Thread: Razor burn.

The only thing that will fully eliminate razor burns from a Mock3, is to throw that multy-blade plastic doohickey away.

Razor burn was one of the most counter-intuitave parts involved in str8 shaving, for me. I believed that razor burn was a function of the number of passes, since for every pass with the new cartridges equals 3 or 4 passes. Once my initiation was over(what I call the burn everyone gets for the first week until our faces or legs adapt), I found myself trying to make the least amount of strokes and just leaving whatever stubble was left to the next shave. As I have progressed I have found that pressure, mapping and stretching had more to do with it and if you do these right razor burn will be a thing of the past, even with 3, 5 or ten passes. It took me about 20 shaves to get to the point that I can do a shave with zero irritation, that is unless I get in a hurry and forget about one, or more, of the steps to a great shave. In my experience with a lot of things in life I have found that shortcuts are possible, str8 shaving is not one of those, imo, but then again str8s arent about quanity, but quality. A shave ready razor, proper stropping, good pre-shave prep, mapping, stretching, proper pressure and angle are all needed for a clean, comfortable shave, oh and I almost forgot TIME. Have fun and good luck.

If you have good tools, you need to let the tools do the work. If you feel the blade touch your skin, then you're not letting the tool do the work and you'll get burned. You're not shaving; you're scraping, and scraping is not good.

So let me ask you guys this. When I used my mach3 or electric my face would feel ok, but then at the end of the day and for the next day or so my face would hurt. Is that the same as razor burn? If I went ATG with my mach3 then not only would my face be in agony, but id get ingrowns.

If I read correctly, you said you always had trouble with razor burn, even prior to using a straight razor. In that case, Prep, prep, and more prep. Check your angle, make sure your blade is shave ready. Make sure you shower first, if not, Use a hot towel. Make or buy some pre shave oil. There all pretty good. I like Castle Forbes, it's the only one that's not an oil, so it doesn't seperate with water.
Once you've done your prep and apply the shave cream, put a hot towel over your face with the Shave cream. Let it sit for at least 30 seconds, remove and reapply the cream.

There are lot's of AS Balms out there. There are two that are especially suited for your condition:

Taylor of Old Bond St. Sandalwood Luxury Aftershave Gel and
Speick Men Intensiv Creme\

These are high end, (expensive) but when you use them, you'll know where the extra money went. There are many other AS Balms out there. Coral Skin Food, Speick, Nivea,
Castle Forbes 1805, one of my favorties...

The first two I mentioned are thick, like Vaseline almost....The TOBS is Alcohol free and has Witch Hazel in it....