Thread: Need some help

Good time of the day to everyone! I am a newbie in straight razor wet shaving, my experience of the process is 9 days so far.) I suppose that something is going on the wrong way, I mean, as I shave my straight razors glide smoothly only on my sideburns until just above a jawline, then the razors start to stack and pull hairs and I cannot continue shaving becouse of unpleasant feelings... A multiblade safety razor cut the hair without any problem though... I use two straight razors: the first one is a 5/8 PARFORSE SPECIAL Hugo Koeller Solingen, the second one is a 6/8 Tiers-Issard 1196. I paid for honing them, at least the vendor that I bought the razors from, charged me extra money for professional honing routine.) So, the question that bothers me is, if my razors are not shave ready, or, my newbie shaving technic is that bad? What do you think, gents?

9 days is not a lot. If i had to place money on that, i would say its your technique. Make sure you stretch the skin. Make sure you change the angle of your razor as your face changes angles. I do not have problems cutting it, but my jawbone area has more resistance than above it.

I could not say if your razors came shave ready or not as I did not shave with them so there is really no way to tell. Most beginners have problems because of poor shaving technique which can dull a razor. You have to try and keep the angle correct as you shave. Generally a gap of 1 to 2 spine widths between face and spine works well.

Also as a beginner your stropping technique might be not too good either. That can dull a razor also. Did you strop the razors before your first shave? It is usually recommended that with a shave ready razor you do not strop before the first shave but after the second. If the first shave was better than the second then it is likely you are dulling the razor with poor stropping.

A good lather goes a long way to helping you get a good shave. Do you use a brush and soap/cream to make a lather? If so are you new to making a lather that way?

Some or a combination of these can lead to a bad shave. It is really hard to tell what is wrong in most cases.

Bob

If you can get a comfortable and reasonably smooth shave on one area but not another I would GUESS that it is technique. You will need to constantly and subtly adjust your blade angle and also angle relative to your face to get a comfortable shave.
Have you mapped your beard, I will almost guarantee that the hair grows in different directions dependant on the area you are shaving.
Also stretching is vital, you need to work out the most effective stretch to stand the hair up, basically pulling your skin in the opposite direction to that which your hair grows.

To be short: I'd say your angle and pressure are wrong. You do need alittle pressure with a straight and you must "roll" the razor around your jaw a bit.

Good luck!

Navigating the angles around the jaw and chin is the hardest part to get down when you begin SR shaving. You wouldn't think the angles to be that different but they are. Lynn Abrams and GeoFatBoy have some great how to videos on YouTube. I would definitely recommend checking them out.

I thank you all for your replies, I appreciate it a lot! Personally, I think that it is my bad (I still hope to improve it)) technique. Nevertheless, I have read great bunch of stories and publications on many sites how it is important to have a shave ready SR, and how it is difficult to newbie to define whether it is shave ready or not, so at some moment I started to hesitate, especially as I run into troubles with shaving. To be honest, it was quite disappointing after all anticipation and excitement about smoothness of SR shaving to look at my mug in the mirror and to see that my facial hair are still on my face. That is why I run here to ask more experienced guies for help. I did really strop my PARFORSE SPECIAL Hugo Koeller Solingen razor BEFORE I shaved with it the first time, but please, don't judge me too harsh, I could not resist the desire to try stropping it as I got my package with the razor and a strop.) But, I didn't strop my Tiers-Issard 1196 yet, actually, I shaved with it only twice. Anyway, thanks a lot one more time!

The hair is getting g removed from your sideburn area? Do the 2 razors perform similarly with regards to hair removal? A side by side test may give you some idea of what, if anything your Stropping has done. If both razors were supplied by the same vendor then removing other variables they should both shave as well as each other.

If so, smooth, comfortable shaves are only a matter of patience.

The quality of the lather you make and use will have a big effect on the shave too, i am not saying that expensive products are necessary, just that how they are prepared for use is important. I found that in the early days I spent much more time on prep pre and post-shave than I do now. I think it helped to ameliorate poor technique, as my technique improved the prep dropped off.

I believe that we have a few members in Russia so you may be able to either meet up or mail one of them one of your razors to try for you and see what they think, and assuming that you purchased your equipment locally they may have some insight into the vendor.

If the sideburns are smooth but that stops as you move further down then either angle or direction have changed. My sideburns grow straight down but change on 1 side to chin to ear growth and as I hit that it will pull up and I have to change direction. Try 5o really follow the growth patterns use short strokes and until you get it right dont expect bbs. My shaves were average at best till I got the technique down and yes I missed bits

if you havent stropped, i would also agree on technique. how about prep?