first couple straight shaves

[JMP]

So I had my first couple straight shave after reading joels article, watching lynn's dvd. I have shaved with a DE for a year and a half, and my prep and lather is pretty good. I shaved the sideburns and cheeks down to the jawline on both sides, and the mustache area, all WTG. I was being very cautious, my razor is a "near wedge" as sold from whipped dog (great razor, thanks larry!) so I hold it pretty much flat against my face (probably a little less than a 30 degree angle).

What I have noticed was that the razor seemed to "stick" to my face somewhat, and I had to use a little bit more pressure on the razor than I expected to get it to slide down my face and cut hair. At times it almost skipped across the face in very small amounts. I had zero irritation and no nicks, which is fantastic.

The razor was shave ready, and I felt very little pulling. Is this stickyness/skipping issue likely due to lather (too dry?), or blade angle? Or maybe some other aspect of my technique? Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Luc]

I got the "sticky" feeling or blade was skipping while shaving. The important is do not force it.

I haven't tried Larry's honing but seeing the reviews he got, it should be right. You could almays strop your razor a bit more for your next shave, leather helps for smoothness.

 

[W_B_K]

Congrats! .

Pick up the angle a bit more. You definately want to be at 30 or so for the WTG pass. A slicker, wetter lather helps for straight shaves. If my lather is too dry it can create a bit of suction between the blade and skin.

 

[Defend Tacoma]

Congrats! Being new to straight razors myself, I don't have any wisdom for you, just keep at it, an happy shaves to ya!

 

[LarryAndro]

With the WTG pass, some pulling is expected. There are two techniques that I think important...

#1 When shaving thru a thick whisker area, your first WTG pass should be with the blade almost flat on your face.

And, I think you are doing that. And, yes, you will have to somewhat push the blade thru the whiskers in this initial beard reduction pass. After this pass, you will typically raise the razor angle to something more like 30 degrees.

When you say that the razor almost skipped across your face, that implies that you are trying to shave thru an area. This leads to the second suggestion...

#2 Shaving WTG you should shave in an upwards direction, not down thru a tough whisker area.

I do not mean to shave ATG! Everything I am saying assumes you are shaving WTG.

The razor will shave some parts of the face easily. If so, simply shave thru the area. But, if the whiskers are tough, I don't believe the "shave thru" strategy is best. If you try this, the blade will pull a lot, and/or tend to skip as you describe.

Let's say you are shaving a 2" x 2" patch with the grain pointing South. You could start at the North and shave thru the patch ending up at the South (bottom) end. (And, of course, we are talking WTG.) But, I think this is not the best strategy. Try shaving North to South (WTG), but shaving only the bottom, say, 1/2 inch. That takes only a few seconds. Now, raise your razor and shave the 1/2 inch above. You are not now shaving thru the area from North to South, but, you are shaving upwards with your final shaving action removing the 1/2 area where you would start shaving if you were "shaving thru."

It works better that way! Try it.

 

[Ru4scuba?]

Thanks for the tip Larry...that first one is one I had not read before....I'll definitely use that next time I str8 shave after a few days growth....

The Second one is a really unique tip and I'll have to try that as well...I assume the "point" of that technique is to reduce the beard area south of the patch intended to be cut in order to cut down on the total friction of the blade? IOW...making it easier to cut through the targeted patch?

Good stuff!

With the WTG pass, some pulling is expected. There are two techniques that I think important...

#1 When shaving thru a thick whisker area, your first WTG pass should be with the blade almost flat on your face.

And, I think you are doing that. And, yes, you will have to somewhat push the blade thru the whiskers in this initial beard reduction pass. After this pass, you will typically raise the razor angle to something more like 30 degrees.

When you say that the razor almost skipped across your face, that implies that you are trying to shave thru an area. This leads to the second suggestion...

#2 Shaving WTG you should shave in an upwards direction, not down thru a tough whisker area.

I do not mean to shave ATG! Everything I am saying assumes you are shaving WTG.

The razor will shave some parts of the face easily. If so, simply shave thru the area. But, if the whiskers are tough, I don't believe the "shave thru" strategy is best. If you try this, the blade will pull a lot, and/or tend to skip as you describe.

Let's say you are shaving a 2" x 2" patch with the grain pointing South. You could start at the North and shave thru the patch ending up at the South (bottom) end. (And, of course, we are talking WTG.) But, I think this is not the best strategy. Try shaving North to South (WTG), but shaving only the bottom, say, 1/2 inch. That takes only a few seconds. Now, raise your razor and shave the 1/2 inch above. You are not now shaving thru the area from North to South, but, you are shaving upwards with your final shaving action removing the 1/2 area where you would start shaving if you were "shaving thru."

It works better that way! Try it.

 

[LarryAndro]

The Second one is a really unique tip and I'll have to try that as well...I assume the "point" of that technique is to reduce the beard area south of the patch intended to be cut in order to cut down on the total friction of the blade? IOW...making it easier to cut through the targeted patch?

Yes, I think so. But, you used entirely too few words. You have to learn to obfuscate as I am about to do below.

As to the why, my theory goes like this...

Some areas I shave. Meaning, the blade slides along on the skin and easily lops off the whiskers. The tough areas I nip. The whiskers are so tough that my blade tends to ride up or down (razor burn!) on them while shaving, making it very unlikely that the razor will stay at skin level. Rather than fight the tendency for the blade to ride up on the whiskers when shaving WTG, I simply live with it.

When a blade rides up on the whiskers, it nips the tops off a few of the whiskers. This reduces the length of the whisker. In short repeated movements, I shave the same small patch with my blade, every time nipping off the tops of another 50 or 100 whiskers, again reducing length. Eventually, I will have nipped off the tops of the whiskers down to skin level.

That is why I say that this might be termed "nipping" instead of shaving.

But, why start at the bottom?

Forgive the dumb analogy, but think of mowing grass. If the grass is short, you position your mower to mow as much grass as possible. If the grass is tall, you position your mower so it only cuts about half a swath. Otherwise, it would bog down.

In somewhat the same way, starting at the bottom and shaving upward in short sections works the same way. You aren't cutting off as much whisker, the pulling isn't present as much, you can choose the optimal angle better, (for when shaving from the top you pretty much have to lay the blade flat), and... well, I don't really know why it works better! It just does.