Thread: Revelation

After reading a mountain of information on straight razor shaving and reading the multiple replies to my introduction I thought "this can't be as difficult as everyone makes it out to be." I was wrong. Not that it is a bad thing to be wrong. I always say that admitting you are wrong makes you a fantastic learner (note that I only say that directly after discovering that I am wrong about something). I started with only the right side of my face as I was advised and the results were not fantastic. So I relathered and tried again with the same results, so I relathered and finished with my disposable. I pondered my less than satisfactory shave and realised after reading all the posts about bad shaves as the result of too steap an angle I may have been using too shallow an angle. So I tried again this morning with a steaper angle and SUCCESS! I am comletely addicted. I still have not moved on to my left side, but figure I have plenty of time and want to do this right. Thanks to all of you for your advice. This truly is a developed skill/artform wich I look forward to (over a lot of time) mastering. I'm sure as I move forward I will have many more questions, so thanks again in advance for all of your help.

Congratulation of the improvement, angle is the key and it only gets better from there!

Make sure you pull you skin, you use a good lather and it will take no time!

I think the angle problem is corrected quickly, the learning curve is self directed. Either it shaves well or it doesn't.

'Great attitude about learning. Hang on to it - it will stand you well.

Absent any need for humility, I ignored the counsel to learn the shave first and jumped right into honing. Sub-standard edges and a flexible full hollow were not a good recipe for me - and like yourself, the culprit was blade angle. My stubble changes from avg thickness to med heavy at about the mouth line. The hollow would mow above the mouth well. When it hit the heavy stuff, it just stopped. I was trying to rigidly maintain the recommended 30 deg angle for WTG. Unlike yourself, I had to drop the angle to keep going, but there was about a 6wk period I couldn't use the flexible blade. So this slow learner finally 'got it' on how important that angle is.
Obviously, this won't be your last learning experience (or mine), but it does sound likely that you're headed for alot of success and joy w/ your shaves. 'Glad for this and all the other learning steps that give the joy.

One thing I have found; after quite a while of using the wider angle, you may find yourself moving back to a shallower angle. Wait until you start getting things down fairly well and you might find that playing with the angle again can be beneficial.

I really appreciate your post here. It is a great way to approach this and every learning experience.