Steady Progress

Tenacity pays off. I'm still a ways away from a good quality shave, but the improvements are definitely there. The biggest thing that made a difference for me in today's outing was switching up my grip. Having watched Lynn's DVD, he tends to use a thumb and forefinger grip. That works fine for some areas, but I've been having trouble with the jaw line. I switched to more of a fist grip there and it was much better. It helped on some areas of the neck as well (although that, and the chin, are the two most difficult areas). Some parts of the neck are just too hard to get taut. The major bonus this time around, much less irritation. Little to none on the neck, and only really on the chin area (which was still a bit beat up from Tuesday, me thinks). Pretty soon I'll be able to do more XTG passes, which should help tremendously.

Any suggestions for dealing with really sensitive skin? I have thick whiskers and very sensitive skin so my face can get roughed up easily. I've been meaning to get an alum block, but I didn't think that was a sensitive skin issue so much as an ingrown preventative measure.

Cheers!

Doncha hate having sensitive skin? A few things that really helped me:

Soap/Creme- Certain soaps or cremes will actually cause the irritation. Try out some different varieties and see if anything changes for you.

Pressure- For those of us with sensitive skin, almost any pressure at all equates to irritation. Pay attention to how much pressure you're using.

Strokes- It sounds like you've got your strokes down, but something that helped me was taking more of a scythe stroke, rather than straight down.

Neck stretching- Where does all the skin come from?! For the neck, the best way I've found is to jut your chin out, scrunch up your chin/lower lip area, look up, and pull down near the adam's apple. As far as your chin, you're on your own there. Every day is an experiment for me on my chin- I even have a hard time using a M3 on it!

Rubbing alcohol- Like the alum block, it'll let you know where you didn't shave too well. Just take a teaspoon or so in your palms and rub it into everywhere that you shaved. Be forewarned- places like your chin where you're likely to not have a perfect shave will burn like hellfire for a second. I don't know if your irritation is such that you get redness or worse, but the alcohol will keep that from happening. That being said, you'll know when you have a great shave because the alcohol will just feel refreshing with zero burn whatsoever.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Quick Orange

Rubbing alcohol- Like the alum block, it'll let you know where you didn't shave too well. Just take a teaspoon or so in your palms and rub it into everywhere that you shaved. Be forewarned- places like your chin where you're likely to not have a perfect shave will burn like hellfire for a second. I don't know if your irritation is such that you get redness or worse, but the alcohol will keep that from happening. That being said, you'll know when you have a great shave because the alcohol will just feel refreshing with zero burn whatsoever.

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I would avoid using alcohol, as it tends to dry out your skin and worsen things - e.g. pimples...