Trouble With Stubble

Hello,

I am new to the forum and shaving with a straight blade. I have done loads of reaserach regarding shave prep, lather and stropping as well as watched video's and I even went so far as to purchase a blade from Straight Razor Designs that came honed and shave tested by Lynn Abrams. Even after all that I still have trouble with my mustache area and chin. The razor either pulls or just stops!. I have 2 Dovo starights the first I got for Fathers day and was told its "Shave Ready". But I was having the pulling and stopping problem. I wanted a second blade and went to Lynn to get it. Expecting those whiskers to slice off my face cleanly and with minimal effort. That has not happened. I strop the blade very carefully using both the Cloth and leather sides 75 -100 passes. Always leading with the spine and never putting pressure, just letting gravity do the work lest I dull the blade. I am sure this is something I am doing wrong. User error being the likely culprit. I have considered going to a barber and getting a shave to observe how they do it and see what I am doing wrong. I can get a Baby soft Shave with my DE Safety Razor ( I use Feather Blades). And really am hoping I can get the same results with my Straight.

I think I am doing the right things but maybe not. I either Shower or Steam with a towel. Then I Lather up my shaving soap really well, Apply to face and massage in. Then rinse with Hot hater, Re-Lather and shave WTG (I get pulling and tugging in Mustache and Chin area which is my most coarse hair). Often its painful enough that I will stop and switch to my DE blade. When I end my shave I will rinse with cold water and apply a post Shave Balm.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I won't stop trying. Marines Don't quit. But I would like to shorten the learning cycle.

Ok firstly I will prefix this with - I haven't been doing this that long.
The Lynn blade probably didn't need stropping first, but anyway this seems to be a problem area for lots of folk, I find stretching really important, for the top lip, I push my mouth away from the side I am shaving (using my face muscles), and pull the cheek on the side I am shaving towards my ear. I go from the centre out kind of almost vertically. The centre bit I just go downwards. I then shave in from the outside using the same stretch.
My chin hair grows in a few directions so it is quite a bitsa exercise.
Don't give up, it will all come together.

You might also try some different prep, I cold water shave. I rub a bit of vit e cream in first (dont really know if it does a lot, but I like to think it does) wet face, lather up, lather up again directly over the top, shave 1st pass. Then I just lather the section I am working on for subsequent passes.

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Originally Posted by edhewitt

but anyway this seems to be a problem area for lots of folk,

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Yeppers,,, +1

I maintain my goatee just so I never have to deal with this issue! ;)

I cannot remember who/where on the Forum but there are some really good videos where the subject is quite close up in the shot and they are going very slow through this part of their shave... If I can find it or remember who it was I'll post it here.

For awhile when I first started I knocked down my stubble with a beard trimmer (no guard, just bare blades) before straight shaving and that seemed to help. I was noticing the same thing as you are with my razor stopping but I believe it was my reaction by letting up my pressure and interrupting my stroke (.. which, BTW, is how most of my cuts happened initially as well..) as I can now mow through a week's worth of stubble without flinching and with very, very minimal feedback/pulling on the razor.

Shawn
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Very synpathetic. I hate stubble unless the back of my hand or the top of my shoulder itches.

Seems like you're stropping a lot; 20 or so round trip passes seems like plenty good for me; light-light hand and tight leather. When your stropping's good, the shaving's easy.

I wear a mustache and will never know the pleasure of the undernose shave. The chin, however, is a different thing. It took me weeks and weeks to figure out how to shave my chin, a month or more to get it all right without forty-leventeen passes and two months to getting stropping sorted out so I could shave my chin in two or three directions, once each, and call it done and done well. Chin hair can be tough for anyone - mine resists a less-than-perfect blade unlike any other part of my face. Give it a while to sort out. I fell back on the Braun electric more than once to finish up the mess. Felt like a real 97-lb weakling on those days.

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Originally Posted by MisterMoo

I hate stubble unless the back of my hand or the top of my shoulder itches.

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have you been a cat this whole time and not really a moo cow?

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Originally Posted by bombay

have you been a cat this whole time and not really a moo cow?

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Perhaps. Everything changes.

When I first started I had a similar issue. These difficult areas are common to most. A great tip here worked for me. Keep your angles very low in these areas. Start by laying the blade flat on your skin. As you move it raise the spine about 1 spine thickness (2 at the most). Under the nose follow this same idea but work from the center outward rather than straight down. Good luck.