Oil shaving question: how do I stretch my faced when it's lubed?

[Shamejedi]

SWMBO started oil cleansing recently, so I took advantage of her considerable supply of various oils to make a small batch of shave oil. At first, I figured that I'd just use it as a pre-shave. It ended up having a decent enough viscosity and glide that I decided to try shaving with it alone. I've used the oil blend with both a straight and a DE (Merkur 38C loaded with my personal favorite, a Dorco ST-300). I've been thrilled with the results in terms of skin health and lack of irritation, but a little disappointed with the closeness of the shave. With the Dorco and a decent cream or soap, I can reach BBS with three passes (wtg, xtg, atg) followed by some light buffing over the problem spots on my neck. I'm not quite as skilled with the straight yet, but I can get BBS cheeks and a DFS on my neck without turning my face into cubesteak. Using the oil, I still get some stubborn stubble that I can I can feel when I rub my hand atg. It looks fine, and it feels fine in every other direction, but my shaving OCD won't let it rest there.

I'm fixated on the notion that when I use creams or soaps, I usually run alum over my left hand before my atg pass so I can get traction and stretch my face. With the oil, I can't get that traction. Do any of you who shave with oil have a fix for this that doesn't involve stopping to soap down my neck (which would sort of defeat the purpose of the oil shave, I think)?

It's possible, I suppose, that I am totally off base with my assumption that the stretching is the key. Maybe the problem is the oil--but the oil seems to work beautifully in all other regards and my face feels great after four days of oil shaving.

I welcome your thoughts!

 

[nrv216]

Sorry I can't help but I had to post that you just blew my mind! I had never even heard of shaving with an oil mix instead of lather! Learn something new every day here. I am sure a wily veteran will be along shortly to answer your question.

Edit: have you tried using little swatches of cloth or other grippy material to stretch with? I have heard of people doing this with lather so I would assume if the material was grippy enough it would work with oil.


nrv216

 

[Shamejedi]

Good thought, nrv. I did try with my washcloth, which is a very soft cloth to begin with and didn't grip so well. Maybe a scratchier cloth would work better.

 

[nrv216]

Or maybe even a rubber shammy type cloth?

Just a thought.

nrv216

 

[Arcadies]

Rub your fingertips on a block of Alum and you can stretch your skin through any lube.

Edit: Just noticed you already tried alum, if that won't work I have no clue. It's always worked for me no matter how slippery of a substance I use.

 

[Shamejedi]

Follow up: couldn't get the alum to work for anything in terms of grip. I saw a washcloth that had a nylon scrubby side at Rite-Aid for 99 cents. The scrubby side grips just fine through the oil. BBS in three passes this morning using my Merkur 38c and a new Dorco ST-300.

Thanks for the ideas, gentlemen.