I'm stumped

I've made an effort and said to myself that I will now ONLY shave with my straight in order to try and learn how to use the thing. Well today I had a really good shave with it. Just two WTG passes that gave me similar results to a Mach 3. But, there's still one area which I just cannot do and end up having to revert to the DE for a touch up - my chin. Is there something I'm missing? I understand that getting and changing the blade angle is half the problem but it feels more like I need to stretch the skin. However, I don't see how I could achieve this. The other area I find hard to stretch is the skin at the sides of my mouth. Does anyone have any tips for this?

The chin is just tricky. Don't feel bad about touching it up with your M3 while you're learning, with experience and practice you'll get better at it. Mostly it's a matter of a really sharp blade and knowing how to come at it. It just takes practice and experimentation. But there's no reason to suffer with bad shaves while you're figuring this all out, so clean up with the M3 as needed.

The chin can be one of the last areas to conquer.

What I do is take the skin around my cheek at the jawline and stretch it backwards. Then I take the razor and hold it in a vertical position with the tip point slightly toward the center of the chin (so it might look like the razor is in the 1 o'clock/7 o'clock position) and shave from left to center. I do the same thing on the right side of my face and shave from right to center.

As for the area at the corners of the mouth. I don't stretch those usually. I just lay the razor flat with the spine on my skin and take very light and short strokes. If I have to stretch it, I puff up those areas instead of stretching (use extreme caution in doing this though).

Another way to stretch the chin is to place fingers of one hand on both sides of the chin, say right at the corners of the mouth, and gently stretch back toward the ears on either side of the face. Be careful of the hand position relative to the razor on this one.

More critically - if you insist on shaving it clean with the straight only, then you'll wind up screwing up your technique, using too much pressure, too steep an angle, etc, in pursuit of that goal, which will cause razor burn there and elsewhere. So focus on good technique in your shave, and make adjustments each day to your chin area, and if it's not clean after 2-3 passes then stop and clean it up with the M3. But if you push it with the straight you can set yourself back for months.

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Originally Posted by mparker762

More critically - if you insist on shaving it clean with the straight only, then you'll wind up screwing up your technique, using too much pressure, too steep an angle, etc, in pursuit of that goal, which will cause razor burn there and elsewhere. So focus on good technique in your shave, and make adjustments each day to your chin area, and if it's not clean after 2-3 passes then stop and clean it up with the M3. But if you push it with the straight you can set yourself back for months.

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Listen to the man. He speaks true!!

Confession time:

After 3+ months I still feel like I'm just starting to learn what I'm doing. Although it is probably retarding my progress with the straight I'm still cleaning up after the straight with a feather blade in a Merkur slant DE.

Not ashamed about this. I'll get there eventually. While I'm getting there though I get a BBS shave every time. One day though...

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Originally Posted by Jonedangerousli

Confession time:

After 3+ months I still feel like I'm just starting to learn what I'm doing. Although it is probably retarding my progress with the straight I'm still cleaning up after the straight with a feather blade in a Merkur slant DE.

Not ashamed about this. I'll get there eventually. While I'm getting there though I get a BBS shave every time. One day though...

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Ah ha!! I knew it!! Finally, J admits to coming out of the medicine cabinet :D

JK, J.

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Originally Posted by steve

Ah ha!! I knew it!! Finally, J admits to coming out of the medicine cabinet :D

JK, J.

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Well, you know what they say: If you're bi you have a 50% better chance of getting a date.:w

/wait, wrong forum
//never mind

That'sreally funny!!!!! :roflmao

The chin and jaw line area for me are the most difficult. Keep at it though, it will eventually get better.

For the chin I pull my lower lip back over my lower teeth, tilt my head up and stick out my chin. I then place a couple of fingers just under the chin to pull the skin back and down toward the Adam's apple. When doing the ATG pass I lay the blade almost flat under the chin and rotate the spine outward as I carefully come up around the angle of the chin toward the lips. I also will place a finger below the lip and pull upward to get the area from the angle of the chin to a third of the way to the lip. For the areas around the mouth I use my tongue to bulge out the skin in order to make the hairs stand out.

Afternoon gents,
Thanks for the advice. I tried the method that somebody mentioned which called for stretching the skin around the chin from the side and cutting in that direction. I was acually surprised how well it worked! For the first time I've got a decent (not perfect or by any means BBS!) shave from only using the straight which, although far from perfect, was good enough that I didn't think it needed touching up with the DE. Very pleased with myself indeed! Only annoying this is that in my pleased excitement, I didn't pay enough attention while rinsing by blade and managed to touch it against the base of the tap! Haven't inspected the damage yet but I fear a hone may be necessary...

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Originally Posted by rupert87

Afternoon gents,
Thanks for the advice. I tried the method that somebody mentioned which called for stretching the skin around the chin from the side and cutting in that direction. I was acually surprised how well it worked! For the first time I've got a decent (not perfect or by any means BBS!) shave from only using the straight which, although far from perfect, was good enough that I didn't think it needed touching up with the DE. Very pleased with myself indeed! Only annoying this is that in my pleased excitement, I didn't pay enough attention while rinsing by blade and managed to touch it against the base of the tap! Haven't inspected the damage yet but I fear a hone may be necessary...

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There you go, well done :tu As you practice and fiddle with blade angle and such, your results will improve (contingent, as always, on having a properly sharp razor)

There is a lot of real estate on the chin. Can you narrow down what area is of concern.

I have found that under my chin was one of the most difficult areas until I used this tactic. I start my against the grain attack as far as the adams apple and start short against the grain strokes that follow through the trouble zone.

I find that if I start closer to the trouble zone I have less success. This may be the result of not tilting the head as far back as when I start near my Anne Coulter.

Another thing to try is to make your against the grain attacks not directly against the grain but in between that and cross grain attack.

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Originally Posted by Creel

...when I start near my Anne Coulter.

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lmao:roflmao every time i hear her name it reminds me of a very humorous fictional article that i read a couple yeas ago.

i will have to remember that one.

my chin hasnt ever been a problem area. i shave it the same way that i use to shave with the multi blade plastic thing. without using my fingers i push my lower lip up as far as it will go. i do a wtg and 2 light xtg which gets my chin as close as any shaving method i have used.
my problem is my neck... my whole neck. i am having a heck of a time getting the stretching and angle right to get a bbs shave there. time will tell.

cheers and happy shaving,
ryan

Wosrt part for me is actually the side of my adam's apple. The hairs are difficult to get the correct angle for them.. I am still working on the prefection for this area, and will be for a bit. The irritation might subside with my alum bar now, but we will see..

I went cold turky myself (I tend to run that way) It took a few weeks but I got the chin down now. However there is one spot under my chin on the right side, down a couple inches, that really bugs the bejesus out of me. The hairs grow flat and into a hollow, a bugger to get them up. Time will tell. After I fix up the cracked Dwarf's I may try the smallre edges to get that spot... see what happens.

So far I've only shaved once, Lynn is sharpening my blade right now, but I remember the chin was one of the easiest parts for me, maybe THE easiest part. The problem I had was the jawline and the neck. I have a short and slim (14.5) neck. So I have to do a LOT of manuevering.

By the way, what does BBS stand for?

BBS=Baby's bottom smooth, the softest smoothest thing in all the world:D

I have difficulties with my chin because it's sorta big and has a lot of skin. I'm thinking I might have to start shaving in patches. My beard hair on my chin grows to the right, making an ATG stroke a leftward one. On my jaw it grows down...go figure. I'm still having to discover things about my body to shave it properly:roflmao

Bite your bottom lip and look up or make like your choking yourself to pull the skin taught. Tiny strokes at the hairs on your chin, as opposed to trying to follow the contour with a straight-through stroke. Look into the mirror closely to watch, sounds silly but it kinda helps you get used to it. You are, after all shaving hairs with a blade, as opposed to what we're used to with safety razors in running a perpendicular enclosure over skin.

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Originally Posted by Quick Orange

BBS=Baby's bottom smooth, the softest smoothest thing in all the world:D

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Ah, thanks! I've never touched a baby's bottom before now that I think about it....

Well, I'll put it this way: the women in our lives are usually pretty soft, but babies are even softer. It's hard to imagine, but entirely true!

Thanks Joe, I'll try that:hmmm:

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Originally Posted by steve

The chin can be one of the last areas to conquer.

What I do is take the skin around my cheek at the jawline and stretch it backwards. Then I take the razor and hold it in a vertical position with the tip point slightly toward the center of the chin (so it might look like the razor is in the 1 o'clock/7 o'clock position) and shave from left to center. I do the same thing on the right side of my face and shave from right to center.

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Top Notch, Thanks Steve.

Today I enjoyed the closest ever shave yet on my chin area using this technique.:tu :hmmm: :tu

I likes to faceturbate...:hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm:

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Originally Posted by Chopper

Top Notch, Thanks Steve.

Today I enjoyed the closest ever shave yet on my chin area using this technique.:tu :hmmm: :tu

I likes to faceturbate...:hmmm: :hmmm:

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Steve does have a good technique there, I have been doing something like that for a while. And yes Faceturbation is great, I will just be sitting at my desk looking like I am in deep thought but I am just feeling the softness of my chin :roflmao

I guess shaving with a straight will help you at work, the boss will be like "Geeze Johnson is doing a lot of this on this project for us..."