HD is hugely popular. I owned one when I first got into DE shaving. However, I just wasn't comfortable with it. It seemed to drag way too much, maybe due to the 'pointy' safety bar. So before giving up on DE shaving, I obtained a Gillette SS from Ebay. Well, two years later, I'm still DE shaving because of my success with that razor.

So I can't help but ask.....was I doing something wrong with the HD? I know the SS and HD have two completely different safety bars, but it there a trick to using the Merkur?

[Mottern Man]

Probably nothing wrong at all.

Razors can be much like the blades them self with variables on your shave, with heft, blade exposure, etc..

[soulshine]

Don't sweat it - I tried just about every razor I could before settling one that works the best for me.

[rick]

I never really liked my HD either.....its found a good home.
Also had and sold / traded:

Futur
Techs
Weishi
Slant
Fat Boy


Thats been part of the journey: Finding the right combos of stuffs.
Now its down to 4 brushes and 6 razors (2 of which I'm sure will be gone in a while. I just had to try em :cool:)

[JayKay]

I didnt like the HD to start with but I've gone back to it and it is one of my favorite razors now. I love it with a bunch of the less talked about blades such as super platinums.

[sparky5693]

I'm guessing you've noticed, but the necessary angle is quite different with the HD. IMHO the merkur HD is a great razor. Don't give up on it.

[Exeter]

I've only been with the HD for about a week now, which probably isn't time enough to adjust, but I'm having pretty serious trouble getting the right angles in all spots. I can make three passes all over and still have lots of patches. My face IS quite curvy due to various skeletal and tissue-related factors, so its difficult even with a cartridge razor, but I'm thinking something a little less...enclosed would be a better bet. I'll keep going another two months probably before I start looking for something else.

edit: HOWEVER -- I may be coming into a Schick Injector in the next couple of days, FOR FREE. So...I may give that a whirl.

[JayKay]

I would have the say that the HD is much more aggressive than an SS (I dont know about the red tips?). Thats what I've come to find.