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Vintage Travelling Blade reviews: Personna Super Stainless 'Ultra Chrome'

A second great shave from the Personna. The only changes to my shave today were a Fatboy on #7, and though I found it to be a bit more aggressive than the 34C, I still had a very easy and pleasant shave. I don't have much to report to be honest, because the shave was pretty much identical to the first one. That's a very big plus, consistency is definitely a virtue. I feel really comfortable with this blade, it's not quite as "glide-y" as the Spoiler but it still cuts very cleanly through my beard. These vintage blades have had a positive effect on my technique, I think. I find that since I started using the Spoiler, I've relaxed my pressure quite noticeably with very positive results. I've had no irritation caused by this blade at all, only one ingrown hair that weeps annoyingly every time I run over it. That's a leftover from the Spoiler, but the Personna and me get along very well, and it's almost healed.

It's a shame that the Personna 74's that were up on eBay from a US seller cost more for postage than a single blade. I think I'd have happily ponied up $4 to try one of them and compare it to this. Hard to ever justify spending $4/blade, but it's a pretty rare opportunity. Shame that shipping costs killed it. All things considered though, there have been some great shaves over the last six weeks or so.
 
The Personna was a bit rougher for me today, I had a pretty average shave. I've developed a trouble patch around my adam's apple with a couple of ingrowns and a little bit of rawness, and I'll put that down to technique mostly, I still lapse into using too much pressure. This blade isn't quite as kind to that area as some others though, it's dropped off in smoothness quite noticeably. I should have adjusted to this by using shorter strokes, but I was in a hurry and didn't. My haste was punished by a bit of redness immediately post shave, but a few hours later it's gone. The Body Shop Maca Root razor rash cream is actually pretty decent at settling down a red patch quite quickly, the aloe vera and menthol in it is nice and soothing. Handy to have around when you cock up as I did today.

I put the Personna back in the 34C for today, but I'm thinking I'll go with something mild like a Tech or Krona next time and give my neck some time to recover a little bit. One of the most prominent differences between these Travelling PIF blades and current production blades is the necessity for good technique. These have punished me so far every time I've used too much pressure or tried to get too close. There's a much smaller margin for error with these, which is good. It's making me police my technique, which is something the Polsilvers and Perma-Sharps don't encourage quite so much.
 
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