Feather Popular Double Edged Blade Safety Razor Holder

It’s a good little razor, I use it as a spare just don’t be too heavy handed with it or, like most safety razors … it will bite you.

I’ve used Feather razor blades since I started DE shaving, the are rightly known as the sharpest razor blades one can purchase. When looking at the Feather site, I spotted this inexpensive razor, The Feather Popular and decided to purchase it to see how it performed. As the fabled Feather All Stainless AS-D2 DE is £200 or thereabouts, this is likely to be my only experience with a Feather razor.The Popular is very light-weight having a plastic handle, which is long (10cm) and thin but grippy when wet, as it’s ribbed all the way round. At the top of the handle, there’s the metal ring to turn to open the “twist-to-open” head. This takes about five turns. The doors and central locking plate are metal, held in a black plastic frame, of the same material as the handle. The doors open fully and allow easy loading and unloading of blades. The doors close firmly and the blade is held securely with even exposure on both sides. There is a small amount of blade overhang at the ends.It comes in a reasonable clear, plastic box, with space for a blade pack, and included in the price is a 5 pack of Feather DE blades.Despite not being an all metal razor, The Popular does not feel cheap in the hand. When loaded with a Feather blade only weighs 37.9 grammes, it feels solid and well built. The lightness does however impact the shave as I found I put a little more pressure on the head during shaving, than I would for some of my all metal razors.The shave is mild but using the sharp Feather blade, very efficient, comfortable. There is no blade exposure feel, and you certainly don’t think you’ll be cut or nicked - I wasn’t during the three shaves I’ve had with it. All of those were excellent, BBS shaves with no irritation and it coped well with my problem areas, the lower neck and Adam’s apple. The only slight issue I found with it, was that due to the design, it soon clogs with soap, so it required rinsing more than other razors. That’s good in one way, as it’s so light and mild, I was tempted to use longer strokes than I should, which having to rinse it prevented.Overall, I’ve been impressed with the quality of the build and the shaves I’ve had from this inexpensive razor. It would also probably make an excellent first razor for someone starting out with DE shaving. If you’re already experienced, the Popular would make a great holiday razor due to its low cost.

After a good six months I have found this to be the best safety razor I have ever used . Even with none feather razor blades it still makes for a very comfortable shave.. never get shaving rash or ingrowing hairs

I wanted to get into safety razors because cartridge refills are so expensive, only last a few uses and don't even do that good of a job.Nor did I want to spend much money on a handle if I wasn't sure if I'd like using a safety razor. I thought Feather was a good brand, and this was cheaper than a lot of other handles, so I opted for this.It's absolutely fantastic for the money. It's cheaper than a Gillette cartridge razor + handle multipack and lasts way longer with the razors in the pack. I'm not even factoring in the ongoing savings/environmental benefits from not buying cartirdge refills.It took me about two shaves to get used to it. I had a few nicks the first time, but since then I rarely (if ever) cut my face. The shave is far smoother than with cartridges and now it's been a a good few months and I'm very confident and rehearsed, I can shave my face faster than with a cartirdge razor.I used Arko soap originally which is nice-smelling and decent, but it started irritating my skin. I since switched to a L'Occitane shaving cream and my shaves are much more enjoyable. The soap/cream you use makes all the difference with a safety razor.I want to buy another safety razor, maybe one that's fully metal and compatible with a stand, but honestly I don't need to. This is such good value for money.The plastic handle gets a little slippy if it's wet or your hands are wet, but it's actually knurled so it's still grippy. For something this cheap it seems so well designed. That's Japan for you, right?If you want to get into shaving with a safety razor, you cannot go wrong with this.

I waited a while to write this review allowing me to get a few shaves under the belt. I read some of the low star reviews and in my opinion some of these will have had better success if they researched how to get the best out of this razor and these blades.I recommend this razor using the feather blades, here's my tips/commentary.First time I used this razor it felt rough, cut me and didn't leave a good feeling - back tot he shaving forums and I put ot to one side whilst I continued to learn how to get the best out of my recently aquired SE Feather Artist Club razors.A few lessons later thanks to the unguarded SE blades I came back to the Feather Popular and had a much better experience with a BBS 2 pass shave on my cheeks and a good 2 pass shave on the neck area - i keep a full short beard so its lining up and neck shaving.Top tips- Learn your beard growth pattern and go with the grain on the first pass and diagonal or against on the second, i got better results from diagonal for a while.- DO NOT PRESS THE RAZOR INTO YOUR SKIN TOO HARD - this was my biggest learning from coming back to the Feather Popular, I was using it too hard in comparison to my other DE razors. Light touch and finding the 'right' angle makes this a good experience.- With all of this I was still getting mild irritation due to my sensitive skin so the biggest tip to bring this razor into the keeper bracket is to get some Proraso pre-shave cream to work with it - transforms the overall shave - i use the newer Proraso sensitive and get a better shave and no irritation.