Thread: Hello and a question

I came across SRP a couple months ago when I was looking into straight razor shaving to get away from the cartridge razors. Great site and very helpful.

Based on my review of information here, I bought a Dovo 5/8 from Vintage Blades, a strop, and Lynn's video.

I followed his recommendations on the video and have been shaving more and more of my face over the last month or so.

However, I have a problem. I am doing pretty well shaving with the grain over most of my face, but I occasionally have a problem getting all the hair in my lower neck area. The real problem though is getting my face smooth running my hand against the grain.

I run my hand down my face after a couple of passes and its smooth (and I can tell it is doing a much better cut than my cartridge razor), but it is still "sandpapery" against the grain. I have not had much success even getting the blade to run smooth against the grain and when I have continued to try, I end up cutting up my face and STILL not getting a completely smooth shave.

I just finished going with the grain today and used my cartridge razor to finish going against to get my face completely smooth, which went much smoother than it usually does as the straight razor really does such a better job with the grain.

Any recommendations for what I'm doing wrong?

I was using the Jack Black Supreme Cream I had from my cartridge days until recently when I ran out. I tried to find one of the recommended brands from this site in a store, but I had to settle for the moment. I'm thinking of just ordering some recommend shaving soap cream off the Internet. Any chance that will solve my problem?

Would using a pre-shave oil/cream accomplish anything? I'm still not entirely sure what these do or how to use them. Sometimes I see mention of mixing it with a cream and, sometimes putting it on before a shave, and a few times using it instead of a cream. Is that right?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

I use either SRD Lime soap or Castle and Forbes Lime Cream. I start by dropping my tube of Lansinoh breast feeding lotion (100% medical grade lanolin, you can find it in the grocery store) into a mug of hot water to melt it. I then go to strop my razor. When I'm finished stropping the Lansinoh is the consistency of thick motor oil. I put about a teaspoon into my scuttle and start mixing with my brush loaded with soap / cream. It quickly becomes a great lather. I rinse my face with hot water and apply the lather. Wait maybe a minute and have at it. I find the lanolin softens up my face and creates a slick surface for the razor. It's awesome. I can't take credit for the Lansinoh though. SkinnyChef here on the forum posted his routine a couple of weeks ago and that's where I got the Lanolin idea.
The soap / cream is really only 10% the battle. It's all about the blade angle. Put the blade flat against your face and start your stroke. Lift the spine as you go, increasing the angle of the blade until you hear the sound of "buttered toast". Back off a little. It should be around 30°. As a beginner myself you're absolutely right, ATG passes flat out sucked. But with a little practice and patience, you'll get it. I discovered that once I found my angle, use very little pressure. Another member here said "...move the razor across your face as if you were brushing a woman's face with a feather." This way your less likely to pull at the hairs and from there you can slightly increase pressure if necessary. I hope this helps from one new guy to another. Good Luck

-Alex Rankin

sounds to me like you are doing great.

ATG is pretty tough in the beginning.
In fact, I would advice you to actually drop that for now.
Instead, try to really get a feel for how your whiskers grow, and when you have a pretty good picture of that, then start to do an XTG (across the grain) pass after your initial WTG.
chances are you will get a noticeably closer shave, without the hardship of the atg.

In fact, I usually do one wtg, and two opposite xtg's and the result is a fine and smooth shave with absolutely no irritation or nicks.

keep up the good work, you'll get there

I do the same as birnando with a mix of WTG and XTG passes and no ATG.

I find the ATG pass really irritates my skin so I leave that one out...!

+1 to what's been mentioned. I'm definitely going to look into the lanolin business...we'll probably have some around soon (little one expected in...good Lord, just a month). That's the first I've heard of mixing lanolin with soap, but I've used it on other leather products, buy go-jo with lanolin for cleaning my hands after working on cars/trucks...I know what it does for my hands compared to other "gentle" soaps, but don't know if I would have ever thought to try it on my face. Thanks for sharing Alex!

Jim