I've been using a straight razor for a few weeks now. I was getting lots of neck irritation using a cartridge and decided to switch. Here's what I got:

Parker razor with 1-time use blades (Amazon.com: Parker SRW Stainless Steel Straight Edge Barber Razor & 120 Shark Super Stainless Blades: Health & Personal…)

Col. Conk shaving soap

Badger hair brush

Gillette aftershave and balm


And here are the issues I'm running into so far:

The lather on my face is drying up/disappearing quickly. Sometimes I have to re-lather multiple times to finish a single pass. I've tried different combinations of brush wetness and amount of soap, but it doesn't ever stay lathered like I'm used to seeing in the videos I've watched.

Neck irritation is still pretty bad. I get splotchy redness all along the bottom. I really am treating this area carefully and with a very light touch and shallow angle. The razor seems to glide over smoothly, and at the time it feels fine, but then 10 min after the shave it's completely red, and sometimes I'll get a pimple or two.

Jaw line - Going with the grain doesn't seem to take off much hair, and going against gives me lots of resistance. I have a cleft chin and I've never been able to shave that area well.


So that's it mainly. I don't care so much about getting perfect shaves that are ultra smooth. All I care about at this point is not having so much irritation and redness. I seem to have very sensitive skin and would like to finally be able to do something about it. Thanks for any help and suggestions you guys have for me.