Thread: Can't get a close shave!

+1 on all the advice,proper skin stretching is a factor for me as well,especially on my neck area because the hair grows in different directions calling for different stretching directions and shorter strokes with my SR to get a clean shave there.

Relax, slow down. Be patient. If you bought a grand piano would you expect to play like Frédéric Choplin after seven tries? No?
Straight razor shaving isn't rocket science, but it takes time and practice to be perfect.

Read this post from Lynn:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/newbi...icipation.html

Again watch your angels, take it slow and easy and be patient. The BBS will come in time.

I think I just got my first decent shave this morning, and it's been about 2 weeks or 3 weeks? Still not as smooth as a four pass DE shave... yet.

Oh and one thing I think that helped me, figure out how your hair grows. For example, what might be a XTG pass for most on the neck is a ATG for me.

One of the best pieces of advice for me early on was that I should not think of straight razor shaving as shaving, but as beard reduction. Even if your cutting angle is right and the blade is sharp, moving from one cutting angle to the next angle too quickly might be a mistake. I would try shaving WTG as many times as it takes until the razor slips over the skin and basically doesn't cut any more hair. Then, when the beard is cut to skin level at WTG, move to XTG, and continue XTG until it comes clean also. Then, finally, if desired shave ATG.

The principle is that you are REDUCING beard each time, not worrying too much how much beard each pass removes, just as long as the beard is being reduced with each pass.

As an aside, repeating passes won't increase your shave time as much as you think. Possibly, it will reduce the time required.

Early on, I was worshipping the "one pass WTG, one pass XTG and one pass ATG" mantra. Once I realized that I could repeat the pass multiple times, I found that when I moved to a different angle at the proper time, it just worked much better.

I have come to the conclusion that the WTG, XTG and ATG idea is very good general guidance. But, that the idea that the passes should be exact 90 degree variants of each other is sometimes assumed, but assumed incorrectly.

I have one tough part of my face that I shave WTG until smooth. But, if I switch directions 90 degrees to XTG, it doesn't work well. Instead my next pass after WTG is 45 degrees from WTG. Each pass after moves about 45 more degrees, finally ending up at 180 degrees ATG.

My opinion is that the WTG pass is the primary pass to remove beard, and that every pass after that should not be removing much hair; just slicing off the tip of the bearc close to skin level. When this isn't done, I believe, is when most chapping and razor burn occurs.

I have one final thought on the direction of the cut. We all want that baby butt smooth shave, or we wouldn't be sinking so much money and time into this endeavor. Even after mastering the above techniques, there were some parts of my face that I just could not get BBS! These areas tended to be the areas where my beard was thinnest and easiest to shave. Frustrating! What finally turned the trick is actually a "violation" of WTG/XTG/ATG. I would shave WTG/XTG/ATG, each pass coming smooth. Then, would rub my hands across the area, and if the skin felt stubbly at all, would repeat one of the strokes. Before these areas came clean I might shave WTG/XTG/ATG and backtrack with XTG/ATG, or some other variation.

Truthfully, I don't think WTG/XTG/ATG much any more. It gave me the right idea. Now, each pass moves toward ATG as my beard dictates. (Sometimes, even going directly from WTG to ATG, for example.)

My two bits...