Thread: blade still tugging -- tried everything!!

Originally Posted by DanS

....even got my razor freshing honed by SRD. Even straight from the honing, my blade was relentlessly tugging at the chin hairs.

I took this to mean he did have a razor professionally honed, used it, and is still having problems.

EDIT: Sorry didn't see Dan had clarified this already.

Grow a Goatee!

Guess what, you and I are in the same boat. I have been working on shaving for about a month now (maybe about 12 shaves or so) and I have the same problem. I am thinking that my shaving technique stunk when I first got the razor from srp classifieds and then as my shaving got better my razor may have gotten a bit dull. Maybe my stropping technique is not perfect or something but I cant shave my chin no matter what I do. Also there are some other parts of my face that I just grit my teeth and rip that razor through. Ok, maybe 'ripping' is a little strong I just mean that I go ahead and get a little razor burn if it won't shave easy (I don't want to be the cause of any bad cuts here). I think that most of it is just experience, I plan to keep on trying and fidgeting with angles, stretching and trying to keep the rough areas moist.

I keep reminding myself that (think it was on that "newbies read this first" thing) that it takes about 100 shaves to get the hang of it.

JP

Read this post here. It is a good one and might give you something to go with.

Hi,
Aside from stretching the skin, have you tried making your first pass from a different direction? If the first pass is not "WTG", I can see how you'd get tugging even from a properly honed razor. I had this problem with my neck--- I was doing my first pass from my jaw all the way down my neck, and the lower half of my neck would get irritated. Then I realized my lower neck hair grows *up* instead of *down*-- so now I need to split the direction of my first pass.

Keep at it-- once you figure it out you'll never go back...

-Chief

You mentioned you use a full hollow.Maybe you need to try a wedge or a half hollow.It might not be the razor at all,you just might need a stiffer grind.Just a thought.

One thing you can try to see if a wedge or a quarter grind razor will help is to shave your chin with the heel of your razor. A while back I read a post by another SRP member who suggested to try shaving with the heel of the razor The blade tends to be more stiff towards the heel.

I noticed a slight difference when I tried this. Now when I use a full hollow razor I try and use the heel of the razor when shaving my chin.

I did end up buying a 1/4 grind razor and I love it. I still have several full hollow razors in my rotation that give me great shaves I just adjust my shaving technique to the particular razor.

It boils down to getting to know your razors and what works for you.

I say try using different parts of the blade on your face. I started using the heel of the blade on my chin one day because that part seemed to be the sharpest on my dull blade. I was pleasantly surprised how smooth and close that part of the blade shaves.

Sounds like we have similar issues with the chin area. My beard is not thick but the whiskers in this area are coarse. I have battled with the same problem with the hairs pulling when shaving the chin. It didn't matter if the razor was honed by me or a professional, I still had problems with the chin.

The biggest help for me was stretching the skin. Stretching plus going to a lower angle and a much shorter stroke has made a big difference. As my shaving technique improves I tend to have less problems.

Good luck

Just a question for you...are you carefully stropping the blade just before each and every shave? For how many roundtrip laps?
Hanging strop or paddle strop?