Overshaving without lather and a possible bad blade

[Feek]

I've noticed recently that I'm overshaving quite a lot - I know one of the mantras of wet shaving is never to touch the razor to the skin without there being a protective layer of lather but I guess that old habits die hard and I do repeated passes with no lather quite a lot.

Yesterday I managed to nick myself quite badly (this is unusual, I forget the last time I cut myself) and when I looked at my face, there were patches of scratches and it really just didn't look very good. It was a nice smooth feeling shave but just not very pretty. I had areas of redness (again, unusual).

Today I was very consious not to overshave the same area without lather and I did my usual three passes with a touch up. I was also extra careful not to apply any pressure and just let the weight of the razor do the work. I didn't draw any blood which is an improvement over yesterday.

The shave is smooth, perhaps not the usual complete BBS I manage and I put that down to the fact that I wasn't overshaving but I've got the redness and scratched look again.

Clearly my technique needs a little extra work on the difficult areas to get a BBS shave without overshaving but I wonder if I've got a bad blade which has caused the redness and scratchy appearance. I was using a DE89L which isn't known for being any more than 'mild' and a Personna Med Prep.

I only normally use a blade twice anyway but I've never experienced a bad blade out of a batch before. From what I've described, is it likely?

 

[Judge Dredd]

Bad blades *do* happen, but given your technique history (which parallels mine to some extent), I'd suggest working on your technique and lather-application before drawing any conclusions about the blade.

It will take some time, but eventually the "right" amount of pressure and remembering to apply lather will all fall into place. Once you get there (and you get a good run without burning and rash and horrible grazing etc), you'll be in a better position to determine whether you got a bad blade or not.

 

[Feek]

I've had a three month run without any burning, rash, grazing and nicks, that's why the last two days have felt very unusual.

 

[Shutterbug57]

Change the blade and see what happens. If the blade is the problem - problem solved. If it is not, you will then know that too.

 

[Graybeard57]

Just reading the subject line made me wince. It took me several months to break the habit of overshaving, and doing so without lather. Moist lather, a good blade, and a light touch are what I strive for, but don't always achieve. If one of those is out of balance, my shave suffers. I agree you should change one variable at a time, but one thing you can confidently assume will improve your shave is a light touch. Be gentle with your face, you are bringing a very sharp blade against very soft skin. Lots of good advice given, so I'll stop here. Enjoy your shaves!

 

[redrako]

There's nothing like a good 8-pass shave to generate some road rash on your face!

Like the Judge, I speak from some experience in this matter. For me once I became familiar with BBS and felt comfortable that I wasn't going to shave the skin off my face, I would buff, J-hook and try different angles in pursuit of the Holy Grail of shaving, BBS. The result was often BBS, accompanied by redness, rawness and sometimes some razor bumps and an occasional ingrowns.

So if you are a number of months into shaving and seem to be stuck, or even going backwards in the quality of your shaves, it's time to revisit the basics. There's a good possibility that you've developed some bad habbits, so revisiting your lathering (not shaving without lather), face/blade angle, pressure and focusing on shaving on small, flat planes of your face might be just the ticket.

Good Luck and keep us posted on your progress.

 

[Feek]

Thanks folks. The pressure thing is one I'm always very conscious of so I'm quite sure that I'm not applying any pressure at all - I just made doubly sure of that today as I always remember my third DE shave which was a bloodfest due to too much pressure.

I'm pretty sure that my main issue is the overshaving and perhaps I just took it to a new level yesterday.

 

[Judge Dredd]

There's nothing like a good 8-pass shave to generate some road rash on your face!

8-passes just isn't enough some days...

 

[Feek]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention which is important - Today there was some tugging on my neck which I've never experienced before with Med Preps.

 

[NCJack]

I do the same if I'm not careful, buffing that little spot and it seems okay as it's still a little slick, but it's not really, and the blade is catching just slightly. I don't get many nicks, but I will get the burn and raw feeling.