I've been shaving with a straight razor infrequently for several years. I mainly use a DE. Occasionally I'll use a straight just for fun. I've had a few shaves where I didn't have to follow up with a DE but those were rare and they were ones where my face was a little sore by the time I did all the touch ups of the spots that weren't perfect.
I've been shaving with a straight a little more lately since I just bought two more straights, honed them and have just been testing them out. As mentioned, I usually end with a DE pass. That does annoy me though that I either have to do a DE pass or I have a sore face from all the touch ups I have to do.
Today I decided to just do it, more or less, the same way I would with a DE. I did 2 passes, felt my face and there was a little roughness at the corners of my nose, the chin was a little rough and there was one rough patch on the left side of my neck.
The blade I'm using is a round tip so I stretched the skin at the corners of my nose and slowly used the tip of the razor and easily cleaned out those rough patches. I did the same on my neck just by locating the problem area and being more careful there.
With the chin I spent more time using the tip and going left to right on the flat area of the lower half of my chin and then I re-lathered and went against the grain on the chin as I would with a DE. There was more of a scraping motion on parts of the chin where the skin wrinkles up when you try to flatten the chin but the same thing happens with a DE.
Lastly, since my upper lip was pretty smooth, I went ATG for the first time with a straight on my upper lip. I just held the blade with two hands and moved the head slowly. When there was resistance I slowed down and adjusted the angle.
By the end of the shave, my face was as smooth as with a DE and I didn't have to make too many passes or do anything all that different than what I do every day with a DE, so I know this will be easily repeatable for me.
I'm not sure if any of this helps anyone else because it's all a matter of degree. It's not like I learned some big secret that I didn't know before today but some of the finer points came together so that I didn't need the DE.
I'll still shave with a DE much of the time because it is a good shave and it's a little faster/easier but I'll use a straight more and I won't have to do the dance of shame with the DE follow-up.
In thinking about what the big differences are it's mainly that I always could feel the rough corners of my nose with my hand. When I can do that, I'm not satisfied with that shave.
The hair on the chin is courser and even though I could cut that, it never felt as smooth as with a DE. By using several different techniques I was able to get that smooth as well.
I've been shaving with a straight a little more lately since I just bought two more straights, honed them and have just been testing them out. As mentioned, I usually end with a DE pass. That does annoy me though that I either have to do a DE pass or I have a sore face from all the touch ups I have to do.
Today I decided to just do it, more or less, the same way I would with a DE. I did 2 passes, felt my face and there was a little roughness at the corners of my nose, the chin was a little rough and there was one rough patch on the left side of my neck.
The blade I'm using is a round tip so I stretched the skin at the corners of my nose and slowly used the tip of the razor and easily cleaned out those rough patches. I did the same on my neck just by locating the problem area and being more careful there.
With the chin I spent more time using the tip and going left to right on the flat area of the lower half of my chin and then I re-lathered and went against the grain on the chin as I would with a DE. There was more of a scraping motion on parts of the chin where the skin wrinkles up when you try to flatten the chin but the same thing happens with a DE.
Lastly, since my upper lip was pretty smooth, I went ATG for the first time with a straight on my upper lip. I just held the blade with two hands and moved the head slowly. When there was resistance I slowed down and adjusted the angle.
By the end of the shave, my face was as smooth as with a DE and I didn't have to make too many passes or do anything all that different than what I do every day with a DE, so I know this will be easily repeatable for me.
I'm not sure if any of this helps anyone else because it's all a matter of degree. It's not like I learned some big secret that I didn't know before today but some of the finer points came together so that I didn't need the DE.
I'll still shave with a DE much of the time because it is a good shave and it's a little faster/easier but I'll use a straight more and I won't have to do the dance of shame with the DE follow-up.
In thinking about what the big differences are it's mainly that I always could feel the rough corners of my nose with my hand. When I can do that, I'm not satisfied with that shave.
The hair on the chin is courser and even though I could cut that, it never felt as smooth as with a DE. By using several different techniques I was able to get that smooth as well.
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