Thread: first shave...no good

Please check this videos first 56 seconds.
File:Stropping.AVI - Straight Razor Place Wiki

rest is not for you yet.
pay attention to persons thumb and how he turns blade. wrist is stable.
make 50/50 linen and leather then go head shave again.
i would give to your face 2 days rest let it rest a little ok.
then shave see what happens. thank you for updates.
gl

Originally Posted by anjp

hi all,
I suppose any one of (or a combination of) these could cause the burn. Any comments?

Hang in there. It will come together faster than you might expect. As a newbie, i can tell you that each time you shave it will get a LOT better. You might want to just shave the 'easy' parts of your face with your straight razor until you get practice and you feel comfortable holding it and moving it around your face.

Originally Posted by anjp

Upper lip was OK, but the sides of the lip, chin, and especially neck proved very difficult. I now have a bleeding ear and numerous small cuts around my chin and jawline lol. Ah well..

After my shave was done I felt a pretty good burning sensation all over. I'm thinking it could have been caused by 3 things:
1 - numerous cuts and nicks all over (I've never nicked myself this badly before with a safety)
2 - improper stropping (i.e. blade could be a bit dull and is burning skin)
3 - too much pressure on blade (this burning skin).

I suppose any one of (or a combination of) these could cause the burn. Any comments?

Here are some tips and comments:
1. the neck in my opinion is one of the most difficult areas because it is not flat and the skin/hair follicles are the most sensitive. btw, don't attempt against the grain up strokes.

2. the jaw area can be accessed easier by pulling the skin up so you are shaving it on the lower cheek instead of trying to round the curve. when you release the skin you'll see that you've shave most of the jaw line curve.

3. the burning sensation is due to shaving off the upper skin layer. this can be the result of too much angle, too much pressure, going over the same area too many times, or you skin isn't used to it yet. like someone said take a day off to let your face recover. skin burn is useful feedback to let you know which areas you need to pay closer attention to.

4. you can use only part of the blade. if you for example drag the length of the blade across the cheek, high places will get cut too close resulting in discomfort. I like to use quarter to half of the blade on the tip end. I also shave from back to front. That way I can concentrate on side burn/ear area then move forward to avoid cutting the ear. This is why French tip (rounded point) razors are popular, especially for beginners. Its a common problem for beginners not to be conscience of the entire length of the blade.

A couple people have offered to critique my stropping technique via skype but since I don't have a webcam, I'm uploading a short video of my stropping to youtube.... Man, is it difficult to video yourself stropping!

I've started a new thread for this specific topic in the Stropping forum and have linked it below. Please feel free to add and constructive criticism to this thread or the other.... I will monitor both.

www.straightrazorplace.com/forums/stropping/52140-critique-my-stropping.html

Another shave this morning....I still feel like the razor is "pulling" across the face & whiskers. Not sure if this is a normal feeling, a result of poor stropping/something else, or if it is normal. Now I look forward to the touch-ups afterwards with my mach3 because it glides across the skin nice and smooth lol.

I'm not giving up, just a bit frustrated. I'm sure more practice will improve me.

My dear anjp:

Take a breath and step back a bit. You're doing fine. As in the initial stages of learning any craft, frustration is to be expected. Don't let it throw you.

Go back to the Wiki for research and videos. Re-examine your stropping. Study your razor technique, pressure, angle and stretching. Re-examine your preparation.

Stay with it. Before you know it you'll be there. I can assure you, the mastery of the straight razor is worth the effort. You're almost there.

Regards,
Obie

I know how you feel - this pretty much describes my first couple of shaves with a straight. I found that taking short, confident strokes fixed the problem for me, which led me to believe that I was being a little bit too (understandably) careful to begin with. As many posters have already indicated, if you keep at it you'll be throwing down supreme shaves in no time!

A fair amount of you read my frustration so it's only fair to post some good news! The shaving is starting to feel better. Whiskers not pulling nearly as badly as they were at first.... seems to be the product of the right amount of pressure combined with the right angle. I've made it my short-term policy to only shave WTG and this seems to have helped. However, this policy leaves me a bit stubbly at the end (I feel that I really need an ATG pass to clear this up).

What's the consensus on here... does everyone do ATG to get rid of final stubble or are there men out there who are fine with WTG? I want to have a shave so smooth that a drill sergeant would give me a pat on the back...

Feeling better about this and will continue to practice.

Try to do WTG AND XTG. please forget about ATG . You can do that later.
let your face get used to your straight razor too.
gl

Just watched your stroping video and technique looks ok, but i noticed you only were getting the last inch or so at the toe about 10 % of the time. You seem to be going straight up and down, try the X stroke while stroping. Hope this helps and keep it up you'll be doing fine in no time.