Thread: Some questions from a newbie

As a student of Experimental Psychology I need to say that Jeff Egg is semi-correct. We male humans are very visual, we need to see everything and examine every thing. This comes from the cave man days, as does most of our behavior, when we men used to go out with our spears and hunt the buffalo on the plains while the women stayed back in the caves and took care of the kids until the boys were ready to learn the art of the hunt.

The visual aspect will get better in time. You'll figure out eventually what works best for you. I have a spot on my left cheek, right below my sideburn that can be hard for me to see. I have to adjust my grip a bit, and I'm able to see.

Until you get proficient at stropping, use slow, methodical strokes, You don't have to be fast, just nice, smooth motions. The speed will come in time.

Also, if you can, pick yourself up a barber hone. You might check the classifieds. These stones are wonderful, and can be used everyday prior to shaving. All you need is 3-5 lapps and it'll keep your blade shave ready for some time. When you use it, no pressure at all, just the weight of the blade....

One thing that I found helpful in smoothing out my strokes was to adjust the angle of approach. I'm not talking about whether the spine of the razor is 20-30 degrees off the face, but whether you are moving the razor perpendicular to the blade, or at an angle.

Look at my avatar picture, this is the approach recommended by the old barber manuals. When I discovered this, my shaving technique improved considerably, and the shaves were much much smoother. See more here.