Hello from SW Florida

Hello all,

I've been lurking for a month or 2 now and figured I'd drop a line and say hello. I don't remember exactly what brought me to this point where I'm shaving with a straight or sometimes with a DE but I know it had to do with the cost of carts and wanting a cheaper option. I was joking with my wife about it while we were shopping in our local CVS one night when I saw the double edge blades and got frustrated as hell when I couldn't find a razor on the rack that went with them. I did however find a brush and soap kit (VDH) that I bought for a few bucks and then the internet searches for proper care and use brought me to some sites including this one.

I started with a DE in March of this year and moved to a straight in late april. I enjoy both although I do seem to have a problem with razor burn especially with the straight. I'm thinking that it might mainly be due to the fact that even though I should I don't tend to shave every day.

I don't tend to make or set goals on new years like most people do but the last few years I've been in the habit of setting new goals for myself on my birthday, which is later this week, so I think my goal this year will be to try shaving with my straight every day for a month to see if that 1)helps improve my technique (even though I'm pretty good about not nicking myself already) and 2) to see if shaving like I did when I was in the corps(daily) will help cut down on the razor burn irritation I seem to be suffering from lately.

Anyways just wanted to say hello and if anyone has any suggestions for cutting down on irritation that would be nice. For those that will ask my prep right now is typically:

Shower and face scrub with nuetrogena preshave facial cleanser
work a few drops of pre-shave oil on my face and scalp(I'm a head shaver too)
lather up and leave on face for a few minutes to let lather work into my whiskers
re-lather as needed and proceed to shave
mostly going WTG right now except on my neck where going up seems to be the only direction I can really go.

3 passes with a re lather on face and neck each time. I still use my mach 3 for most of my head shaving though, but with palm stropping I'm proud to say that I just replaced the blade that I've been using since February the other day which was a nice cost savings to see since my habit of once or twice a week shaving would typically destroy a mach 3 blade for me so I'd go through 4 in a month normally.

welcome aboard neighbor

Welcome to SRP. I always ask this with razor burn, is your razor shave ready? Sometimes sharp is not good enough. Quite often too much pressure or incorrect angle on the blade is responsible for razor burn. Check out the Wiki, heaps of great info there.
Hope things improve soon.

Stu

Welcome to SRP!

Razor is definately shave ready...I ordered it from whipped dog for the price and the fact that he ships all his razors shave ready. Pressure might be an issue since I'm still not back in the habit of shaving daily yet.

Also check your blade angle, sometimes if your blade angle is too high this can also cause irritation. Check the wiki, this will give you an idea on the angles.


http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...ht_razor_shave