Not at all.Didn't realize you used MWF. Find it hard to lather?
Not at all.Didn't realize you used MWF. Find it hard to lather?
MWF stinks......................Not at all.
You won’t have any trouble lathering Arko and the performance is up there with MWF and Tabac.I just received an order of mitchells wool fat shave soap under the Kent Brand.
I was expecting a tough grind to get it to lather decently due to comments I've read in this community. I put some water on the soap bar for about 3 min, then used my damp (not crazy wet) silvertip badger and bowl lathered.
It got out of control fast and tried to eat my brush.......
The shave was very good with very good slickness and a great feeling afterwards. I did safety and straight razor. very little if any irritation from the straight other than the cut I gave myself. Using some Arko aftershave balm there was 0 razor burn. It is crazy rare that happens and proves this is a fantastic shave soap. So far my favourites in order are: Tabac/MWF (tie), razorock triple milled hard soaps.....no other top soaps yet. I have Arko on order. I like the softer soaps, but weirdly find them tougher to lather for me than the hard pucks.
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Thanks Steve! My magic method at this point is a nice silvertip brush 24mm - 28mm and MWF or TABAC. The bowl rather is really nice and satisfying. So much so I ordered a 17th brush for my collection (I will have some unused for the buy and sell soon). Really looking for to getting my Arko packs in the next couple days from your comment.You won’t have any trouble lathering Arko and the performance is up there with MWF and Tabac.
Wow, 17! I have two Omega 10048s and a 10049. I’m stuck on Omega.Thanks Steve! My magic method at this point is a nice silvertip brush 24mm - 28mm and MWF or TABAC. The bowl rather is really nice and satisfying. So much so I ordered a 17th brush for my collection (I will have some unused for the buy and sell soon). Really looking for to getting my Arko packs in the next couple days from your comment.
I end up just doing a 1.5 or 1.75 pass shave most mornings, but everything will vary so much on each individual beard.
I go long passes down a cheek and straight off my jaw, then long passes jaw down my neck. It’s roughly WTG cheek and ATG neck, but doesn’t really bother me anywhere with the right angles. I’ve gotten in the habit of also skewing the blade a little bit heel leading so there may be just a bit of scything action and slightly lower effective angle against the skin.
Then I go right under my jaw bones from chin outward to just under ear lobes, blade skewed. Roughly XTG. Then another pass same way but up on top of my jaw bones each way.
Chin is just light small passes, blade skewed, try not to start or stop a stroke at a “high point” on your features. The whiskers that are RIGHT SMACK on your chin can usually be stretched either up or down onto a flatter section of your face and then taken out with one or two good side swipe passes.
Then I do the reverse strokes along my jaw bones and up my chin and up my upper lip. I find those are the whiskers that will give a 5 o clock shadow. By two passing there only I usually can be baby smooth well past noon, and it actually seems to let everything start growing back in more evenly than if I ATG everywhere.
The second reverse strokes aren’t necessary most days, just when you expect extra face time with the boss lady after work.
What is a reverse stroke? Against the grain?
Arko really is an excellent soap - one of my top favorites. When I shave my neck, I use my wrist to make arcing motions for the difficult areas and it works well. Give that a try and see if it works for your beard pattern. Also, skin stretching as needed.Neck is also my trouble area, with either razor burn or not getting close enough the usual consequence.
The right soap definitely helps - for me it was Arko puck, until I discovered Phoenix and Beau. Seems I need tallow soaps; results with Proraso were not good. YMMV of course.
Looking forward to trying some of the angle tricks. Nailed it on my cheeks; I get as close as with DE. But for me the problem is a wiry beard, sensitive skin and a left-to-right grain across my whole neck, which makes it very hard to go ATG due to hollows / angles (and if I don't, I don't get close). Discovered yesterday that a slight right-to-left motion while shaving gently down seems to help get closer. But you've got to be careful with that over your jugular...
Follow the correct whisker grain path when doing WTG, XTG and ATG passes. This alone will significantly reduce and even eliminate burns assuming quality lather and technique.
I have patches where there are two separate grain patterns. There is a spot on my neck, a little bigger than a thumbprint where I have hair that grows intermixed with almost opposite grain patterns. This is not a whirl or swirl, or a spot where grains change, they are truly mixed.
If I am extremely careful I can shave across both grains and get a passable first pass. Two passes across, from opposite directions leaves this area socially acceptable. A third pass across one grain or the other can leave it a pretty good CCS to almost DFS, but a fourth pass leaves it red, regardless of direction.
I commonly walk around with a red thumbprint just on the right side of my windpipe.
Good morning Everyone,
I'm relatively new to straight razors and have been using DE for a short time. I'm very proficient with the DE and love it! A little too much with all the equipment I want to buy.
I'm having challenges with razor burn on my neck, especially closer to both ears. I've studied tutorials on you tube and continuing to try to hone my technique. I am able to shave my face with little to no razorburn, just a clean shave. Does anyone have a similar issue with their neck that they overcame and have any words of wisdom or videos they could recommend?
Thank you for all you do on this forum. I really enjoy learning from all your collective knowledge as this is a fantastic new lifestyle for me. Straight razor shaving is a lot of fun and I'm working to get more and more experience to get proficient at it. I'm probably about 6 - 10 shaves in experience.