"Rubbery" skin on second pass

The title kind of says it all. After an almost four year hiatus I have worked my way back to a full face shave with a straight. The thing is, on the second pass XTG, my skin gets "rubbery". I relather and add some water, but it just feels like dragging the razor across a piece of rubber. It's not the whiskers, they shave off just fine, and I don't cut or nick myself. I guess the first pass just takes off all the natural skin oils that are still there even after a wash and lather. My complexion is not the best, I have plenty of bumps across my face, but the razor glides over all but the biggest of them. On my last shave this morning only a little scar on my chin and one particularly large bump on my left cheek got nicked, which they almost always do, whether straight or Fusion. They always stop bleeding pretty damn quick.
Would using a shaving oil help this? I haven't seen any in any of the stores I go to so before I order some online I figured I would ask if anybody here had any insight on this.
Thank you for any help and info.

Have you tried glycerin when you shave? Sometimes it helps. Also, one very good way to improve your complexion is to use aloe vera regularly. As for the oils, I have used some before but have not bought them recently. I think that I have seen Shave Secret at Walmart. This one is pretty cheap and has menthol if you care for that. There are others of higher quality and price that are unscented (Pacific Shave Oil).

Al raz.

CVS in New England has King of Shaves Alphaoil in stock. It costs ~$6 and works pretty well as a pre-shave oil for second passes for me.

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Originally Posted by Alraz

Have you tried glycerin when you shave? Sometimes it helps. Also, one very good way to improve your complexion is to use aloe vera regularly. As for the oils, I have used some before but have not bought them recently. I think that I have seen Shave Secret at Walmart. This one is pretty cheap and has menthol if you care for that. There are others of higher quality and price that are unscented (Pacific Shave Oil).

Al raz.

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Haven't tried glycerin. I use the classicshaving.com soap, which I understood had a pretty good amount of glycerin in it already. I'll have to look again at Walmart. Thanks for the info.

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Originally Posted by sparq

CVS in New England has King of Shaves Alphaoil in stock. It costs ~$6 and works pretty well as a pre-shave oil for second passes for me.

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We do have CVS around here but I work odd hours so Walgreens is where I get my stuff, but I'll try to get by the CVS on my days off and see what I can find. Thanks.

I would suggest either using a cream or a soap with more "cushion" although oil might help too.

Tabac would be my first choice for soap and Proraso for cream.

If you don't want to change your soap try adding a little cream to it when you make lather.

It would be a shame to miss out on using a brush and lather, but I have done one straight razor test shave using King of Shaves oil topped with aloe vera gel. It worked great and is fast, the oil stays on your face until you decide to wash it off. You can reapply the aloe vera gel with each pass, or just splash water on and massage it in.

You may be able to skip the aloe vera gel altogether. The only reason I started using it was that when I used cartridge razors shaving oil would clog them up. The gel completely fixed that problem.

But it's worth trying with gel. It is basically a sticky form of water! This is the type I use, but I'm sure you can get identical stuff outside the UK. :gl:

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Originally Posted by Rajagra

It would be a shame to miss out on using a brush and lather, but I have done one straight razor test shave using King of Shaves oil topped with aloe vera gel. It worked great and is fast, the oil stays on your face until you decide to wash it off. You can reapply the aloe vera gel with each pass, or just splash water on and massage it in.

You may be able to skip the aloe vera gel altogether. The only reason I started using it was that when I used cartridge razors shaving oil would clog them up. The gel completely fixed that problem.

But it's worth trying with gel. It is basically a sticky form of water! This is the type I use, but I'm sure you can get identical stuff outside the UK. :gl:

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Don't think I want to forgo the lather either. I was thinking more of an oil I could put on my face and still lather over. I realize I may have to put a little more work in keeping my brush clean, but I do love slathering the stuff on.:p

David I have been straight shaving for a very short time but I have already used about 10 different soaps. I had the problem of drag that you describe untill I switched to glycerine soaps. Last night I tried Tabac for the first time and the one thing I noticed was how slick it is, I could feel the razor just sliding through my beard even on the second and third shave. I would love to make this my soap but I cant stand the smell.

Well the oil didn't seem to help. Couldn't find glycerin close by. I guess I'll need a slicker soap or cream.

Edit-ordered a sampler pack from TGQ as they seem to get good reviews

It could be that your lather is too thin when you apply it
for your second pass. The slickness comes from the soap,
so if there is too much water in your lather it can prevent
the nice sort of glide that you're looking for.

- Scott

Yes, shaving with a straight removes almost all of the oil from your skin leaving it quite dry right after you shave. If you are going to do a second pass (which I recommend against), then it is essential that you provide some additional lubrication. For most, simply wetting the face will suffice since there will always be some residual materail from the shaving soap/lather, or you may want to relather. If you use a preshave oil, it will remain on the skin after the first pass so just a little water will do ya.