Shaving east-west and west-east - help please!

My first shaves with a straight were fairly ordinary - especially compared to the ultra-smooth results I get from a DE. That's improved with practice over the last week or so and I owe a big thanks to Jimbo for his help, generosity and encouragement.

Here's my problem.

North-south and south-north passes are going reasonably well. A few minor gremlins still to fix, but it's all looking positive. However, in order to get a smooth shave (BBS being the target), I need to shave east-west (right side of my face and neck) and west-east (left side) and I can't figure out a sensible way to hold the razor or the correct strokes.

Any advice you can offer would be very, very welcome. If there are any videos you can point me to, that would be wonderful.

Cheers

Jeremy

I've never really tried to nail down the E-W, W-E thing, but if I recall, the book by Dr. Chris Moss does have photos of him making those passes. Try a google of his name and shaving and you should be able to download a copy. It might even be linked here somewhere(?). Sorry I can't be more help in finding it. :confused:

Jordan

You can download de pdf file from here

When I do the E-O and O-E I use this method.

After my N-S pass I do the E-O and O-E pass.

I do my face in two parts, the cheek part and the jaw line with neck.

For the cheek part I hold the razor straight not folded in my hand like a stick, the blade pointing up. So the razor is vertical. With my left hand I pull back on my ear and gently place the razor near it than I shave from my ear toward my nose. I usually do two passes one higher and one a bit lower to cover all of the cheek.

For the jaw line and neck I shift the razor upside down, the blade pointing down (vertically), my hand above my ear. I place the blade near the lower part of my ear on the jaw line (still pulling it backward) and shave toward my chin. This is where the beard is harder to shave BBS so I do it in little strokes. After an inch or so I let go of my ear and stretch my skin backward. Stretching is the key word here. It's the only way to get BBS, STRETCH that skin either doing N-S or S-N, E-O or O-E .


It works for me, hope it will work for you.

Here's a link YouTube - Straight Razor Shave showing some one-handed holding/shaving technique.

Thanks guys... that's given me a few useful pointers. Still a long way to go, but there seems to be a bit of improvement with each shave.

Cheers

Jeremy