Close, but not quite close enough

Two weeks into my journey down the road to SR shaving, I'm really starting to see a massive improvement with my shavette, and can't wait to start with a true SR. Of course, it's had it's ups and downs, and I've learnt the hard way that shaving whilst hungover is not a good idea...I received a lot of comments as to what I'd done to cut my face in the way I had... I feel I reached my first milestone today - a complete WTG shave with no nicks or cuts, and a very close shave on my cheeks to go with it! I even decided to go for a second pass, which was a combination of XTG and ATG, with only the one nick. As well as this I even managed my best lather to date.

I'm still really struggling to get as good a shave on my neck and chin area. I'm doing everything I've read/seen on the forum and Lynn's youtube channel, but I can't seem to get it right (although whilst it feels bad compared to my cheeks, the mirror tells me it's infinitely better than my old cartridge was). Is it just a case of continued practice and trying out different things until I find something that works?

Also, on my XTG/ATG pass, I found that I didn't have a good feel for the angle and pressure of the razor in my left hand on my neck, so had to use my right hand instead. Is this something other people find they have to do, or will continued use of my left hand give me the confidence to be able to use it ATG on my neck as well?

Great job, keep working at it and you will get it. As for ATG on neck I use my right hand only, don't trust my left hand for this stroke, especially on my neck.

Congrats on making some progress. I am new too (3mos in shaving almost daily). Don't sweat your chin just do confident single passes for now. You will have future breakthroughs that will have you getting it better and better with time. I have always found in my experience problems occur when I go for bbs smooth and attempt strokes I'm not fully comfortable with. As far as righty or lefty. To each there own. I use my right on my left side when going atg and my left on the right side. I am fortunate that I seem to be capable of most things with my right and my left pretty closely to equal. It still took time to get it though. I would suggest taking it slowly work on the strokes you are comfortable with until they come easy then start looking for ways to get a closer shave after you are more experienced with the basics. Good luck. Enjoy it and soon you will be slicing and dicing (whiskers that is). I used to do three passes on my chin trying to get it smooth. Now with more experience I am able to get the same or better with just one good pass. Time will bring progress. Stick with it and advance slowly.

I have found that certain soap products do not give me a good shaves. Soaps that dry my skin did t give me the shave I wanted. I switched to a cream and my shaves are closer and last longer.
My point is this is a funny journey of trial and error.

Enjoy

The neck is the most challenging area for most of us. When I first started I discovered two three things that helped. 1) be sure you understand the direction the hair really grows. The center of my neck grows toward the center which is different from the rest of my beard pattern. It is hard to do WTG when it grows in very different directions. 2) I thought I had the proper angle but under the chin down it is almost like an optical illusion where you think the angle is low enough but is is not. 3) really, really stretching the neck. I put my chin up in the air while pulling down at the bottom of my neck. If you get a good stretch you can compensate for odd hair directions.

What kind of cream or soap are you using? maybe you need some stuff thats more slick. different products might help.

Trial and error and lots of practice will get you there. Even after a year you will have little break throughs that allow you to get better shaves. The angle, the stroke, the direction the stretch etc all add up snd it takes time to figure out which combo works for you for that area. Soaps can also make a difference. I have been trialing the sample packs and have found 1 in 10 to perform better than others and a soap I brought because it wss cheap and had good feedback to be out performing the expensive stuff. Its what works for you so just keep going snd you will find it gets better and you will learn more as you go. Good luck

Welcome to the world of wet shaving and SRP.
Congrats on your early success with a Shavette, it will help you learn about pressure and angle, and is a great teacher for the step into Straight razor shaving. Time and patience is the key to all things shaving related. Maybe these tips will help, or at least be another thought you can work with in the future.
When learning about WTG XTG & ATG passes I found it valuable to let the facial hair grow out for a few days, then closely look at how the growth changes direction on different areas of your face. Some areas are nearly straight North South, others vary across the neck at different angles. Once you know this, you can draw a basic face diagram on a piece of paper and draw in the direction of hair growth in the diagram. This will give you an idea of where to start your WTG (direction of hair growth) pass on your face.
For example the cheeks may be mostly north south growth so the razor will shave in the same direction on the cheeks for the WTG pass, the chin may be growing almost sideways or at a 45 degree angle so the WTG pass will change to follow the hair growth direction. Then your neck may have growth curling up towards the ears, towards the adams apple, or any other direction. Again try to make the razor shave in the direction of the hair growth.
The XTG pass will typically go at about a 90 degree angle to the WTG pass and of course the ATG pass will run in the opposite direction of hair growth. This pass is by far the most difficult to learn and gives more cuts and nicks than any other pass. Certainly it is one I did not concern myself with for several months after learning the basics, as I managed an acceptable shave with the 2 passes WTG and XTG.

Take care

Practice and experimentation! You'll find what works best for you. Good luck.

Keep working with the left hand...it will come!

I'm not quite sure where the last month has gone! It seems to have flown by in a blur of uni work and training.

Anyway, I'm now shaving with a SR (I have two now), and I'm finding it a different experience to the shavette, much more forgiving, and far less harsh on my face. The shaving experience is made interesting by the incredibly limited space to put anything down in my bathroom, but somehow I seem to be managing.

So, I took the advice given to me, and have been applying it to my shaves with the SR. As was suggested, I left it a few days not shaving and found my first pass on my cheeks was closer to an XTG pass then WTG, and similar is true on the sides of my neck. Bearing this in mind, I've adjusted the directions of my passes slightly and seem to be getting a better result now. This also helped around my chin, and, with a bit of playing around, I've managed to work out the best angle of attack for my chin, and the results are getting better every time.

In terms of the soap I'm using, it's one made by Signature Soaps. I've been playing around a bit with how I lather it, and I seem to be getting more consistently good lathers, with a noticeable improvement to the quality of the shave with the better lathers.

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Originally Posted by RSully

although whilst it feels bad compared to my cheeks, the mirror tells me it's infinitely better than my old cartridge was). Is it just a case of continued practice and trying out different things until I find something that works?

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I'd encourage you to think about this quote from your post. How long did you shave with a cartridge razor...more than 2 weeks? If so, therein lies your answer. With time you'll get better shaves, but, how good a shave are you chasing? If you shaved with a cartridge for 3 years and didn't know any better, why chase BBS now?

As to use of your hands on different sides of your face it depends on what is most comfortable and works for you. I've been at this a while and still switch around sometimes to see if a slightly different grip, or direction or even crossing over with my other hand works better.

The main thing is that you enjoy yourself and take victory in the fact that you're getting better shaves than you were before. Enjoy!

Just be patient and stay with it.

It can take upwards of a hundred shaves to REALLY get it dialed in.

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Originally Posted by Haroldg48

I'd encourage you to think about this quote from your post. How long did you shave with a cartridge razor...more than 2 weeks? If so, therein lies your answer. With time you'll get better shaves, but, how good a shave are you chasing? If you shaved with a cartridge for 3 years and didn't know any better, why chase BBS now?

As to use of your hands on different sides of your face it depends on what is most comfortable and works for you. I've been at this a while and still switch around sometimes to see if a slightly different grip, or direction or even crossing over with my other hand works better.

The main thing is that you enjoy yourself and take victory in the fact that you're getting better shaves than you were before. Enjoy!

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The reason for chasing BBS now is simple. I've spent a couple of years having to shave most days with a cartridge razor, and always been frustrated that I can't get a really close shave, and there was always the feeling of more stubble remaining. I'd read about SRs giving a much better shave, and BBS being attainable, as well as them being more comfortable to shave with, so decided I would try them out.

Every time I shave, I aim to try out something slightly different, to see what impact it has on the shave.

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Originally Posted by RSully

...The shaving experience is made interesting by the incredibly limited space to put anything down in my bathroom, but somehow I seem to be managing.

So, I took the advice given to me, and have been applying it to my shaves with the SR. As was suggested, I left it a few days not shaving and found my first pass on my cheeks was closer to an XTG pass then WTG, and similar is true on the sides of my neck. Bearing this in mind, I've adjusted the directions of my passes slightly and seem to be getting a better result now. This also helped around my chin, and, with a bit of playing around, I've managed to work out the best angle of attack for my chin, and the results are getting better every time.

In terms of the soap I'm using, it's one made by Signature Soaps. I've been playing around a bit with how I lather it, and I seem to be getting more consistently good lathers, with a noticeable improvement to the quality of the shave with the better lathers...

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In regards to having limited space, I get what you mean. Once a week on Sundays I shave in my bedroom at an old shaving stand; with a porcelain bowl, jug, soap holder set. It certainly does mix things up a bit.

I found a while ago that the hair on my cheek (esp my L cheek) grows pretty much sideways. Since then I've always attacked this area by coming up against the hair growth on that area (as in ATG) on that first (and 99% of the time only) pass.

Even though that makes the first pass for that area a ATG pass it works for me (often a WTG pass might be generally recommended for a first pass).

I honestly now feel some soaps are just hard to lather. A few years ago I thought it was 'just me', but now I feel some really are harder to lather than others (although I've found pretty much all creams acceptable). TOBS soap is really easy to lather, for instance...

Sounds like you're getting on very well; well done; it's tricky in the beginning!

Carl

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Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

In regards to having limited space, I get what you mean. Once a week on Sundays I shave in my bedroom at an old shaving stand; with a porcelain bowl, jug, soap holder set. It certainly does mix things up a bit.

I found a while ago that the hair on my cheek (esp my L cheek) grows pretty much sideways. Since then I've always attacked this area by coming up against the hair growth on that area (as in ATG) on that first (and 99% of the time only) pass.

Even though that makes the first pass for that area a ATG pass it works for me (often a WTG pass might be generally recommended for a first pass).

I honestly now feel some soaps are just hard to lather. A few years ago I thought it was 'just me', but now I feel some really are harder to lather than others (although I've found pretty much all creams acceptable). TOBS soap is really easy to lather, for instance...

Sounds like you're getting on very well; well done; it's tricky in the beginning!

Carl

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It sounds like the hair on my cheeks is exactly as you've described yours. I may try starting with an ATG pass on them tomorrow and see how that goes. I had a break through with my chin today, and managed a much better shave on it - now I just need to try and work out what it was I did to get that!

I may take a walk up to the shaving shop in Leeds at some point and have a look at getting another soap to try, maybe TOBS seeing as they have it in there. It's just a case of finding the time to get up there though

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RSully

It sounds like the hair on my cheeks is exactly as you've described yours. I may try starting with an ATG pass on them tomorrow and see how that goes. I had a break through with my chin today, and managed a much better shave on it - now I just need to try and work out what it was I did to get that!

I may take a walk up to the shaving shop in Leeds at some point and have a look at getting another soap to try, maybe TOBS seeing as they have it in there. It's just a case of finding the time to get up there though

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I bought the TOBS Sandlewood recently and it's great. I can't help you with the chin as I have a beard thingy; I've only shaved my chin with a straight twice! :p