Thread: Should the dog get whipped?

@130Nav: The chin and lower lip are troublesome for most. Really the trick to straight razor shaving is balancing the pressure against the skin (light) with the pressure to cut through the resistance from the whiskers, which becomes more difficult the coarser your whiskers are.

I can recommend a few things that have helped me...
1- Use your tongue to make your lower lip convex
2- Use a buffing stroke
3- Firm up the chin and upper lip with your facial muscles, like you're pursing your lips
4- Stretch the chin skin by pulling down with your off hand
5- Start by only going WTG until you're comfortable, then move to XTG (ear to nose), and lastly ATG only if you're super confident.
6- Be very aware of blade angle

And there's no shame in only lathering up portions of your face at a time or re-lathering if it's taking a while. Shave prep to soften the whiskers is another thing that really makes a difference.

I hope that helps!