Thread: My face, and the meat grinder...newbies first attempt..PLZ HELP

Originally Posted by James1983

OK, first attempt with the straight razor...not so good. Not only did I manage to impart over 100 tiny slices like paper cuts all over my face, I took the top of my mole off as well, the blade didnt glide. kept biting me. the soap I was using right after lathering up became sticky. I placed a hot towle on my face for 2min after I had a shower and made a nice lather. I stroped my razor slowly maybe 20 times before applying the soap and getting down to business. My face hurts really REALLY bad and not only that but the razor didnt get most of the wiskers... after i washed all the soap off a tone of red little lines appeared all over my face...had to use stypic pencil on 80% of my face and now i look like a white ghost. :-S

Bummer. First recommendation. Don't shave with a straight until your face is healed. Give it a rest; irritation on top of irritation is not a good thing.

Your razor must be sharp if it took the top of your mole off. That sounds tongue in cheek, but I'm being serious as well.

What kind of soap? Sticky lather for me usually means I need to add more water.

Razor cuts almost always mean a razor's angle is too high. Think of a kitchen knife. At 90 degrees to the item being cut, a knife cuts. A knife cuts when the angle is reduced as well. If a knife is laid flat and parallel with the surface of the item and drawn across the item, the surface won't/can't be cut. Anything above that surface would be shaved off by the knife. I'm not advocating that you lay your razor completely flat against your face and attempt a complete shave that way, I'm using an analogy as an example to show that if you're cutting your skin repeatedly, your angle is too great. Visualize 45 degrees and then visualize half of that. You could even start some passes with half of that angle or approx 12 degrees. 12 degrees is probably too small of an angle to cut proficiently in most places on your face, but it will give you the feeling of how to shave without slicing your face. On average, I favor a shaving angle of 20-25 degrees. On some more advanced passes I do in fact lay the razor flat on my face (example: I have an area to the right of my mouth on my cheek where coarser whiskers grow as flat against my face as you can imagine without becoming ingrown. Stretching the skin well and buffing this area lightly with a flat razor and ATG picks up these whiskers enough to shave them well. Any steeper angle and I get irritation big time there).

Others will provide more thoughts I'm sure.

Chris L

Stretch your skin well when making passes. Not stretching your skin and giving the razor edge the flattest surface of skin to glide across is another big reason cuts occur.

ouch im werry new myself at this
wat i found out atleast was not to shave the two first tryes just laying the razor just about flat and wiping of the lather with it
(lifting the spine a bit is scary till you get used to the edge on your skin)
i get some nicks but nothing like you describe luckyli

Don't panic, as first times go that sounds a bit rougher than most. While you're waiting for your face to heal up I suggest reading the wiki and the stickies in the newbie forum again.

Particularly this thread...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/newbi...icipation.html

things will get better

Owch, That sucks, i agree with the guys. Take a break for a few days and do allot of reading upmaybe even try running the razor in a place like you leg to find a good angle and pressure. On your fist round of shaves, take you time, concentrate, but stay fluid and loose.

Absolutely - it will get better. The best news is that (barring anything...unusual) you'll keep growing a beard, which means you can take a crack at it everyday! You don't get that kind of opportunity always in other places in life!

I also started out in the "mauled by a badger" zone, but after a few weeks it all evened out. Beard mapping is another great way to fix up your shaves so you don't wreck your face. I won't say more, because you've come to the one place in the universe where people will literally trip over themselves to help you - you're in good hands! Courage et bon chance, mon frere du rasage!

Julian

OK three things you need to have...

A shave ready razor....
Proper prep...
Proper technique...

You have the first one, I checked you first threads about the razor, so unless you really messed up stropping, the odds for the shave ready part are high...

The second one didn't sound so promising, practice the lather part while yer face heals, practice the lather part for washing your face in the morning, and before bed, heck soap is cheap and the whole process is fun anyway...Don't forget the splash of hot water on the face before the lather....

The third that just comes with more and more practice, but as we have heard a 1000 times start with just your side burn to jaw line and then work outward as you get better....

Thank you again for your input and support. I do belive it was my lather, and too steep of angle. Lather was very sticky so after previous reply and video on lathers i now know mine was way too dry and cheap soap didn't help. My brush is no name walmart 5$ lol. Next paycheck I plan on getting a higher quality soap and a badger brush. Does silvertip make that much of a diff?

I like silvertip and it makes a lot of difference but mostly in water retention and the way it fells in your face. However, I have used those $5 Walmart Van der Hagen brushes (VDH) (with the green handle) and they are pretty good. One thing to bear in mind is that any brush boar or badger; large or small; cheap or expensive; has to be broken in first. Until it is properly broken in, it would not perform to its capabilities. Just use it a lot understanding that after a while it is going to perform better. how much better would it perform? it would depend on what you are looking for in the brush but definitely better than it does now. Some people love boar while most swear by the badger brushes. As I said, I can whip almost anything with the VDH brush. You can improve the tools later but, in my opinion, the secret here, and what you should probably concentrate on, is to practice and learn a lot before you send a fortune on things trying to obtain the magic bullet. Same thing with the soap, it is probably not the best but the trick is to get the best out of it. We can all tell you a lot about soaps too ;-).

Al raz.

Originally Posted by James1983

Thank you again for your input and support. I do belive it was my lather, and too steep of angle. Lather was very sticky so after previous reply and video on lathers i now know mine was way too dry and cheap soap didn't help. My brush is no name walmart 5$ lol. Next paycheck I plan on getting a higher quality soap and a badger brush. Does silvertip make that much of a diff?