Thread: 3rd Shave -- Improvement

Did my 3rd straight shave this morning and had definite improvement. Yesterday I reread Lynn's article entitled "Anticipation" and then I realized what I was doing wrong. I was using much to large an angle between the blade and my face. I was feeling constant pulling and tugging at my whiskers. This morning I used significantly less angle (less than 30 degrees) and I felt no tugging and had no irritation. Definitely got a much smoother shave. I only went WTG and finished with my DE razor. I have a long way to go, but less angle made a significant improvement.
Hope that helps others.

Congratulations and welcome back as it seems like you've been away from using a straight razor for awhile. Given time and more practice, you may find using a straight razor is a great way to either start or end a day.

Originally Posted by Laser

Did my 3rd straight shave this morning and had definite improvement. Yesterday I reread Lynn's article entitled "Anticipation" and then I realized what I was doing wrong. I was using much to large an angle between the blade and my face. I was feeling constant pulling and tugging at my whiskers. This morning I used significantly less angle (less than 30 degrees) and I felt no tugging and had no irritation. Definitely got a much smoother shave. I only went WTG and finished with my DE razor. I have a long way to go, but less angle made a significant improvement.
Hope that helps others.

Good post.... each of us shaves differently so what works
works.

A low angle will tend to keep the edge strop ready when
finished shaving longer so it sounds like you are on a roll.
You will have made it when you reach for the str8 to tidy
up after a DE shave.

Good that you're sticking WTG for now. Also gives you more time to learn how to lather and strop which makes ATG and XTG work more comfortably.

Laser-I'm definitely in the same ballpark with you. Did my third str8 shave this evening and had about the same experience, though luckily no cuts. My shaves improved 10 fold after watching the WIKI video with Lynn As' Demo on shaving. Before shaving, he casually states hes going to strop his razor first and proceeds to put on the best demonstration of stropping I've seen, and I've been doing a lot of looking. Wow. I learned more about wrist and hand position and movement during a strop from Lynns' 15 second demo than anything else I've seen. After that, my stropping technique was much less tentative and I had a corresponding improvement in the blade edge. My shave tonight also got better for another reason-blade angle. I too was holding at the wrong angle and found out quickly that changing that angle made for a smoother shave. Thanks to this forum it just keeps getting better and better. I'm most assuredly hooked.