Thread: Hello, new here.

Ah, yes, stretching and pressure. Those are key, and your light blood dots sound like you're pressing a little too hard. Stretch as tight as you can before your grip slips (I sometimes use a washcloth between fingers and skin to increase traction) and don't apply any more blade pressure than it takes to wipe away the lather. If your blade is shaving sharp, the hair will follow the lather off your face as a side effect.

Nobody's mentioned stropping; it's common for beginners to do a little damage to their razor by stropping too hard and bending the edge. As with shaving, stropping should be done with very little pressure. The spine should ride the strop with the edge following. Imagine a canoe with an outrigger--the spine is the canoe and the edge is the outrigger.

Dig into our Wiki and also read Lynn's introduction to straight shaving. Good luck with it and best wishes to you.

Originally Posted by roughkype

Ah, yes, stretching and pressure. Those are key, and your light blood dots sound like you're pressing a little too hard. Stretch as tight as you can before your grip slips (I sometimes use a washcloth between fingers and skin to increase traction) and don't apply any more blade pressure than it takes to wipe away the lather. If your blade is shaving sharp, the hair will follow the lather off your face as a side effect.

Nobody's mentioned stropping; it's common for beginners to do a little damage to their razor by stropping too hard and bending the edge. As with shaving, stropping should be done with very little pressure. The spine should ride the strop with the edge following. Imagine a canoe with an outrigger--the spine is the canoe and the edge is the outrigger.

Dig into our Wiki and also read Lynn's introduction to straight shaving. Good luck with it and best wishes to you.

I'll be sure to work on those things.

I've been fairly gentile with the stropping. Haven't nicked the strop yet and I usually try to use just barely more pressure than the weight the blade itself provides. I don't know if it's possible to see with the eyes, but as of yet I can't see any damage.

If I'm thinking of the same article you are, I read it. And I'm sure I'll continue to check it here and there to ingrain the information.

Thank you for your tips and wishes.

Just looking through the threads, and didn't notice anyone mention the tightness of the skin. My first shave felt like I was using a piece of dull glass! After some tips from the forum the two that helped the most were:
1: Pull your skin tight! You don't have to do this with a DE, but with straights it is a must.
2: Lower your blade angle. Other members have posted this too, and trust me it makes a BIG difference.

Good luck with the future shaves, and keep coming back with questions; some of these guys are shaving wizards!
Cheers!

Originally Posted by joben

Just looking through the threads, and didn't notice anyone mention the tightness of the skin. My first shave felt like I was using a piece of dull glass! After some tips from the forum the two that helped the most were:
1: Pull your skin tight! You don't have to do this with a DE, but with straights it is a must.
2: Lower your blade angle. Other members have posted this too, and trust me it makes a BIG difference.

Good luck with the future shaves, and keep coming back with questions; some of these guys are shaving wizards!
Cheers!

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll be sure to give them a try next time around.

Hello Sirwazzles, welcome. It seems everything has been covered, i.e. blade shave readiness, stropping, pressure, cream, etc, though if you're getting red blotchy marks I'd say you're pressing too hard. You really shouldn't press at all, really. Well, maybe a TAD, but only just. It also sounds like your prep may be not quite right. Make the lather straight after the shower; and make sure it's nice and 'spongy', too much water and it won't provide the cushion you need. Also, short strokes, don't try and shave the whole face in like 5 strokes or anything, the short strokes should overlap slightly.
BTW, in one of your posts you mention a job interview. On a personal advice note, it may be a good idea to shave with your 'normal' method prior to attending an interview; you don't want to sit there bleeding or looking splotchy or anything :-)
Carl

Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

Hello Sirwazzles, welcome. It seems everything has been covered, i.e. blade shave readiness, stropping, pressure, cream, etc, though if you're getting red blotchy marks I'd say you're pressing too hard. You really shouldn't press at all, really. Well, maybe a TAD, but only just. It also sounds like your prep may be not quite right. Make the lather straight after the shower; and make sure it's nice and 'spongy', too much water and it won't provide the cushion you need. Also, short strokes, don't try and shave the whole face in like 5 strokes or anything, the short strokes should overlap slightly.
BTW, in one of your posts you mention a job interview. On a personal advice note, it may be a good idea to shave with your 'normal' method prior to attending an interview; you don't want to sit there bleeding or looking splotchy or anything :-)
Carl

Thank you kindly. I tried these things out today. As far as lather goes, wasn't great. Wasn't awful though. I was able to play around more adding water or soap here and there since I had more time. However, I used Williams (by itself). So much probably couldn't be expected anyway, especially from a novice lather conjurer. I am quite glad to report however that today's shave was much better than the last two. Not great by any means. But definitely a step up. Might actually be passable as a bad shave rather than a scientific experiment.

The neck is like impossible though. I'm a weightlifter, so my neck isn't round per se. I have those valleys created between the esophagus and the thicker outsides of the neck on either side, if any of that makes sense. Advice from anyone with prominent neck features?

Lulz at the job interview. I weighed the cost/benefits in my mind beforehand but I couldn't resist using the razor again. Luckily it's one of those jobs where you know the people and there's a good chance you're gonna get the job but have to do the interview formality anyway. Plus I just did a little on the cheeks and finished with the normal method (electric), so everything turned out alright.

Hey again Sirwazzles,

The best new piece of advice I've read in the last month or so was about stretching the neck. Someone said he uses a choke grip and it works well for him. I've tried it--like a one-handed choke at the base of the neck, then I lift my chin, and yep, everything goes as tight as I can get it. I've got a big adam's apple, and this does help the shave around it, at least by tightening the skin.

Don't know how deep your valleys go; too deep to stretch the flat out to the surface? Is it possible to pull the skin up to a high spot by just pulling at one side of it? I also do that sometimes along my adam's apple or jawline--just shift the skin so it's over a good flat supporting spot.

Good luck with the job search.

Originally Posted by roughkype

Hey again Sirwazzles,

The best new piece of advice I've read in the last month or so was about stretching the neck. Someone said he uses a choke grip and it works well for him. I've tried it--like a one-handed choke at the base of the neck, then I lift my chin, and yep, everything goes as tight as I can get it. I've got a big adam's apple, and this does help the shave around it, at least by tightening the skin.

Don't know how deep your valleys go; too deep to stretch the flat out to the surface? Is it possible to pull the skin up to a high spot by just pulling at one side of it? I also do that sometimes along my adam's apple or jawline--just shift the skin so it's over a good flat supporting spot.

Good luck with the job search.

Thanks for the thoughts. I'll try to do some of this maneuvering next time.

Pull up? I don't think so. I think I may be able to pull it to the side far enough though. Gotta find a way to do it without slicing my fingers (have to put them pretty close to the spot to pull the skin over enough) and/or losing grip from having to pull fairly hard however. I'll work on it next time. I'll report back then.

Had this same problem. Solution more shaving. I would definitely stick to one side of your face till you get the hang of it, and for sure try blade flat on your face raising the angle slightly til you get the right one. I got paranoid and thought it was my razor, then my stropping, then my lather, prep, etc. until I got the angle suggestion. After that its been pretty much smooth sailing. Just remember to keep your skin stretched cause this also caused skipping for me. I been shaving for a couple weeks now trust me it gets better !! hang in there!

from the boot

-T

Originally Posted by tcadien

Had this same problem. Solution more shaving. I would definitely stick to one side of your face till you get the hang of it, and for sure try blade flat on your face raising the angle slightly til you get the right one. I got paranoid and thought it was my razor, then my stropping, then my lather, prep, etc. until I got the angle suggestion. After that its been pretty much smooth sailing. Just remember to keep your skin stretched cause this also caused skipping for me. I been shaving for a couple weeks now trust me it gets better !! hang in there!

from the boot

-T

Thanks for the advice. I'm sure I'll get there with the practice and dedication.


Had my 4th shave today (skipped a couple days to let new skin form from having removed it all with the first 3 shaves). It was much better than the others. Shaved the whole face and neck. I'd say it was about as good as my previous regular electric or cartridge shaves, though the chin may have been a little iffy. So I'm gonna have to put some special attention there. Pretty much no irritation, which is wonderful. I resisted the temptation to go over spots nonstop and do 100 passes like the last couple times, which I'm sure is a big contributor there. Used VDH soap with a little glycerin added (no cream). Worked out pretty nicely. I like the VDH better than the Williams all around. Looking forward to finishing them off and getting some better stuff though. Still no major injuries, which is good. I got a few millimeter nicks on the chin, but that was about it. Styptic put it out pretty much instantly. (By the way, does the styptic usually hurt/burn on small nicks? Because it didn't for me, like at all. Post shave alum block over whole face has a nice light burn though.) Looking forward to my next shave.