Thread: Second Shave...

Just got done with my second shave and am having a little more irritation than the last time. Most likely due to being a little to aggressive, but idk any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Also any members in Ma that would maybe like to meet up and have a little stropping session. I want to make sure I am not learning bad habits.

Hang in there,,, it was a full month before I was able to get a "complete" shave. A full year before my shaves were nice & smooth.
If you want pointers, then give us some details on your last shave. We can work from there.

The only pointer I can give is to take your time, not just with the shave but the whole hobby. Don't acquire a bunch of stones, brushes and razors yet. Just settle in with what you have and get good at it. Have fun.

Well to start with it seemed like quite a bit of effort was needed to move blade through my whiskers. I do have a very coarse beard but the DE I have has no problem. My face feels amazing right now btw about an hour after the shave, using Thayers toner, and Nivea balm. I know it is most likely do to my angle or something. Also I bought everything from SRD so it was def. "shave ready".

About what angle are you holding the blade? Try to guesstimate the distance from the spine to you skin, angles are too easy to misjudge. If I had to guess I'd say probably a combination of too steep an angle and too much pressure. High angle makes it drag more and the more it drags the easier it is to apply too much pressure. Maybe try a shallower angle and shorter strokes, swiping about an inch or less at a time.

Like Hirlau said just keep at it. Takes a while to get the feel & muscle memory needed for consistently good shaves.


Edit: there's a difference between drag & pressure, but the one can easily lead to the other.

Keep at it and eventually it gets better, then it gets way better. Was the second shave the next day after the first shave? Sometimes giving the skin a little recovery time in between can help, especially as you are starting out. You mention stropping, I know now that my stropping was not too good in the beginning. Learning to make good use of the linen as well as the leather helped me get better results.

Originally Posted by xiaotuzi

Keep at it and eventually it gets better, then it gets way better. Was the second shave the next day after the first shave? Sometimes giving the skin a little recovery time in between can help, especially as you are starting out. You mention stropping, I know now that my stropping was not too good in the beginning. Learning to make good use of the linen as well as the leather helped me get better results.

Stropping took me a while to get down too. One thing that really helped me was videoing myself. Set it all up & talk thru the process as if I were making a how to video. Then play it back a few times and the errors become pretty apparent. You can really see what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong.

I will have to video myself and then upload it to youtube and have some of you watch me strop. Never done that before so that could be interesting.

And I'm holding the blade at about 2 spine widths away from my face.

Sounds like it might be a little steep then. I'd try holding it a little flatter next time & see how it goes. If your job doesn't require you to be clean shaved it might also help to give your face a day to rest & heal before going at it again.

Edit: some of my razors I have to hold steeper or shallower than others. When I get a new one I like to start really shallow, with the spine almost touching my skin, then with short swipes on my cheek gradually work it steeper until I find the sweet spot for that particular razor. Might be worth a try. Running with the blade too shallow has its own set of problems, but it's better than too steep, especially when you start working on the chin & neck.