Thread: consistently inconsistent

Until you get the hang of it, stop trashing your face!!!

Do what you can do well with a straight and then switch to a safety razor (or god forbid, a cartridge) to do the rest. Gradually you will get better at it and will be able to do it all with a straight.

It CAN be done but it's like riding a bike. It takes a while before it is easy.

Just do WTG until you get the hang of that pass. Then add XTG and when you get the hang of that add in ATG. Use some other form of shaving to finish up until you can do a full 3 pass shave with the straight. It will probably take another 30 shaves before you get consistently good.

I did not take the same approach as the others. I shaved exclusively with my straight once I made the switch. Now I have the luxury of not needing a perfect shave for work. So I started with a simple one pass shave and did one pass for about two months. Not a lot of my shave were great in the first dozen or so. I had a few things to work out. Lather was a big one that took me about a dozen shaves to get consistent. I also needed to get my skin stretching and holding down pat. There is a lot of positioning that goes with that. Simple things that are indirect stretching like dropping your shoulder. The holding and stretching helped my shave significantly but did take me some time to get it all figured out. Mapping my whisker growth or at least being conscious of it was the basis for my stretching and my technique adjustments were all very small and subtle. I have been getting amazing shaves 98% of the time for some time, but they are still evolving.

Definitely give your face time to heal after a bad shave. I struggled with it for the first month or so. I was probably doing better than I thought but the fact that my skin was damaged there wasn't much I could to get a comfortable shave without letting it heal first.