Thread: Beginner shaving issues

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.

To be honest, the issues you are having are probably the most common issues that beginners have. I struggled with the neck irritation and trouble removing hair under the jawline for the longest time. Here are some suggestions:

- As far as creating a good lather, I would practice, practice, practice. I posted this same question when I first started and a member suggested getting a cheap soap (VDH or Williams) and making lather over and over again until the consistency is correct. Try adding too much water and too little water to understand what happens. Lather building is not that difficult and you will get the hang of it soon enough. It sounds to me like you are scared of using too much water and in turn, are using too little.

- As far as the hair removal on the neck, this is more difficult to master. I would say that the thing that helped me the most was really figuring out how to stretch the skin under my jawline. This helped immensely. I went from removing virtually no hair on my first pass to not even having to do a second pass.

- Irritation is part of the game in the beginning. Try using very light pressure. You are probably using more pressure on your neck because of the hair removal problem and in turn, creating irritation. Be conscious of using light pressure....almost like you are gently wiping the hairs away.

I'm relatively new at this too, but those are the tips I received and they helped me out a lot. Good luck!

Edit: I forgot to mention that the skin irritation will likely subside with time. I think it takes time for your skin to get used to the straight edge.

FBones is dead on the money with his post...Can't add anything to it...

The razor you are using is even more tricky to use then a traditional straight, so it takes a bit more work to get a comfortable shave from those...
If my goal was comfort I would get as good as I could from the one you have then start looking for a Traditional Straight Razor... Your face and neck will thank you...

Not much to add with the information Fbones and Glen gave you.

Practice lathering, you'll get there. Practice your shaving technique and I have never heard of those DE blades before. If you really dig those disposable straights and don't mind snapping the blades in half, think about trying some other blades. They are not really all that expensive for packs of 5 or 10.

Thanks for the responses guys.

As far as stretching the skin, the cheeks aren't much of a problem as the growth is sparse anyway. I just pull upward with my thumb above the area I'm shaving. The neck is trickier. The problems I run into are that my face can be too slippery to grab, or my hand will wipe away some of the soap I still need. I have 2 concave areas on either side of my adam's apple where I always seem to get the most redness. I'm not sure where to grab and which direction to stretch. I can't seem to get those concave areas to flatten out enough to have smooth contact with the blade.

As far as the soap goes lose the conk it's famous for a thin lather that dries out quickly.

Originally Posted by Norwoodz

Thanks for the responses guys.

As far as stretching the skin, the cheeks aren't much of a problem as the growth is sparse anyway. I just pull upward with my thumb above the area I'm shaving. The neck is trickier. The problems I run into are that my face can be too slippery to grab, or my hand will wipe away some of the soap I still need. I have 2 concave areas on either side of my adam's apple where I always seem to get the most redness. I'm not sure where to grab and which direction to stretch. I can't seem to get those concave areas to flatten out enough to have smooth contact with the blade.

If your face is slippery and you are having trouble stretching, get an alum block and rub your fingers on it. You will be able to grip your skin and stretch it even with some soap/cream residue on there. I actually use my alum for this purpose only.

I have to agree with all the above. They seem right on from my experience.

As for streching the skin under the neck I find pulling the skin taut right above the collar bone and tilting my head slightly back pulls the area pretty taut.

As for were your running into situations were you need to pull the skin taut in an area that you have already lathered and not shaved yet I can only suggest experiment with were you start your shave to find what works best for you to stretch the skin with out that problemed.

Also spend some time in front of the mirror first using just facial movment to stretch your skin, then use your hand to stretch the skin around then a combination of the two you will be suprised how many different ways you will find to stretch different areas.

I started with Conk soap and experienced the same drying out problems you did. It wasn't the Conk soaps fault because no soap is going to maintain itself for a 30 minute pass. When I started it took me an hour to do a single WTG pass. My solution was to lather only half my face at a time until I got comfortable enough to increase my speed.

As for your butt chin...I've got one too...you might be stuck with whatever technique you can work up for yourself. A good straight usually has a sharpened toe that is the perfect shape to get right into that area. All I do is to apply my thumb to one side of my chin and my forefinger of the same hand to the other side and kinda stretch the chin apart and then get that toe into the area and viola...clean butt chin.

Today's shave went better. I just did one pass downward. I watched some Turkish barber videos and tried to imitate their technique. I shave right handed, so I put my left thumb just above the blade and pulled the skin upward.

The tricky part was doing the right side. To use my left hand for stretching I have to reach right across my face and it blocks my vision. I tried shaving left-handed but that felt really awkward. It's no surprise that the left half of my face seems to be more closely shaven and less irritated.