Thread: Frustrated

The key is, as already mentioned above a very very light touch but also to stretch the skin. Keep it tight in front of the blade. This involves pulling on the skin (initially, sometimes a small dry thin washcloth or baby washcloth can help) as well as puffing your cheeks out. Around the chin and above the lips the lightest of touches are needed. Learning how much or little pressure to apply is one of the most important things. These are of much greater importance than even your blade being ultimately shave ready. Though if your blade is not sharp enough, it can encourage you to apply more pressure. Don't!

I'm a beginner too and I also very much appreciate the advice given in this thread.

Here are a few things I've done or learned in my vast 10 weeks of straight razor shaving (not advising mind you, just sharing):

Early on, I reduced my frustration by only shaving my cheeks, then finishing up with my previous way of shaving (Mach 3 type).

For me, I'm so slow that I would lather my entire face/neck, only for the lather to lose much of it's moisture (does this make sense? it just kinda starts to dry out right on my face) before I got to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th quadrants of my face (left face, left neck, etc.) So now I only lather the area I am about to shave.

It seems that the whiskers on my chin go in every possible direction, and sometimes they hide when the razor heads their way, then quickly poke back out and high five one another after it has passed. I include my chin with *each* quadrant of my face so it get's 4 passes before I take a deep breath and focus on the chin on it's own. Still end up with a little nick maybe once /week.

Blade angle: after about 4 weeks I realized that I had my angle ridiculously high, like maybe 75-80 degrees in some places. I think my brain heard the scraping sound of the razor passing over whiskers and was like "yep, we are accomplishing something here, keep that up" So I came back here and did some research and now use angles that are probably below 35 deg most of the time (not saying to shoot for that, but it has been an improvement for me).

Shave oil has been another big improvement in comfort for me, plus I like to make stuff. I did 2 parts grape seed oil and 1 part castor oil and maybe 20 drops of cedar wood essential oil for smell.

Triple check stropping technique. This still happens pretty frequently; I think I'm doing it right, but then again, some days my razor seems sharper than others...I better do another search on youtube for "Lynn Abrams stropping".

Sorry for the long post, and best of luck!

Pay attention, scrape don't slice, and have confidence. I see that people that are afraid of their ability fail.

A few things I've learned over the years about shaving around my lips. First, I'd always kept the skin tight and pressed against my teeth and dragged the blade lightly over it all. Still cut near my bottom lip at times until I realized I could keep the blade stationary and move my lips instead. Uses very short swipes and a light touch. Tough to explain but try it with a dull blade and you'll understand. That takes care of the bottom lip.

On the top lip I simply press my lip hard against my teeth, pull the skin even tighter, and move the blade gently just barely touching the skin. On the top lip I always go from under the nose downward and never side to side except near the edges of my mouth. Obviously you need to have that area well lubed with shaving cream but try different things using a dull blade and you'll get it right.

Just for kicks every so often I'll use an oil pre-shave and VERY hot water in the lather. Both will help to keep whiskers softer and easier to cut.

Always begin the shaving stroke before placing the razor against your skin. Once I began doing this automatically, nicks/cuts became a rarity. Hopefully, this tips works as well for you as it did for me.