Thread: Major burn after first straight razor shave at Barber

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Switching from or to an electric can give you a rash.
Plain and simple switching takes a while to adjust.

The skin does seem to change and adapt to the method
and products.

My guess is that the part of your neck that developed a
rash is different. One side of my neck grows up and
the other side grows down with some swirled bits to complicate
any transition...

To ease into the switch get some wet saving soap or cream
a boar brush and spend five bucks on a dozen BiC single edge tossables.
They are the yellow ones for Sensitive skin. SKIP the double, triple
and quad tossables.

Start with a systematic north south shave (normally with the grain).
Follow with a light one time touch up to catch the omissions. BBS
is not the goal. If your face flairs up red skip shaving that bit for
a day.

Give each tossable no more than three days of use and
about half way through the bag add some cross the grain
and rare against the grain touch ups. Half way through
the bag (12/bag) you can try for more days per blade and
even try for a BBS a couple times.

In a month you will have practiced pre-shave, lathering
and post shave. Try Nivea Sensitive Post shave balm *works
well for me*.

A one bag of 12 should take you past one month and should
let you discover if WET shaving is a good or bad thing for you.

Then go back to the barber, or graduate to better wet shaving tools: str8, DE,
better brush different soaps different shave creams.

I am a FAN of wet shaving with a sharp blade, any blade.

As I mentioned before I do sucessfuly wet shave with a cartridge blade without ever facing this problem and I do not have sensitive skin. So I am not really certain that it's a matter of "swtiching".

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

The big issue is that in the past barbers gave shaves as an everyday part of their duties and if you wanted the the best shave of your life you went to a barber. These days barbers aren't really trained in straight use and if they decide to use a disposable type and offer shaves those unlucky customers who come into their shop will be the guinea pigs. Based on what I've seen on this forum the chances of getting a good shave from a barber is about the same as hitting it big in the lottery.

Well that is unfortunate. There is a notion that you go a professional to "get it done right". Wasn't sure this did not apply to barbers, especially for that price. And this is one of the well known successful shops in town.

Ah well, live and learn.

Somebody mentioned that oil should be used with the disposableblades. What kind of oil?

A pre-shave oil may give a slicer surface soling some of the harshness problem from the disposable blade.

I suspect the biggest problem is a face not used to a blade shave and a right handed barber who had less control of his pressure on the left side of your face. It is a fin line between perfectly smooth and burned painfully, especially with a disposable blade. This is actually a line I've crossed myself when I get a little agressive with a new DE blade in my blade holder.

So from some of the stuff I'm seeing here, disposable stra8 blades are so sharp that they cause more razor burn than a normal stra8. Also sounds like they are more prone to drag because they are not the same as normal stra8 blades. Am I correct?

Sounds like he may have used too much pressure on that area of your neck. If it's like you said, and it's difficult to get it close there, he may have been going over it too much, and that would cause irritation, I know from experience LOL

I guess it probably was a disposable, but unlike someone said above, depending on where you live, barbers are not required by law to use disposable razors.

Here in PA, and several other states (I read the laws for barbers so I'm not making it up) there is no law against it. They need to be sterilized before touching each customer, so it's more of a convenience thing to use a disposable.

And honestly, today with the UV sterilizing machines that are available, it shouldn't be that big of an issue.

I will be attending barber school soon, and I fully intend on using a real straight on customers, but I will also have the disposable if they prefer.

Originally Posted by avatar1999

I guess it probably was a disposable, but unlike someone said above, depending on where you live, barbers are not required by law to use disposable razors.

...

I will be attending barber school soon, and I fully intend on using a real straight on customers, but I will also have the disposable if they prefer.

I was the one who surmised that disposables had to be used by law I think. It is good to hear that in some places barbers can still use straight razors. It is even more encouraging that you intend to continue use of a straight razor. Kudos!

Aloha!

Very old thread and sorry to Necro this, but it may be a good thread for newbies that go to a barber for a shave these days and are less than satisfied.

I travel extensively worldwide and have had barber shaves from many barbers in many countries. Let's stick with North America, and especially the US for now. Young barbers graduate with very little straight experience. When thrown into a shop and asked to shave, indeed, their first few dozen gentlemen will be Guinea Pigs for their blades. Very few shops I have visited in the US have barbers with the skill level to properly shave a gentleman correctly, without inflicting major razor burn or several cuts and nicks. Let me give you some examples of what I've been exposed to, good and bad since about 1990 ish;

I was at an airport in the Midwest before 9/11 when security was much more lax and there was a barber shop in the concourse gate area. I stopped in for a haircut on a barber that was (at that time) about 55-65 years old. While he was cutting my hair I asked him if he shaved. He said "Of course, I'm a barber". He proceeded to strop a true straight razor (not a Shavette), hot towel me and put on hot lather. As he was doing this a security guard walked in and said something like, "Walter, are you actually going to SHAVE this guy?" Then the guard looked at me and rolled his eyes. I should have taken this que to stop the process. After all his prep, the barber (no joke) wiped off all the lather with a dry towel and started dry shaving me with a very odd back and forth scraping action like he was removing paint. Hurt like crazy. I complained and he said that he was getting close and it was supposed to hurt. Can you imagine? These days I would have stopped the shave immediately, but I was young enough to foolishly take the pain. He finished and started putting on styptic for all the cuts and burn he subjected me to. It was a horrific shave and I looked a mess when I boarded my plane. I should have stopped him in his tracks. Definitely the worst barber shave of my life. My face was raw for days and it took the cuts a while to heal.

Barber shop in the Southeast advertised they were "old school shaving" so I stopped in and took a shave. Nice prep, three hot towels, lather, face massage, the works. Young gal shaving me (said she was a recent barber graduate) using a shavette. WAY too much pressure, WAY too many passes over the same area after the original later was gone. 2nd worse razor burn and cuts I ever got. Anyone else whose skin was not used to a blade would have walked out of there raw as a side of beef. My skin was not happy but it was not the end of the world. She didn't get much of a tip, believe me. I actually told her that she had razor burned me quite extensively and that she needed to work on her skill. I told her to let the razor blade do the work, not brute force. I also told her not to shave the same area multiple times AFTER she had made the first pass without putting on more lather. She admitted she was new and I was one of her first customers. Yikes.

Barbershop in upstate NY had a strop hanging from a chair and I asked the barber if he shaved. He said yes but with a shavette. Turned out to be a fairly good shavette shave. Probably the best I have had outside of my shop in Hawaii. No burn, smooth, good skill level. Very simple prep. One hot towel and lather, then cleanup with a DE and aftershave and balm. But it was an inexpensive shave and socially acceptable for the price.

Chicago barbershop specializing in shaves. Went in, paid BIG BUCKS for a wet shave. What did I get? A disposable Bic type multi-blade razor, one pass shave. No hot towel, no hot lather. Just a quick brush on from a mug of some cold lather then a quick one pass disposable razor shave as I was sitting upright in the chair. Horrible. I've gotten closer shaves in my athletic club while showering with a disposable razor. Biggest rip-off ever. I was in such shock that I had paid such big money for a simple one-pass disposable razor shave that I remember standing at the checkout shaking my head when the person asked me, "Do you want to put your tip on the credit card?". I wanted to say, "Tip? I have a tip. Stop claiming you are professional barber shaving shop!".

My shop in Hawaii (see my Avatar) is probably the best barber shave I have had to date in the US. These guys know what they are doing. Smooth as silk. Great prep, multi-pass, BBS result. Asian shop (most of Hawaii is) and there is an Asian "Zen of Shaving" vibe in the shop where they seem to take great pride in being a shop that specializes in not only gentlemen's hair cuts but superior shaves as well.

So it's 80 percent very bad, 15 percent fairly good and 5 percent good on my luck with barbershop shaves while traveling.

Anyone else had the same or different experiences?

-Zip

"It sounds like he may have been using too much pressure on the blade and giving your some of that irritation."

This would be my first guess.

Don't hold it against him, but do tell him about it. Maybe he'll offer you another shave as recompense.

We all have our position on the learning curve.

From my little experience I've found the disposable blade more rough. Jagged looking on the edge when looking at magnification levels. I think that straight are much smoother edged.That plus I'd say the issue is too much pressure on one side like others have said. Another issue is he most likely doesn't do shaves daily like barbers used to do. Not enough day to day practice. But he was plenty happy to do it when he found out you was willing to pay the funds. Its not his mug he's working on.