Thread: "Pulling" Explained

Thanks! I too have been trying to squeegie the whiskers off my face. Gotta give this a try when I shave tomorrow.

Sorry AF but your wrong about the DE. Those of you who have a DE take it and put it against you finger. if you do it with no angle yes the bar prevents contact however you use the proper angle with a DE and then press toward your finger and the blade will come in contact with your finger and the harder you press the greater the contact. If this was not the case pressure would not matter much with a DE but it does the same as with a straight.

However you're correct about the straight and pulling.

Thank you for your accurate explanation! Down to earth explanations of common problems are tremendously helpful for beginners such as myself.

Keep em' coming!

You know, I was watching curling on the telly the other day at the gym, and I suddenly connected what a friend told me about rock throwing with straight shaving.

It's really, really easy to throw a curling rock on ice. Push it, and it will slide. What's really hard, is to throw lightly enough. If you throw too hard, your rock will just hit the end of the ice, and you won't hit bullseye. My friend told me that an experience curler has many levels of throwing strength, so that he's able to modulate six or seven gradations of strength between too strong and too weak. And trust me, the line between too strong and too weak is already very, very thin.

It's the same thing with a straight. Since my DOVO came back from the sharpening, I noticed that I needed a lighter touch with stropping, a lighter touch with shaving, but that it's still necessary to have sufficient pressure.

Like the curler, you need to be able to vary precisely minute amounts of pressure. It's high-precision floating point operations, if you prefer a math metaphor.

Thank you for the post. Looking at it this way helped me get my best shave yet last night. That and a hot towel between passes seems to do the trick.

I've been thinking about the first post since I read it. I've been thinking about _why_ excess pressure is so bad.

When I started shaving with a straight or DE razor, I had problems with razor burn. They have almost completely disappeared. I don't care about after-shave balms as much as I used to, because I don't _need_ them very often. I don't think my face has gotten tougher; I think my technique has improved.

I suspect that good lather acts as a _genuine lubricant_ between the edge of the razor and the skin. That kind of lubrication works at the microscopic level:

. . . the lubricant is a liquid film, and the film prevents the two surfaces (skin and razor)
. . . from actually touching each other.

If one presses too hard on the razor, the film breaks down, and the razor _does_ contact the skin. That's what "razor burn" is -- as well as cutting hair, you're scraping skin!

You need _some_ pressure to cut hair. The two elements of a gentle shave are:

. . . using _only as much pressure as needed_, and

. . . making as thick and "lubricious" a lather as you can.

If you do that, razor burn just disappears, because the razor never touches your skin.

It's not a fantasy, or a mode of thought, or an impossible goal -- it's what really happens in a good shave!

Charles

I could have used this information a couple of days ago, especially the part about not bumping the mirror with the handle -- ouch! Great post.

I even keep the brush in the cup and re-apply a bit of lather and/or lather-water in areas that I am just about to re-do. I'll explain (besided being very new) I'm shaving back along my jaw line toward my ear, and I want to go down just a bit and I've just rinsed and wiped my razor, I will apply just a dab over where I had just shaved and let the razor start in that area where there is lube/soap and continue on. DON'T be afraid of re-lathering at some point (for newbies) even though it's there, it can somtimes need freshining up with maybe just a bit of hot water, the brush and the lather that is on your face to get it good and wet again. If we were just looking for lubricating our face we all be putting K-Y Jelly on instead of lather.. LOL

I also have a razor that I had to cut a large piece out of the heel since it had a large nick in the blade there. The front part of the razor, the Mulcuto, has a nice edge,but it's less wide than a normal straight, and a little bit wider than my disposables.


It shaves and feels different, and it may be because it has less surface area when it cuts as well. Not sure. But I know when I shave with it, ther feeling is different.

Also, the last time I shaved, I did like I practice and once I started on an area, I just went. Seems momentum is good and I really don't like going "chink, chink, chink, chink" taking little swipes of shaving cuts down my face. But, that is just me.

This is a great post. Pressure is not helpful or necessary if your edge is tuned to your face/needs.

I would add, though, that if your straight pulls no matter what you do, it just might not be shave ready. Also, some people's "shave ready" has not been the same as my shave ready (and perhaps vice versa, I don't know), so there is that factor to consider as well.

This explanation of pulling was helpful beyond belief. Really a must read for any beginner. It really helped me adjust the pressure properly for my first shave. I did not fully understand the concept of "pulling" before I read this. Many thanks!