Thread: OMG it burns!!!

The answers you just got may seem to be critical of your decision making, but they are not intended to be mean or demeaning, just helpful.

Truth is, you just got THE best advice you could possibly get, now step back, do some reading and video watching, rest your face, and then try again SLOWLY. On the up side, you probably didn't cut or nick yourself because you had SOME basic technique right (or the "razors" were really dull).

Good news is, your best shaves are ahead!

When you read up on this site you will find that if you start one side of your face cheek only till you comfortable , that way you are concentrating only on that aspect ,, Sedona shave any more of your face till your comfortable with that , slow and steady , Lynn has a video that shows this and it is very helpful. Good luck , and is true, the word of the oracle from Sandpoint Is gold! Tc

welcome! sorry to hear about the shave folks need to bear in mind that not everyone starts out on the forum before getting into straights. I am self taught and was shaving and honing my own straights way before ever joining the forum. I was happy to stumble across straightrazorplace and find that my own self taught techniques were what advanced shavers were teaching others, but I will also say I have learned a LOT that I hadn't picked up on myself.
some folks come here only after they have tried a straight and like you they were perhaps put off a bit by the bad first attempt, so they hit up google and started searching for answers....voila! here you go.
Now you may or may not have been familiar with the forum before jumping into some face time with a straight but now that the journey has commenced, and in a not so pleasant way, take pause. read the criticisms above and don't get discouraged. go in the library and read up and by all means, watch as many youtube videos as you can, carefully watch what the users are doing and try to pinpoint different things they are doing that mirror the advice you read in the library section here. don't get discouraged, many good shaves are in the future, the learning curve "straightens" out the more you read and practice. feel free to send a pm if you have any other questions.

Try shaving after a bath. If it still burns it is probably the razor not the technique..

Well me personally I wouldnt use so many razors on one shave. When you are using different sizes and you arent on point with technique you may be the problem more so than the razor.

to be honest you only want the razor going over any patch of skin no more than 3 times in 1 shave or you will get burn.

avoid alcohol based balms etc in your first few weeks because most people use too much pressure etc.

use the lighest touch you can

It could be a combination of the way you were shaving and the amount of lather than you were shaving with. Lather can protect your skin from razor burn while shaving so if you're saying it was too dry this may have been the case. Also try to alternate your shaving technique, you could just be using a bad angle.

The razors were from reputable vendors. One was imperial shave.

Today went a lot better. Got my whole mustache done, and 90% of my neck/chin. My shave went bad from 3 things; dry lather, too long of hair, and bad angle. I corrected all 3 and my face feels great.

When my columbia gets back from honing I will test to see if it is any more shave ready than the 2 i'm using but I doubt it. My guess is it will just be smoother.

I've also been extra careful stropping and I can tell it made the shave easier. Also I stuck with a single razor per shave, it's sound advice.

Originally Posted by HunterHagan

The razors were from reputable vendors. One was imperial shave.

Today went a lot better. Got my whole mustache done, and 90% of my neck/chin. My shave went bad from 3 things; dry lather, too long of hair, and bad angle. I corrected all 3 and my face feels great.

When my columbia gets back from honing I will test to see if it is any more shave ready than the 2 i'm using but I doubt it. My guess is it will just be smoother.

I've also been extra careful stropping and I can tell it made the shave easier. Also I stuck with a single razor per shave, it's sound advice.

Sounds like you are making progress, that is good!

Now, you say your shave went bad because of 3 things.
With a bit more experience you can check all of those out.
Angles and lather is just a matter of a bit more practice.
A straight will go through whiskers equally well regardless of lenght.
One might say that is yet another benefit with the straight razor.

Keep at it.