Cutting myself more with de then straight

Hi all,

i am new to both safety and straight. I have been using the straight for about two weeks and getting the hang of it. i am sure i will get better w every shave but not cutting myself that bad and doing three passes pretty well even though it takes me a long time. Anyway, I recently purchased a safety. Parker 94r. It has a short handle but very heavy. I am using very little pressure but still getting nicked particularly under my bottom lip, and neck. I would love some advise from someone with more experience.

As always, thanks in advance for any and all help

I have never used a Parker, but the head on it looks like the EJ 89. This is probably a moderately aggressive razor. The blade gap is significant so angle is very important. Also, you should stretch the skin of the area you are shaving so the skin won't present an uneven surface to the blade. You should not use very little pressure, you should be using no pressure. You don't mention the blade you're using. All razor and blade combinations are unique. It takes some experimentation to find the combo best for you. If your blade is not sharp enough there will be a tendency to press the razor against the skin. This causes cuts and razor burn.

Get a sample pack of blades. Find what works best for you. You don't mention if you have smooth skin or if you have acne, scar tissue, moles, etc.. If you have uneven terrain to navigate, razors of the style of your Parker may not work for you. The Merkur open comb razors are one of my favorites, also, the Merkur Progress. It's adjustable so you can start very mild and see what size gap suits you.

Finally, sometimes a DE doesn't get the respect of a straight. This is a mistake. The DE is not a cartridge razor. It is a single blade razor and needs to be used carefully. Start with small strokes, an inch or so, no pressure and skin stretching. Just like the straight, it needs good prep, lather and technique. I use both straights and DEs and enjoy them both. Good luck. :)

Thanks for the reply!

One thing I need help with is the angle I get it on straight but not so much on the Parker.

I have had the same problem and the truth is that cutting yourself is natural. Since you are new to both de and sr razors I assume that you haven't got the the hang of them yet. Using the straight for two weeks means that you are practising on straight razor technique and and your hands are getting used to that technique, switching to a de means that your hands have to adopt another technique since you have not been an experienced de user. If you shave for two straight weeks with the de you are definetely going to see an improvement to your shaves but then you might have the shame problem with the straight. So my advice is to first master one of the two techniques and then move on to the other.

Yea makes sense. I got the DE because of the time it takes to shave with the straight. It does give a great shave though.

Try to imagine the blade in the razor being almost parallel to the skin. That is the angle you want. If the head angle is perpendicular to the skin, you will scrape lather and not cut anything. If it is too steep, you will scrape the skin and and get cuts and razor burn. One technique to find the angle is to put the head perpendicular to the skin and then lower the angle slowly, using small strokes, until you feel the blade cutting. You develop muscle memory for the correct angle eventually, just like a straight.

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Originally Posted by pbsd

Hi all,

i am new to both safety and straight. I have been using the straight for about two weeks and getting the hang of it. i am sure i will get better w every shave but not cutting myself that bad and doing three passes pretty well even though it takes me a long time. Anyway, I recently purchased a safety. Parker 94r. It has a short handle but very heavy. I am using very little pressure but still getting nicked particularly under my bottom lip, and neck. I would love some advise from someone with more experience.

As always, thanks in advance for any and all help

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Does the razor blade sit parallel to the safety bar below it? My first razor (a Parker 91R) did not and it was defective. I got a replacement and got a perfect shave.

One of the first things I learned is that it isn't always your fault.

Hi,

I had the same problem when I switched from straight to double edge razor. I used to shave my neck against the grain, with my straight almost flat against my skin. It worked for me, because I gave it less chances to dig in the skin. The difference which makes the same technique impossible to apply to DE, is that the blades you put in a DE are flexible. For that reason, at any obstacle, it may dig in, and cut. What I happened to find a week ago, after thinking neck ATG was just beyond my skills, is that the most perpendicular the blade is to my skin, the better results I get. The reason is, if you start perpendicular, you chose how much of the blade to expose, and I chose to expose as little as necessary to get hair off with each pass. However the angle is important, it is the blade exposure that prevails, for me, with DE's. If the blade finds an obstacle, with this technique, instead of bending into the skin, it bends and soon finds itself behind the guard because it was so little beyond it.

I don't know if that makes sense, let me know if I can clarify things for you. I have been getting very good to great shaves for a week with that technique.

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Originally Posted by Magikflea

Hi,

I had the same problem when I switched from straight to double edge razor. I used to shave my neck against the grain, with my straight almost flat against my skin. It worked for me, because I gave it less chances to dig in the skin. The difference which makes the same technique impossible to apply to DE, is that the blades you put in a DE are flexible. For that reason, at any obstacle, it may dig in, and cut. What I happened to find a week ago, after thinking neck ATG was just beyond my skills, is that the most perpendicular the blade is to my skin, the better results I get. The reason is, if you start perpendicular, you chose how much of the blade to expose, and I chose to expose as little as necessary to get hair off with each pass. However the angle is important, it is the blade exposure that prevails, for me, with DE's. If the blade finds an obstacle, with this technique, instead of bending into the skin, it bends and soon finds itself behind the guard because it was so little beyond it.

I don't know if that makes sense, let me know if I can clarify things for you. I have been getting very good to great shaves for a week with that technique.

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Ok so I think I need some clarification on this. What I have been doing is holding the razor head flat on my skin until I start to feel the blade then with no pressure shave. I don't really have a problem until like you mentioned above it hits an obstacle. Like the piece of skin next to my lip and the lines on my neck.

I have found a mild OC head (Merkur, Old Type) handles uneven surfaces better than an SB razor with a significant blade gap. The Feather AS has little gap at all, the iKon OSS head is a bit more efficient on the SB side and still mild while the OC side is more efficient still, but also handles obstacles well. The bigger the SB blade gap, the harder it is to handle obstacles or uneven terrain . Something to think about.

Yep, that's what I did as well assuming the closer the angle, the less aggressiveness aka irritations. The thing is, if the blade comes to encounter the lines of the neck as you say, and bends, it cuts the skin. I do with as open an angle as possible. Allowing very little blade to enter in contact with my skin, if at all (against the grain, the hair will come before you need to enter in contact with the skin). With a second pass against the grain (third pass, the first being with the grain), you can get to have the blade touch the skin : the hair will be short enough not to drag the edge down.

Also, I forgot to mention, but one thing that has greatly improved my shaves, is the "j-hook" as people call it. Especially on the trouble spots, it works like magic!