Thread: OK - I am SO LOVING this - why did I wait so long???

The hardest thing about the chin is keeping a 30 degree or less angle. The chin for some reason is an area where you just naturally flatten out the blade. Short strokes are how I shave all areas of my face with a little longer stroke on the clean up pass.

Have fun,

Lynn

Originally Posted by bman40

it makes perfect sense...and terrifies me...

the idea of scything through my chin... yikes!

thanks I'll try it tomorrow.

Its OK, the razor will stop when it hits the bone. A little more advice, when you look at your chin or any other contoured area of the face, break it down visually into smaller flat planes, adjust your stroke accordingly.

for my chin i find a good skin stretch makes all the difference. i found that going WTG straight down with my thumb under my bottom lip pushing up and then doing the same WTG but putting my thumb and pointer on either side of my adams apple and just up a bit and pulling down on the skin. then i finish with XTG goin from the middle of teh chin and out. i find that if i set the razor flat on my skin first and then adjust my angle up at this point i get less nicks. there are many ways to do it, this is mine.

good luck
Wes

This works for me: 1st pass - lather, straight down strokes, stretching skin on my neck. For the second pass, I use shaving oil (King of Shaves) + lather. I do two directions on my chin (left to right and right to left - jaw bone to jaw bone) with a LOT of stretching (insufficient stretching => 100% nicks), short scything strokes. I finish the area under my chin with a few short straight up strokes; raising my head usually stretches the skin well enough for that.

What's scything? I didnt understand Chimensch's explanation. Is the edge at a 90° angle?

Originally Posted by Cornelius

What's scything? I didnt understand Chimensch's explanation. Is the edge at a 90° angle?

it is when on a totally normal stroke instead of pulling the blade straight down you go down and slightly across. i must stress the slightly part as you don't want to go too far. so the angle of the blade compared to the skin is the same but it is the angle of the stroke that is like 5 degrees off. i suspect many people do it without even knowing it to a certain degree.

Oh, ok, I get it, thanks! 5° horizontal deviation doesnt sound like much, I'm surprised to hear it makes such a difference!

If your razor is really, really sharp and the lather and possibly some shaving oil you are using are good and slick I think you'll find that that area comes off pretty easily. In the beginning I had difficulty with that area and thought it was technique. I found the solution was using the right 'stuff'. There is no substitute for SHARP! That's my two cents worth.

Originally Posted by ddoblar

If your razor is really, really sharp and the lather and possibly some shaving oil you are using are good and slick I think you'll find that that area comes off pretty easily. In the beginning I had difficulty with that area and thought it was technique. I found the solution was using the right 'stuff'. There is no substitute for SHARP! That's my two cents worth.

Actually I think there is no substitute for technique and there is no substitute for beard preparation, just as well.
Everything is important and for different people at different times the bottleneck is different. One can compensate a bit for deficiency in one component with the others, but that goes only so far.
I think in this case the razor is not the problem. Lynn has more experience than anybody honing razors and the Dovos are pretty decent razors.

Anyways, for many of us this is probably a pursuit of perfection. Glad you're enjoying it.

I think that the length of stroke depends on personal preference and area of face. On my cheeks and sides of my neck I prefer long slow strokes. This seems to work well for me because I end up being more consitent and steady. However, around my jawline and tougher spots to shave I use short strokes because its where my razor usually gets 'stuck' if i take long strokes. Plus with short strokes in the hard places I feel like I am less likely to cut myself.