Is it me or the razor? Probably me.

[Ratso]

I’ve tried the SR route on and off. I always end up with nicks or cuts of varying degrees. I’ve been using cheap razors like gold dollar. I’ve done the honing and stropping as prescribed in various videos. My razors can do the tree topping thing on my arm hair. I even bought a razor from Razor Emporium that was made shave ready by their staff. I still fail miserably. Can the quality of the razor have anything to do with success? I don’t want to spend $200 or more on a razor that ends up in the drawer.

 

[Lightcs1776]

Any properly honed razor will give a good shave. However, from my experience, it takes quite some time to get it right with a straight razor. If you continue with it, you will likely be rewarded with an excellent shave in time.

 

[SilverSteel]

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… "

 

[Herrenberg]

Practice, practice, practice.

Start with cheeks only, graduate to other areas when you feel comfortable handling the razor and are ready for new challenges.

Don't chase a close shave. It will happen naturally as you go along.

Never put the razor to your skin unless it is in motion.

Stretch your skin. Unstretched skin can bunch up and that means a cut.

Short strokes help you naturally make adjustments to the changing planes of your face.

And keep pressure as light as you can. Imagine you're just scraping of the lather. You don't want more pressure than that.

 

[croyleje]

Personally when I switched to straight razors it took me about 3 months of daily shaving to be proficient after the first month I was comfortable but it took another 2 months before I was confident and was getting consistent shaves. I also decided to go the hard route and learn to hone a razor at the same time so part of my 3 months was just learning to get a good edge if I had to do it again I wouldn't recommend learning honing and straight razor shaving at the same time there is just too many variables to know what is wrong.

 

[Frank Shaves]

Personally when I switched to straight razors it took me about 3 months of daily shaving to be proficient after the first month I was comfortable but it took another 2 months before I was confident and was getting consistent shaves. I also decided to go the hard route and learn to hone a razor at the same time so part of my 3 months was just learning to get a good edge if I had to do it again I wouldn't recommend learning honing and straight razor shaving at the same time there is just too many variables to know what is wrong.

Yes. The razor and its edge matter. Read the last six months of Straight Razor Acquisition Thread - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/straight-razor-acquisition-thread.418229/ and What straight did you use today? Now with PICTURES - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/what-straight-did-you-use-today-now-with-pictures.248174/unread, and get yourself a couple of razors that you think look cool. Get at least one of them honed by @Doc226 to understand what a good edge is. There are plenty of good razors available for less than $100. For less than $150, there are even more .

Be patient and ask questions. A lot of guys talk about 100 shaves. For me, things began to fall in place around the four-month mark. But most importantly, have fun.

 

[rbscebu]

@Ratso most SR shavers have been down your path, myself included.

There is nothing wrong with a properly honed Gold Dollar SR. It should serve you well for decades. I started with a USD 20 Titan ACRM-2 T.H.60. It is still in my rotation and enjoy shaving with it.

You say that you only SR shave on and off and that you are always getting nicks and cuts. You are not complaining that the SR is not shaving your whiskers so it must be at least reasonably shave-ready.

Your problem is that you are not developing your technique. Developing your technique will greatly reduce and eventually almost eliminate nicks, cuts and weepers.

To properly develop your technique:

• SR shave daily - every day (even if not needed) for a month. Every day you miss will put your technique back 2 or 3 shaves.
• Concentrate totally on the job at hand and no distractions.
• Pay attention to your pre-shave preparation (very important).
• Stretch your skin where you are shaving when you can.
• Shave with a shallow angle, about ½ to 1 spine thickness off the skin. Don't believe that 30° stuff you might see on YouTube.
• Concentrate totally on the job at hand and no distractions.
• Shave with only enough pressure against the skin to remove the lather. Don't worry about your whiskers, they will come off with the lather.
• Don't chase baby butt smooth (BBS). That will come automatically as your technique improves. Start with WTG only. As your feel more confident, you can move on to WTG + XTG.
• Concentrate totally on the job at hand and no distractions.

Cuts, nicks and weepers are not caused by the equipment. They are caused by operator error. Learn from each and every one that you get. Try not to make the same mistake twice - only fool's do that. By following the above, you should notice an improvement with just about every shave.

Concentrate totally on the job at hand and no distractions.

If you follow the above advice, within about a week, your cuts and nicks will be noticeably less. Within about a month they will be a rare occurrence and you can start to try WTG + XTG + ATG.

Welcome to the gentlemanly art of SR shaving. It takes time, daily commitment and concentration to learn this manly art.

If you don't have the time, commitment and concentration skill, give up now and return to carts/electric shaving.

 

[Ratso]

I saw the word concentrate at least four times. I get it. When I watch the old western movies they make it look like a no brainer. I’ll give it another serious attempt. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[Robert Anderson]

It took me 25 shaves before I managed to shave my whole face without a nick. Now, I only get them if I let my mind wander. I cannot remember where I saw it, but I read that you should not try to shave close until you were comfortable shaving your whole face. Seemed like good advice to me. The quality of your shaves will improve with experience.

 

[Herrenberg]

Concentration is indeed necessary. The last time I cut myself, it was because I let my mind wander. I told Mrs. Herrenberg about it, and the conversation went like this.

Me: I cut my lip because I was thinking about something else during a critical part of the shave.
Mrs. Herrenberg: Oh, were you thinking about what it would be like to be married to some younger woman?
Me: No, I was thinking about a picture I saw of some Special Forces guys, and every one of them had my facial hair style.

 

[StillShaving]

I saw the word concentrate at least four times. I get it. When I watch the old western movies they make it look like a no brainer. I’ll give it another serious attempt. Thanks for the encouragement.

Related to that is what some would call muscle memory. When first learning it can overwhelming...for the lack of a better term...for your mind to think about and coordinate all the details like positioning the razor, adjusting the blade angle, using light pressure, starting and stopping the stroke, etc. The hand, eye, skin feel coordination will not be there, no matter how well you understand to shave at an intellectual level. It takes some time to get all that dialed in. Hence the recommendation to start with the cheeks and proceed from there as you feel it is starting to click.

A blade that is not sharp enough will cause you to have more issues, since the natural tendency is to then use more pressure. If you find yourself needing to shave at steep angle or use pressure to shave your cheeks then you should double check your razor.

 

[Ratso]

Well I gathered my courage and did a WTG cheek shave this morning. I used a low angle and a light touch. I got audible feedback, but didn’t take much off which is the same as with the WTG pass with my DE. I finished the shave with my red tip and Personna Israeli blue. I stropped the razor 30 stokes after cleaning and drying the blade. I remember reading somewhere to strop the razor after usage to maintain a dry edge until the next shave.

 

[rbscebu]

@Ratso you say that your WTG didn't take much off. After that pass, was there still stubble felt when lightly rubbing with the grain?

If so, it could be that your edge is not keen enough or your angle was just a little to low. For angle with a proper shave-ready edge, you need about ½ to 1 spine thickness off the skin. The keener the blade, the flatter the angle.

As for stropping, there is no detrimental effect by stropping after the shave, however you should also, or instead of, strop just before your shave. Stropping does not sharpen an edge, its purpose is to realign the deformaty that occurred in the edge from shaving. This can be done before or after the shave. The reason to strop just before a shave is to also remove any oxidation that may be on the blade's bevel/edge. All steels oxidise, even stainless steels.

 

[Ratso]

Still felt some stubble after the first pass. The same thing happens with my DE razor on the first pass. It doesn’t take much off.

 

[rbscebu]

Still felt some stubble after the first pass. The same thing happens with my DE razor on the first pass. It doesn’t take much off.

Ok. All is then good. As your confidence and technique develops, you can extend your WTG pass to the rest of your face. There is nothing wrong with using a DE razor to finish your shave. Just don't use your DE razor as a crutch for not developing your SR shaving technique.

After about a week or less of daily SR (WTG) shaving, you can add an XTG pass. Later you can add a second XTG pass in the opposite direction. By then you should be getting a DFS result.

Last but not least, after about 3 or 4 weeks of daily SR shaving, you can start to add an ATG pass. That will eventually give you a BBS result (if that is your desire).

Once I started getting BBS results from SR shaving after about 3 months of daily SR shaving, I found that I didn't want it as it gave me nothing to shave 24 hours later. Now I just do WTG + 2 x XTG plus touch-up for a DFS+ and something to shave the next day.