I came across this video on another thread.
1000-Plus straight razor shaves in, I can look back and apart from the initial steep learning curve most of the rest is steady almost imperceptible progress. Rarely something comes up that changes everything and takes you to the next level.
This is one of those moments for me and I feel compelled to share it.
I was watching the Master at work and what caught my eye was the fact that he attacks most of his strokes at an angle with a slicing motion. Makes perfect sense that it would slice the beard easier, but my initial thoughts were that it will also slice skin easier.
Well, I tried it by starting carefully and only holding the razor at 45 degrees from the shaving direction, heel leading, instead of the normal 90 degrees I always thought should be the best. All I can say is "Wow what a difference!". You hardly feel any resistance at all and the resulting two-pass shave was probably one off best ones yet. Zero irritation and very smooth.
As far as slicing skin, one little nick when I was going upwards under my jawline and didn't back off in time to change direction when meeting the pointy bit of my chin.
In all, definitely something I will practise and get good at. Even after my first try I can see huge benefits.
I will probably class it as an advanced technique only to be tried once you are very confident in your abilities to keep the blood inside the skin!
I did my second shave this way yesterday, and with some confidence gained, started to be a bit more adventurous actually pulling to do a bit of a sliding stroke.
Great shave! You barely have to touch your skin with the lightest of pressure and the blade almost flat on your face. It just glides and leaves you with a much better result than the normal straight down stroke.
Love it!
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