Dont' have to trim facial hair before shaving it? Hmmm.

So that what I'd read someplace: that you needn't trim facial hair necessarily before you shave it off with a straight razor. So... I tried it out today.

1. Hot water face wash.
2. Use shave cream to wash, let sit, hot towel to remove.
3. Whip up lather in bowl and re-lather face.
4. Shave off goatee.

AND IT WORKED!

Now... this was my first time using my straight razor on my chin (had a goatee up until today). Hair removal went pretty well. But the skin under there hadn't been shaved in... oh... 3 years? I didn't get any nicks or cuts, but the skin was abraded and bled a little bit anyway (same thing happens with my cartridge razors after so long a break from chin-shaving). And my chin is VERY red now... irritated looking. So it worked, but I wouldn't dare to try this on my upper lip yet. Hence... the current wearing of a stache. LOL

So all in all, I'm gettin' the hang of the straight razor! Definitely slow-going. But I think I'm getting there!

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yeah, thats one of the things i like about a straight razor.. you can do a full pass before rinsing the blade.. and you can shave off a full beard if you want.. some times a hair will get in front of the cutting endge and will need to be wiped or rinsed off, but it is still easier than unclogging a cartridge razor.

It really doesn't matter how long facial hair is when you shave. The blade only cuts one part of the whisker and doesn't much care about how long the rest of it is.

Really looking forward to this advantage, but I will be using a trimmer until I have gained some skill first.

The irritation is normal if sections of skin haven't been shaved in awhile, especially years :). It will probably be tender for a couple days. If possible try to let it heal for at least a day or two.

Other than the redness it sounds like it went really well. It's fun to take the whiskers off without trimming, isn't it?

Even if it hasn't been shaved in who knows how long, there still shouldn't have been any nicks and cuts or major abrasion. Either the blade needed a bit of work OTH or (and in any case it's a good idea) an additional prep step somewhere b/w steps 1 and 3 would have been useful as water is less likely to penetrate and soften a huge bunch of hair:

- Shower; rub some of the wife's conditioner in there and let it sit while soaping up

I do that every time I let a section of my facial hair grow more than a week

I removed my handlebar moustache in 4 strokes earlier this month. Won a bet with my wife. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xman

I removed my handlebar moustache in 4 strokes earlier this month. Won a bet with my wife. :D

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Chilenas have a sick and twisted sense of humor as I found out on my own skin :D

I find waiting 3 days if you have sensitive skin helps the blade glide..instead of "scrape"..also having a very coarse beard helps to let it grown in as well..keeping skin taught everywhere the razor goes helps as well..nice stash!