- Thread starter
- #21
Great to hear! I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Straight razor newbie lessons learned for other newbies
- Thread starter HeavyD
- Start date
You're completely right, the reason a smaller razor is less forgiving is because any change in angle even if its small will create a big change while a bigger razor you have more room to work with, a slight change in shaving angle won't be as drastic as a smaller razor.
Been a while since I graduated high school but why would the size/length of a razor have any effect on the change of the angle when the spine is moved. Wouldn't lets says a 10 degree movement of the spine away from the skin create the same effect on a 4/8 vs 8/8?
10 deg is 10 deg no matter what size the razor is. However, if you move the spine e.g. 5 units away from the skin the angle will change more with a smaller razor.
In the 8/8 vs 4/8 example, the relative rate of change in angle is 2.
8/8 angle change
4/8 angle change
What JPO said hehe
I wonder if the “dry your face before lathering” has to do with moisture absorption in the skin.
I am not a straight user, but I shave my head and all this about softening the bristles by showering before shaving got me doing that.
I then slowly discovered that doing so bogged my skin down with so much moisture that the moment my lubrication lagged the least bit, the blade (DE safety) grabbed the skin.
I now shave before the shower and it works much better. I just quick soap wash and then on goes the lathers.
I am not a straight user, but I shave my head and all this about softening the bristles by showering before shaving got me doing that.
I then slowly discovered that doing so bogged my skin down with so much moisture that the moment my lubrication lagged the least bit, the blade (DE safety) grabbed the skin.
I now shave before the shower and it works much better. I just quick soap wash and then on goes the lathers.
I find a lot of the difficulty with the 4/ or 5/8 razors comes from the small tang. I have to pinch it with the top of my thumb pad rather than the pad proper and it's harder to control and apply pressure and torque.
Worst shaving-related accident I’ve had was back in 2014, when I was doing some honing rework of a junker straight razor. I was gripping the sides of the hone with my fingertips, and the tip of my ring finger gradually moved just above the honing surface. On the next pass of the blade, a cornea-sized piece of skin flew right off. Lots of blood, but I soldiered on by wrapping paper towels on it until the blood had stopped long enough to properly bandage it. A few days later, the bandaging had fused in with the wound and was impossible to remove. That’s when I decided to go to the emergency room. There, they took my vitals and told me that I had high blood pressure. After a lot of discussion, warning, and advice about this, the doctor finally took a look at the wound and applied a medical solution that dissolved the dried blood and allowed him to cut the skin (with another kind of razor) that had grown around the bandage. “This,” he told me, “this is nothing. It’s the high blood pressure that you need to worry about.”
Ever since then, I’ve only held the hone with my palm and fingers completely outstretched, with the hone resting on the palm and fingers.
Ever since then, I’ve only held the hone with my palm and fingers completely outstretched, with the hone resting on the palm and fingers.
- Thread starter
- #30
Good Evening all. I have another one to share based on a recent setback.
All of a sudden, the nice, smooth, effortless shaves vanished. The razor had to be forced through the whiskers. There wasn’t any pulling feeling, it was just not smooth or comfortable at all. This began a multi week battle with uncomfortable shaves and lots of ingrown whiskers. Funny I don’t recall having a problem with that before.
Did I suddenly forget how to use the razor? Extra care and prep was put into the next shave (after the recovery from the ingrowns) and... FAIL.
Maybe it’s the razor! Try 2-3 different razors next shave, after recovery. Aside from learning one of the three was a bit duller and pulling… FAIL.
Eureka! The razors must be dull. Somehow my razors all magically dulled themselves in the drawer with no input from me! So, take my 4 favorites carefully touch them up on the 12 and 16k hones, and strop them up. After recovery, I’m again excited to try… FAIL. Oh no! Did I forget how to hone too?!?!
WTH?!?!? Maybe I had a false memory and all the shaves were crappy and uncomfortable, but I so badly wanted it to go well I created a false memory. But where did all the ingrowns come from? Clearly the memory couldn’t have been a hallucination, because I’d definitely remember my chin area covered in ingrown hairs looking like some sort of jaw leprosy.
I began brainstorming about what I could have changed several weeks ago…. Now, that is a challenge for my memory. What I had for dinner last night is a stretch, let alone what did I change in my shave routine 3-4 weeks ago.
Did I try a new technique? Different Razor? Different brush? What could it be? The Shave cream/soap? I realized I started using a slightly older tub of shave cream I wanted to use up. The soap looked and smelled wonderful. It felt slick to the hands and lathered well, but could it be the culprit?
I switched back to my newer tub of shave cream. Viola!!! The effortless smooth shave returned! Although the older soap smelled great, lathered well, and felt slick on my fingers, some important ingredient had broken down. The result was a decoy lather that did nothing but look like lather and smell nice. I think it was a marginal improvement over trying to shave with just a splash of water on the face. The fact I didn’t cut or nick the daylights out of myself doing this is testimony to the fact that I’ve learned something over the past year. So there’s a silver lining of sorts.
Its a bit embarrassing to admit how long it took me to figure that out. On the plus side, I’m hard headed enough that I didn’t throw in the towel out of frustration. Now I can focus on improving my technique again.
have a great weekend!
All of a sudden, the nice, smooth, effortless shaves vanished. The razor had to be forced through the whiskers. There wasn’t any pulling feeling, it was just not smooth or comfortable at all. This began a multi week battle with uncomfortable shaves and lots of ingrown whiskers. Funny I don’t recall having a problem with that before.
Did I suddenly forget how to use the razor? Extra care and prep was put into the next shave (after the recovery from the ingrowns) and... FAIL.
Maybe it’s the razor! Try 2-3 different razors next shave, after recovery. Aside from learning one of the three was a bit duller and pulling… FAIL.
Eureka! The razors must be dull. Somehow my razors all magically dulled themselves in the drawer with no input from me! So, take my 4 favorites carefully touch them up on the 12 and 16k hones, and strop them up. After recovery, I’m again excited to try… FAIL. Oh no! Did I forget how to hone too?!?!
WTH?!?!? Maybe I had a false memory and all the shaves were crappy and uncomfortable, but I so badly wanted it to go well I created a false memory. But where did all the ingrowns come from? Clearly the memory couldn’t have been a hallucination, because I’d definitely remember my chin area covered in ingrown hairs looking like some sort of jaw leprosy.
I began brainstorming about what I could have changed several weeks ago…. Now, that is a challenge for my memory. What I had for dinner last night is a stretch, let alone what did I change in my shave routine 3-4 weeks ago.
Did I try a new technique? Different Razor? Different brush? What could it be? The Shave cream/soap? I realized I started using a slightly older tub of shave cream I wanted to use up. The soap looked and smelled wonderful. It felt slick to the hands and lathered well, but could it be the culprit?
I switched back to my newer tub of shave cream. Viola!!! The effortless smooth shave returned! Although the older soap smelled great, lathered well, and felt slick on my fingers, some important ingredient had broken down. The result was a decoy lather that did nothing but look like lather and smell nice. I think it was a marginal improvement over trying to shave with just a splash of water on the face. The fact I didn’t cut or nick the daylights out of myself doing this is testimony to the fact that I’ve learned something over the past year. So there’s a silver lining of sorts.
Its a bit embarrassing to admit how long it took me to figure that out. On the plus side, I’m hard headed enough that I didn’t throw in the towel out of frustration. Now I can focus on improving my technique again.
have a great weekend!
