Left Hand

I want to solicit some suggestions from you all on a small problem I'm having with my Against the Grain passes.

I do quit well on my neck, chin, and right side cheek. The problem occurs when I switch to my left hand to shave my left cheek. I seem to get a pulling feel when I try this and nowhere else. It is almost as if the razor is road-blocked and just wont pass over any hair. The strange thing is I work through it, re-later and go again and it's perfectly smooth. I also (as mentioned) have no problems with other areas on my face so I know for sure it isn't the blade dulling.

My best thought are my angle or I'm just not proficient with my left hand (are those the same thing?).

I would have to say it's the left hand proficiency angle. Give it some time and see if it improves with practice. If you're working through it and getting the results its all good :)

Hard to say,
but do you remember stretch the skin with the right hand during strokes?

This "error" is only when you are using the front side of the blade?

The lather has not dried out, and causing pulling?

Try to shave whole face with the left hand.

Sometimes I use left hand when shaving left cheek. Left hand needs just more training, training.

Hello, ats200:

Yes, you need practice to correct the angle on the left side using your left hand. Keep working at it. Try to use the left hand as much as possible in your daily activity: opening doors, brushing teeth, stirring, and so on. You'll get there.

Regards,

Obie

I switched to two hand shaving on my second straight shave. I was using a Dovo Shavette with a Feather blade so any mistake I made was quickly obvious. I found that I had to be careful of the angle and was able to accomplish that fairly well by laying the blade flat and bringing the spine up while I shaved downward until I felt it cutting whiskers. It does take time but is worth the effort. I never used the left hand when DE shaving, just because it never really occurred to me. It does make straight shaving easier, and, by the way, I am lousy at everything with my left hand.

I'm not sure if this is your problem, but I am new and have noticed that when I practice using my left hand I tend to get a little heavy handed, especially on the neck. I haven't gotten to the point where i try shave chin and mustache area with my left hand, but on the neck I can. I tend to have a decent angle (I'm not getting cut) but the razor gets a little hard to move because I'm pressing too hard. Thankfully I haven't gotten many nicks because the angle has been good or too flat sometimes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ats200

I want to solicit some suggestions from you all on a small problem I'm having with my Against the Grain passes.

I do quit well on my neck, chin, and right side cheek. The problem occurs when I switch to my left hand to shave my left cheek. I seem to get a pulling feel when I try this and nowhere else. It is almost as if the razor is road-blocked and just wont pass over any hair. The strange thing is I work through it, re-later and go again and it's perfectly smooth. I also (as mentioned) have no problems with other areas on my face so I know for sure it isn't the blade dulling.

My best thought are my angle or I'm just not proficient with my left hand (are those the same thing?).

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A big +1 to giving it some time. I think it took me several months before I got what I would call a great shave.

I noticed you said you are having trouble with your against the grain pass. I know this sounds like a stupid question but, you are going WTG first before going ATG, correct? You really should give yourself some time before going ATG but If you're having luck on the rest of your face, you probaly just need a little practice with sking stretching & blade angle. If getting hung up in the whiskers is what you mean by saying "It's almost as if the razor is road-blocked", leads me to believe you are using too much blade angle. With ATG, make sure you have very little angle to where the blade is almost laying flat to your skin. Trying to use the same angle as WTG on ATG will tend to cause the blade to become "road-blocked".

Hope this helps. Happy shaving!

Thanks for all of the advice. I was able to get a little more success with pulling my skin a bit tighter now I'll just work on the angle and hopefully everything will work out for the better!

have you tried using your left hand to shave the right side of face and vice versa. I have a hard time doing left hand + left face...just a suggestion. It keeps my angle and pressure quite constant

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ats200

I want to solicit some suggestions from you all on a small problem I'm having with my Against the Grain passes.

I do quit well on my neck, chin, and right side cheek. The problem occurs when I switch to my left hand to shave my left cheek. I seem to get a pulling feel when I try this and nowhere else. It is almost as if the razor is road-blocked and just wont pass over any hair. The strange thing is I work through it, re-later and go again and it's perfectly smooth. I also (as mentioned) have no problems with other areas on my face so I know for sure it isn't the blade dulling.

My best thought are my angle or I'm just not proficient with my left hand (are those the same thing?).

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I use the same-side hand for WTG and XTG, but the opposite-side
hand for ATG. Maybe it's just the way my beard grows, but it's
easier for me to do it that way.

I think, given regular directional beard growth, that learning to shave with the left hand for a righty for outside-to-inside XTG shaving with the left hand is a very good idea. Also doing ATG on the right side burn lefty.

It may be lower quality in the beginning but as a shaving experience once you've made friends with your non-dominant hand you'll see the wisdom of shaving two handed. If it's any consolation about 2/3rds of my shave is left-handed, although I'm right-handed, due to the direction of beard growth (slanted to the right for the majority of my bearded areas in the center of my face).

Now it's to the point where if I'm out of practice with a DE safety razor and I wind up yearning to go over it again with a left-handed open razor just to get the most difficult (!) parts of my heavily bearded areas. Weird, huh? I won't kid myself, it's mostly because the open razor is the most adjustable angled razor and my hairs are too acute to be sliced close, now that I'm acclimated to "doing everything" with an open blade.

You'll get there.