Thread: Musings of a Rookie

I have been straight shaving for a handful of months now and am slowly building my skill set and technique. I will also admit to relearning a few things that I let slide from the beginning. I use a Parker SRW (I think thats right) with Shark blades or Wilkensen Swords.

My Musings:
Pressure- This cannot be stressed enough. DO NOT APPLY PRESSURE. Let the blade touch your skin and slide it with enough pressure to remove the shave foam. You have hair left? Its ok. You have 2-3 more passes to make it smooth. You will hear the phrase "use a more decisive stroke". That does not mean use more pressure. It simply means to make sure the razor doesnt hop up on top of the stubble and glide across the top or bounce like your driving down a gravel road. Its a technique that is easy to generalize as "using more pressure", but it is more than that and takes a little more time and practice figuring out. Its about the angle of the blade and lateral force more than pressure to the skin. Just remember, dont use pressure to force the shave. That leads to my next point:

Passes- Let the razor do the work. I felt like my first pass had to be perfect and smooth. I went from good BBS shaves to irritation and bumps. I knew I was doing something wrong and I had to look at what I was doing. Use the light pressure I spoke about and shave. Just shave. If there is hair left behind its ok. You still have 1-2 more passes. Use light pressure, a steady hand, and a good angle and by pass 3 you should be smooth. There is a tendency to force the razor to be a razor. Dont. Let it do its job and it will. So lon as your blade is sharp you should be freshly shorn with very little irritation.

I have had to go back to step one and relearn techniques to get my shave experience back on par. I shaved very delicately at first out of fear and intimidation. But once I got over the fear of filleting my face I got heavy handed. Keep a light touch, a steady hand, and a sharp blade and I promise things will get better!!

I always find these posts rather helpful. I can only imagine they help those members starting off of those things we all struggle through but in time one forgets via the regularity of it all.

Thanks for taking the time..

Someone took the time to help me. Paying it forward is all.

Originally Posted by debay

I have been straight shaving for a handful of months now and am slowly building my skill set and technique. I will also admit to relearning a few things that I let slide from the beginning. I use a Parker SRW (I think thats right) with Shark blades or Wilkensen Swords.

My Musings:
Pressure- This cannot be stressed enough. DO NOT APPLY PRESSURE. Let the blade touch your skin and slide it with enough pressure to remove the shave foam. You have hair left? Its ok. You have 2-3 more passes to make it smooth. You will hear the phrase "use a more decisive stroke". That does not mean use more pressure. It simply means to make sure the razor doesnt hop up on top of the stubble and glide across the top or bounce like your driving down a gravel road. Its a technique that is easy to generalize as "using more pressure", but it is more than that and takes a little more time and practice figuring out. Its about the angle of the blade and lateral force more than pressure to the skin. Just remember, dont use pressure to force the shave. That leads to my next point:

Passes- Let the razor do the work. I felt like my first pass had to be perfect and smooth. I went from good BBS shaves to irritation and bumps. I knew I was doing something wrong and I had to look at what I was doing. Use the light pressure I spoke about and shave. Just shave. If there is hair left behind its ok. You still have 1-2 more passes. Use light pressure, a steady hand, and a good angle and by pass 3 you should be smooth. There is a tendency to force the razor to be a razor. Dont. Let it do its job and it will. So lon as your blade is sharp you should be freshly shorn with very little irritation.

I have had to go back to step one and relearn techniques to get my shave experience back on par. I shaved very delicately at first out of fear and intimidation. But once I got over the fear of filleting my face I got heavy handed. Keep a light touch, a steady hand, and a sharp blade and I promise things will get better!!

Im glad you posted this. Up until yesterday i was getting great shaves. I thought i was coming aling quickly and was getting nice BBS. Last night i seemed to have regressed a little bit. Im gonna watch my pressure next time.