Hello,
I am new to straight razor shaving and have only shaved twice with a 5/8 full hollow and I have great trouble shaving the whiskers off. The blade was professionally honed and I have had this confirmed and I have stropped it over and over and it seems to shave my finer arm hair ok, but not sure about this ‘popping’ I keep reading about. Frustrating that I am having such difficulty and have tried all the pre shave preparation techniques and correct blade angles but the blade seems to grab/dig in to the whiskers more than cleanly slicing them off. I find this really a problem each side of the corners of my mouth and down to the left and right side of my chin (but not the chin itself which seems to be a lot easier) as if I am trying to cut through barbed wire and the razor on the top of my flattened and taut lip just seems to sit on the whiskers and will not cut them. I have watched so many YouTube videos where the shaver takes fast long strokes upwards from the bottom of the neck to the top and looks silky smooth in cutting all the whiskers, this seems impossible. By the end of my shave and after several new hot lathering’s I am left red raw for my rewards and finish off the shave with my DE blade making me even more red raw. Not cutting myself seems the least of my worries, all I want to do is cut the whiskers off.
Please tell me this is all in technique and will only get better??
Thanks.