Thread: First pass blues

It doesn't seem to matter which straight I use or how good my prep is, the first pass is a real struggle. Lots of tugging and skipping and a little bit painful. It's not a problem that I ever have with a DE. The next pass is really smooth and comfortable - probably more so than a DE.

Is this usual or am I missing something really basic?

Cheers

Jeremy

I think it happened to me the first time I tried to shave with a str8. Immediately I went to this forum and found an advice to use my wrist, not just my arm to glade a blade. That took some practice, may be 2 more shaves and now I do not even understand how it is possible. Assuming that your angle is correct and the razor is sharp - try to use your wrist more and may be find a slightly different angle to your whiskers for the first pass.

Thanks - sounds like good advice. I'll give it a go this morning.

Cheers

Jeremy

Angle, pressure, sharpness. How were these razors honed, and what is your stropping
like? How would you describe your beard type?

- Scott

How sharp is your Razor? The angle of your razor should be as flat as possible and still get a good cut. If your prep is good the first pass WTG should be very smooth. Try also to take overlapping strokes not the whole side of your face in one quick swipe. Sometimes if my lather is pretty thick I will pick up lather on the back side of my razor if I start say in the middle of my cheek. That is almost how flat your razor should probably be most of the time. Having a razor that has to much angle causes major problems and is just not necessary with a sharp razor. As your skill level goes up you will notice that your razor angle is constantly changing depending what you are shaving on your unique face but the general rule is that the flatter the blade, the less the irritation. We are all different, so you will have to find what works for you!

Take Care,
Richard

Originally Posted by sebell

Angle, pressure, sharpness. How were these razors honed, and what is your stropping
like? How would you describe your beard type?

- Scott

Originally Posted by riooso

How sharp is your Razor? The angle of your razor should be as flat as possible and still get a good cut. If your prep is good the first pass WTG should be very smooth. Try also to take overlapping strokes not the whole side of your face in one quick swipe. Sometimes if my lather is pretty thick I will pick up lather on the back side of my razor if I start say in the middle of my cheek. That is almost how flat your razor should probably be most of the time. Having a razor that has to much angle causes major problems and is just not necessary with a sharp razor. As your skill level goes up you will notice that your razor angle is constantly changing depending what you are shaving on your unique face but the general rule is that the flatter the blade, the less the irritation. We are all different, so you will have to find what works for you!

Take Care,
Richard

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I'm still playing around with angle and pressure - although I'm finding that the flatter the blade, the easier it is (as riooso suggests). Sharpness I'm not too sure about. The razor I'm using daily is the B&B Le Grelot which was honed and delivered shave-ready as part of the package. It doesn't seem to pass the hanging hair or arm hair test, but a local barber took a look at it and reckons it is sharp enough to shave with. I'm obviously new to this, but I reckon my stropping is okay. After a bit of practice, it now seems to be fluid and gentle.

Describing my beard is not easy as I don't know what other blokes' beards feel like and don't intend to find out. At a guess, I'd say it was fairly tough. The only thing I've got to go on is a cardio test I did a few years ago. The nurse had to shave some hair off my chest in order to stick on the electro-thingy-whatsits and told me that I had the toughest hair she'd shaved. When I'm using a DE, I'm pretty much at my happiest with a Feather.

Thanks again for the advice.

Cheers

Jeremy

Apart from what has already been mentioned i'd suspect that how often you shave also has something to do with it. This is occasionally a problem I face as well if I go without a shave for 2 days or more. If you have tough hair then you will need to be sure to shave every day. Dont go for it more often than that though. The more often you shave, the tougher it grows back and the problem will just get worse!

But yeah, other than that its beard prep (soften with hot shower/hot towel beforehand), technique (as described above) and a properly honed razor. How often do you hone it? How sharp is it? When was it last honed?

Dash I received a Le Grelot from the same source. I have had my razors honed by many people and they do not meet my standards for sharp. I have a tough beard. It took a bit of work to get the Le Grelot to HHT but it need to be there or I will not use it. The Le Grelot is very hard steel and it took a bit of work to get the thing where I wanted it but you should not expect it to do the job for you till you finish it down to 0.5 paste at the very least, and I use a 0.25 paste to get it where I wanted it. I am getting shaves that are unbelievably close and they are very smooth.


Later,
Richard

Another helpful hint guys is to use short strokes, especially if you have a heavy beard. If the razor here needs a touch up, I'll be happy to do it on me.

Good Luck!

Lynn

Another helpful hint guys is to use short strokes

+1

I use short, light strokes with some forward motion to the blade in a scything motion.


- Scott