Finally getting somewhere!

Its been a fairly long road, and I've finally gone proper do to much frustration :p

I now have a badger brush, some Taylor rose cream, a nice strop, a Lynn honed razor, and Lynn's dvd.

Tonight I watched Lynn shave and tried for myself. Lo and behold, when I did it the way he said to do it, it felt, well.. it didn't hurt. I still have a lot to learn and I managed to nick myself a few times, but the constant wincing pulling pain is gone. Something about the stroke & angle, stropping semi correctly, and most importantly a good quality soap or cream.

I noticed that the cream kept drying on my face and thats when I started to nick and pull, so I'll try more water next time. Also, I don't think I'm going to try more than my cheeks for a while, sense I feel like my face is burning pretty bad.

Thanks for all the help so far! And to you newbies out there like me, do yourself a favor and don't try to save pennies in the short run, cause it just leads to pain and frustration, not to mention way more than you would have spent in the first place, had you listened to common wisdom.

-Mark

I'm a relative newbie (shaving for a few months), and my observations are that many people come into it slowly (maybe just cheeks for a while, using their old system for the rest). I happen to have a full beard, but shave my neck and cheeks. I jumped in with both feet, but lived with a less-good neck area for the while. Of course, my old twin-blade didn't do a great job on my neck either (has to do with the way the hair grows).

I get more razor burn when I use the wrong angle (back of the blade too far away from the skin), usually around the neck area where the angles are funny anyway. Someone said the "right" angle is about 2 razor-spine-thicknesses away from the skin--that seems about right to me.

Do let your skin recover. Do try to keep your soap wet--there is no rule that says how much you have to apply at a time; feel free to soap one cheek, shave it, do the other one, shave it, etc, working around your face.

Good luck, and don't lose faith yet.

Jim

I am not an expert on creams and soaps as I finish one before I start with the next one and I do not collect samples. However I never have dried lather using Colleens cream or soap, Palmolive sensitive skin cream or Proraso. I did have with Vergulde Hand (Dutch brand).

Hope this helps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theilff

Its been a fairly long road, and I've finally gone proper do to much frustration :p

I now have a badger brush, some Taylor rose cream, a nice strop, a Lynn honed razor, and Lynn's dvd.

Tonight I watched Lynn shave and tried for myself. Lo and behold, when I did it the way he said to do it, it felt, well.. it didn't hurt. I still have a lot to learn and I managed to nick myself a few times, but the constant wincing pulling pain is gone. Something about the stroke & angle, stropping semi correctly, and most importantly a good quality soap or cream.

I noticed that the cream kept drying on my face and thats when I started to nick and pull, so I'll try more water next time. Also, I don't think I'm going to try more than my cheeks for a while, sense I feel like my face is burning pretty bad.

Thanks for all the help so far! And to you newbies out there like me, do yourself a favor and don't try to save pennies in the short run, cause it just leads to pain and frustration, not to mention way more than you would have spent in the first place, had you listened to common wisdom.

-Mark

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A little tip I picked up somewhere was to apply a little shaving oil to the skin and then lather up.
(This is after warming and softening the beard up with water etc.) It seems to help, particularly around the chin.

If your lather is drying out, this could be down to too little water or the length of time it is taking you to get to that part of the shave. Try a little more water, or apply some fresh lather before taking the blade to that section of your face.

Good luck and enjoy! ;)

Congratulations! Feels good to make progress! Let the addictions begin in earnest...