Thread: Help with steel whiskers that grow against the skin

I need help with steel like whiskers that grow against the skin. What is happening is the razor mostly skims over the whiskers without a cut when WTG (or even a slight angle). If I go ATG, the razor just stops. Going faster or harder ATG just causes irritation.

I've attempted to remedy this by shaving smaller areas, but I'm still getting stumped. Raking and slamming the blade into the hair isn't helping either.

Advice? Techniques?
Or is this the end of the road for straight razor shaving for me?

The quality blade is professionally honed. My shaves are every morning, so the hair is not long. I take a hot shower before my shaves, and use a quality cream and brush. I typically shave with a slant safety razor that cuts easily.

Thanks,
Jake

If you use a safety without issue You should have no reason that you cant use a straight. What angle are you using and do you stretch the skin in the opposite direction to the growth to make the hairs stand up. I'm sure with a few little technigue tweaks you can get a great shave with a straight.

Have you tried face lathering with a stiffer brush? Say boar or badger perhaps. This can help lift up the hairs form your face. you may also want to do more than one WTG pass is you have that much of an issue and then an XTG "sideways, East to west, or whatever description you like). Try out these ideas for a bit. You may want to hold off on the ATG pass until you figure out what works better.

BTW, I only do a two pass shave most mornings, you don't HAVE to have a BBS shave every day... (waiting to be struck by lighting..............).

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Your razor's edge is fubar. It has a rolled edge, wasn't properly stropped, you could have used a bad angle and damaged the edge, or wasn't properly honed. Stop what you are doing as your straight should slide through whiskers like a safety razor. Just because someone calls themselves a professional doesn't mean they are turning out perfect shaving blades. I've seen many knife guys call themselves pro's and their edges were horrible. A rolled edge happens, I've done it quite a few times. Lastly, if you aren't stropping on a proper strop your edge will make it through one or two shaves and it will be done.

My recommendation is to find a mentor near you. They don't have to be a badged mentor, just someone who has been at it a while. If you are near me (please fix your information so we can know where you are from) I will show you the ropes and hone that razor to where it needs to be.

The slant with a good blade cutting easily suggests that your prep is good and your hair is cut able. Two possibilities come to mind. SR shaving, especially when having difficulties can be slower than DE razor shaving. Drying lather can become an issue, drying hairs get harder to cut. I suggest rehydration and reapplication of lather as needed to keep the hairs wet and to preserve glide and cushion properties.

I also wonder if your razor's edge is still shave ready. A dull razor will catch, drag, tug, and fail to cut hair well. Attempting to compensate leads to nicks and skin irritation, often because of a high spine angle and increased pressure against the skin. When my razors are shaving well, i can usually tree top chest hair without difficulty. This test does not work as well with my arm hair which is softer and pushes over more easily. When my SR starts to cut less well, I refresh by stropping a dozen strokes on a diamond pasted paddle strop followed by wiping and restropping on unpasted linen (30) and latigo leather (60). This usually restores cutting performance, although sometimes I need to touch up on my 8K Norton before using my pasted strop.

To get a close shave, I reduce my beard 1st using WTG strokes. I then relather and come at the hairs from different XTG directions using skin streatching to help raise the hairs for closer to the skin cutting. After the shave feels pretty close, I finish by reapplying lather and shaving ATG. I keep a very light skin pressure, almost as if I wanted to brush dust off a very delicate surface without any risk of scratching or damaging the surface. I can hear the hairs cutting, until they are almost all gone and feel light resistance, but nothing like tugging or pulling, or the blading catching on hair, provided I keep my hairs wet and the blade is sharp.

Even the sharpest blades will not cut really dry hair without pulling and potential skin irritation. A dulling blade cannot shave close and will potentially tug or catch on even well prepared wet hair. Even with good prep., a sharp blade, and wet hairs, close shaving often requires beard reduction WTG followed by XTG and ATG on stretched skin to raise up the hairs to get a close shave.

I agree with shooter that the most likely explanation for your problem is a dull edge. It is difficult to learn effective SR stropping, refreshing, honing, shaving technique, and beard prep. all at the same time because they are all acquired skills each one of which can cause a less than stellar shave. As your skill level increases, it will become more apparent where the problems lie. Improvements in one area helps one discern where the difficulties lie in other areas leading to improvement in those areas. A mentor makes learning easier because the mentor will be able to recognize many issues quickly and demonstrate their solutions. Reading about guitars on the internet and understanding how the guitar is played is much different from being able to create music with the guitar. Guitar can only be learned from experience.

HTH

I would not force a razor that catches on a hair, but would immediately back up, lower the SR spine closer to the skin and lightly hit the spot again from another direction which usually works well for me. Using a low spine close to the skin helped a lot to prevent catching and skin irritation. Catching on hairs no longer seems to happen any more for me. I do not know whether it is because my prep., blade edge, or technique has improved, or all three.

Great suggestions.

I think my preparation isn't the problem (hot shower, good cream, badger brush, frequent re-lathering). I typically scrub my whiskers in the shower to raise them from the skin or loosen them up. My skin isn't the problem right now, just the stubborn whiskers that won't cut. This either because the blade isn't sharp (like some suggested), or the blade isn't getting to the hair's shaft (because the hair lays flat).

I presume the person I bought the blade from is an expert. I got a high quality carbon steel vintage blade, honing video, and beginner strop. Before my purchase I made a phone call to the seller, and they walked me through on how to look at a blade through a $10 100x magnifying glass; I can see the metal grain and flecks of skin. I don't see nicks. I can't really judge the sharpness as I don't have anything to really compare. It is sharp, but it might not be the sharpest. It is possible the blade has been rolled. Rolling a blade sounds very easy for a novice to do; using incorrect blade angles or stropping mistakes. I also used the blade a few times, and I may not have stropped it good.

I've been considering a disposable straight razor (like a shavette) to eliminate contending with blade issues (honing/stroping). This would allow me to focus on technique, rather than the equipment. Suggestions for a disposable straight razor are welcomed.

Thanks. Jake.

You won't catch me suggesting anything but a straight, so I give you this offer: Send me your razor and cover return postage (about $6.00) and I will evaluate your edge and if it needs a proper honing I will hone it for you & get it back to you. This way you will truly know what is going on with your razor.

Originally Posted by shooter74743

You won't catch me suggesting anything but a straight, so I give you this offer: Send me your razor and cover return postage (about $6.00) and I will evaluate your edge and if it needs a proper honing I will hone it for you & get it back to you. This way you will truly know what is going on with your razor.

Jake

Take the generous offer and if you do take it do NOT strop it before your first shave with it. That way you know you did not bugger the edge with bad stropping technique.

In your op you mentioned " What is happening is the razor mostly skims over the whiskers without a cut when WTG (or even a slight angle)." . When going WTG you should have about 2 spine widths gap between the razors spine and your face. You use very little angle on the blade going ATG.

There ain't no such thing as steel whiskers. You need a sharp blade, the right angle and pressure is all.

Bob

Bravo, Shooter. Thanks for the help. Snakey, should you make it near the People's Republic of Portland, let me know. A bit of face to face and blade to face helps speed up the learning curve. You'll do fine. Let me know how you like shooter's edge. I'll bet its nice.

Shooter, thanks for the generosity. I've sent you a PM.