So, last night I had my worst shave since I started and I have no idea why.

I started about 6 weeks ago and I think it's been going very well. I've only cut myself once and I would say half the time I don't even get any weeping or burn. I wear a full beard so I only shave my neck and some touch up on my cheeks. I usually do one down pass and one up pass and maybe a little touch up in specific spots after that.


Last night, I decided to try stropping for more passes than usual. I usually shave 3-4 times a weak and do 25-35 passes on the strop before shaving and 10-20 after cleanup. After reading a few tips on here where people were told to "strop the heck out of it" I did 75 for this shave just to see what would happen. I also used my cream this time instead of my astroglide and soap routine which I only do occasionally. My down stroke was fine, it seemed basically to be normal. As soon as I started my upstroke I knew something wasn't going right. It was instantly tugging and trying to dig in. So I stopped, and re-stropped for about 25 passes but it didn't seem to help. Next, I rinsed and applied astroglide and then relathered the spots I hadn't got to yet but it didn't really seem to help. I ended up giving myself 3 or 4 weepers and probably some rash too.

So, any thoughts on where I went wrong? Did the extra stropping ruin my edge? I feel like I've been pretty good on stropping and never really had a problem before. Is the blade just getting dull and ready for honing? I've used a CrOx pasted strop once so far and didn't really notice a change. I don't think I have an exceptionally tough beard but I don't think it's soft either.