Thread: First Straight Razor: Won't cut my hair (yes, another post like this)

Originally Posted by CaliforniaCajun

There are a lot of variables that can make a perfectly honed razor shave poorly such as the wrong angle and too much pressure against your face. What is hard for the beginner is that he has to think too much about what he's doing while shaving. In the process you distract yourself and make mistakes. You'll find out that in time you'll get in front of the mirror and the hands will automatically do the work.

Very true. More than once I've found myself concentrating so much on grip and sight lines that angles got left out and the next thing I see in the middle of a pass is an angle that's too steep. It's happening less and less and I consider it all part of the learning curve.

Man, I finally had it! A freshly honed, nice straight. Completed 3/4 of my first pass on two days growth on my head and it became too dull to go any further. I thoroughly prepped and let lather sit on my whiskers for a solid 10 min or so while I shaved my face with a DE.

Rinsed off, re lathered and shaved. I've read that people have issues with rapidly dulling straights and headshaves. My hair was super soft and was mowed down with ease after having to swap to my DE.

Chalk it up to poor performance on my end? I don't see how. It felt super smooth and efficient in the beginning. The top of my head was BBS after one pass but then I started to tug in the back - started WTG too. Any thoughts appreciated!!

Thanks a lot Glen. You're the man.

I really wanna get this straight business working! It felt so nice using a rigid solid blade to shave. What am I doing wrong? Do I have the hair of Iron Man?

Was this the Sheffield or the Hess????

The Hess! What so you think?

I would say angle,, and or stretching the skin taut,,,

If the edge presses into the skin it changes the shaving angle and dulls the edge pretty quick,, In general head hair is thinner then face hair but there is more of it..

I would try a face shave with the fresh Sheffield and see how you do


The actual shave test


http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...-test-vid.html

See how that goes

Ah. The skin is pretty taut on your head so I imagine it was the angle. It's nothing that a stropping won't fix right?

stropping should fix it,,,