30 degree angle for shaving

[Magnaminous_G]

Everyone has heard that 30 degrees is a good angle to start from when beginning wet shaving. But unless you work with angles daily, you probably aren't really sure how that's supposed to work on your face. So I made this crappy drawing to show you. The *blade* is supposed to be at a 30 degree angle to your face, not the handle. And since your face is not flat, you have to adjust the razor in your hand to keep the 30 degree angle. It doesn't have to be perfect, though, so you shouldn't worry too much about that. It just has to be around 30 degrees. As you can see from my crude artwork, a 30 degree angle is much deeper (i.e., more aggressive, i.e. less parallel to the face) than you would normally hold a cartridge razor like the Gillette Mach 3. You hold a cartridge razor almost parallel to the face (which makes for a blade angle of 5 degrees or so, maybe).

Hope this helps someone!

 

[H.S.M.Jr.]

Magnaminous_G;

Thanks for your effort, you sure did better than I could have done. I could have possibly used this earlier tonight. My first attempt at SE shaving in approx. 39 years was a total flap. By the way, who hands out the Purple Hearts around here? I haven't bled so much since the doc opened me up to fuse the 4 lower vertebrae in my back. Oh well, guess I'll have to learn all over again.

I know I made 5 mistakes:

1. A new brush. I followed the break-in tips I found here.
2. A Razor I wasn't familiar with.
3. Cheap CVS SE Blades.
4. My lather wasn't quite right.
5. I was over confident with myself.

I thank the good Lord I read the thread about the WH today. After another lathering, I finished up with my Fusion [my bad] I know, a rinse with cold water, an application of WH, then I applied some NIVEA Shave Balm. Instant relief.

Now, to give my face a time to heal up.

Thanks for all the tips fellas.

 

[Nobody]

Good visual aide! That one would make a nice addition to the wiki if there isn't anything like it. So many folks report problems that sound angle related.

Edit: As an afterthought, one might like to use a considerably LOWER angle when using a SE razor. Some of those require quite acute angles for happy usage.

 

[mistervee123]

Picasso is back from the dead and belongs to B&B!

 

[N2theBreech]

... And since your face is not flat, you have to adjust the razor in your hand to keep the 30 degree angle....

Hope this helps someone!

Nice artwork! I don't think I've seen a drawing yet that shows the complete picture. The way you have the razor handle crossing the "compass points" shows clearly that it is not the handle that should be at 30 degrees, but the blade. I agree, it would a nice addition to the Wiki.

One minor comment—something that is not mentioned a lot, but really helped me. It is better to keep the wrist locked and use your whole forearm to modify the angle of the razor, rather than adjusting it in your hand. I've heard this called "shaving with your elbow". GeoFatboy called it "shaving from your shoulder" in one of his videos. I'm not really sure why it helps, but it does.

Again, nice job.

 

[SlapDog]

Very helpful! I appreciate your effort.

 

[wingdo]

Great visual, thanks for sharing! If it saves one person from buying a protractor......

(BTW, where was this when I came back to wet shaving. It took me forever to realize most of my issues were from the fact I was being waaaay too agressive.