Thread: razor burn

Hi Guys,
I know DE's and Straights are like comparing apples and oranges. As it stands, even with a M3, or a DE I can only shave every 3 days, anything less I get razor burn. This evening I shaved with a DE, used good mug soap (from St Charles Shaves),with a Gillette Tech with a new persona blade.

My pre-shave ritual is to shower, while I'm showering I allow the brush and my shaving mug to sit in a sink of hot water.

After showering, I mix the lather and shave. This evening I added a step, I used some "King of Shaves advanced Shaving Oil" before lathering up. I think this will work well, but I still got a pretty good razor burn.

Will a Straight be any different? Is there anything I can do differently to prevent this?
Tony

I'm still awaiting my purchases in order to jump in and do my first straight shave ever, so I can't give you much advice on this issue - I can sympathize however...for God's sake, look at my username! I have quite sensitive skin, and am hoping that the switch to straights will help with my burn.

Obviously, I haven't made the switch yet, but even though I am still using my Fusion, I have focused a lot on my beard prep, I have a good moisturizing cream, and I am making sure to keep my skin taut as I shave - this seems to make a world of difference as compared to my shaves before coming to SRP. A lot less irritation. I end it all with a cooling balm - no alcohol.

I'm still waiting for my first Straight as well. Fud is honing a couple of my razors. What kind of cooling balm do you use? I finished my shave off with Master's Bay Rum (I absolutely love the smell of this!). I'm not sure what percentage of alcohol it has, but this evening it really burned. Mainly my neck area either side of my beard. The rest of my face was fine with it, so I'm guessing it was the razor burn and not the bay rum.

Tony,

If I shave every day, I get razor burn as well using a straight. It is limited to 2 spots on my chin and the underside of my chin.

Having said that, I touched up the edge of my razor last night using traditional X-pattern on my Norton (something I haven't done before) and the result was notable. I also flattened out the razor on those trouble spots and I got just a minimal amount of burn this time and I had shaved only a little over 24 hours from my last shaving.

I think with a properly honed razor, the right soap and a light touch with a proper blade angle, you should eventually get rid of most of the burn.

One more thing, I finish off with straight witch hazel most of the time. It's cool, refreshing, healing and has less alcohol than normal a/s so I give my skin time to heal before splashing on the heavy alcohol content a/s

Freebird,

As of now, I am only using the Nivea aftershave balm for sensitive skin - it has a pretty good cooling effect, and it has absolutely no alcohol. It has aloe and all those other good things to help make your skin feel better and protect the new (and sometimes RAW) skin.

There are probably better products - I hear Trumper's Coral Skin Food is great - I have no experience with it (yet), and it costs significantly more than the Nivea.

I just had one of those "Duh" moments lol The next time I shower/shave I'm changing the shower soap....I've been using Axe brand "Snake Peel" which is rather gritty to exfoliate the skin....I wonder if that may have caused the burn this evening. I'll try that, but that still leaves the 3 day no-shave rule. When I start shaving with a straight I'll see how things goes, plus get rid of the snake peel.

I'll have to look for the Nivea, I believe Wal-Mart carries that brand here. Where I live most of our shopping has to be done at Wal-Mart or Sally's Beauty Supply lol. Sometimes I can sneak into Tulsa, but it's a 40 mile drive one way and I don't make it too often since I'm not working there anymore.

I can't shave everyday with a cartridge razor - too much razor burn. But I have been able to use a straight virtually everyday. Once your skin gets use to it (maybe a couple of weeks) and you develop good technique, it might be a little kinder on your face than the other methods. I think it's all about good prep, good soap, and good technique. I also like Thayer's witch hazel products. Later,

Justin

As for aftershave balm Yves Rocher works better for me than Nivea:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/showthread.php?t=10116

I don't know about shaving cream they also sell - must try it.

Tony,

My skin seems somewhat sensitive, and burn and irritation has been a problem for me, too.

I've found that the key to fighting irritation is limiting the number of times the blade goes over your skin. When I was DE shaving, the Tech actually gave me worse razor burn because it's so gentle that I had to do a lot of passes to get my face clean. A more aggressive Superspeed cleared more on the first pass, which meant I was less tempted to go over and over the trouble spots.

With my straights, I've found that a wicked sharp blade works best for me. Steve mentioned he can shave off the 8K Norton, and a lot of other guys have said the same thing, but right now that doesn't work for me. I have to go to 1 micron diamond paste followed by chromium oxide to get an edge that'll keep the irritation down. (Maybe someday my honing will get to the point where the 8K is enough, but I'm not quite there yet.)

While a lot of guys have luck with lowering the blade angle on their chin, I actually find that keeping it at 30 degrees--or even a little more--is helpful, especially on the with-the-grain pass. The aggressive approach is risky but it means there's less need to go back with more strokes later on. Using a light touch is extra important when you're using aggressive angles.

Just some food for thought,
Josh