Thread: I'm doing something wrong...

Thanks, everyone, for the advice. It seems like skin stretching is much more important than I realized. I hadn't paid that much attention to it on my first few shaves, a mistake I will NOT duplicate.

I'll also work on stropping more. I thought I doing it properly, but from what you're saying, I'm probably slightly off somewhere, so thank you for giving me specific things to look for.

BeBerlin- yes, it's the TM vegan strop. I've heard it's not quite as good as a leather strop, but I'm a vegetarian, so it's the only game in town. The reviews I read on it seemed to say that, while not as good as leather, it would still be very serviceable. Is this not true?

This may sound strange, but I'm glad to hear a bunch of things I could be doing wrong... I couldn't believe this was what it's supposed to feel like, and these are definitely things I can work on.

One thing I'm still not clear on: What is the shave supposed to feel like? I know with a DE, the razor moves over the face pretty smoothly, with a very slight vibration (not quite scraping) as it slices the hair. Should I feel something similar with the straight? Is the blade supposed to glide smoothly over the skin? I've read that straights give more feedback, but I wasn't sure what this meant exactly. Does that mean the hair cutting/ vibration sensation will be more pronounced, or does that mean something else all together? I feel like that's the key I'm missing. Maybe I should go out and get a professional straight shave so at least I'll know what to shoot for.

Thanks again for the help guys, I really appreciate it.

It's gonna depend on the razor really... I have a couple really old blades that take a stupid sharp edge that don't give any feedback at all. Then there is all the others that give more audible and tactile feedback. You will feel it through the blade similar to the DE but more pronounced. I have 1 blade that sounds like pulling velcro apart but its as smooth as the others. Each razor has a personality that way. If should feel smooth but won't be as uniform on all areas as the DE in feel and sound.

As far as the strop is concerned... You don't have to eat the leather :P , sorry couldn't resist. Leather is the best way to go in my opinion. If you can make peace with it, it would probably be worthwhile.