First shave tonight using the HA head. First of all, the blade loading was easier than I thought it would be. The Mamba, GC, and Goodwill all have the blade guides on the base plate, but this is the first time it was a bar and not round pins. It did hold the blade in place better than pins, but still there was a need to lift the base plate in order to secure the cap and it was easier for the blade to slip out of place. Secondly, the handle was a little different with the portion nearest the head being smooth and skinny, similar to the Krect razors. The design of the handle worked well as the head was heavy and by holding the handle low, it allowed (forced) me to guide the razor head and let the weight do all the work. Fit and finish on the razor was first class.
On with the shave. To be honest, I have to say that this is one of the worst razors I have shaved with. It equals the Yaqi Ares in aggressiveness without efficiency. There was significant blade feel and a very narrow angle where it worked well. This was similar to when I shaved with the Alpha Outlaw last week, however the difference was that using the wrong angle with the Outlaw did not scrape a layer of skin off your face. I looked at the blade exposure and knew that I needed to go real slow and try different angles to get things right. When I found the proper angle, it was very efficient in many places, however in my problem areas, I could not get it to do a clean shave mostly because slight pressure, skin stretching, and buffing would be dangerous with this head.
I am not new to aggressive razors, with my two favorites being a CG Lvl3 SS, and my REX Ambassador set to 6, however this HA head is not something that I would consider buying or shaving with if it was given to me. For now, I have it loaded for one more shave tomorrow just to see if there was something I missed from tonight's shave. After that, I will move on to the ST head and hope it is better.