Thread: Impatient here again!

Right...here we go....
I'm still a novice and I'm still learning, I know but I get seriously BBS shaves, the best I've ever known, even to the point my neck has very little left on it, and my right cheek, as that grows in 2 directions! With 3 passes! Even though I dig in at one point on my face all the time!
My trouble is I get serious burn afterwards, my skin is tight on my cheeks, not so much on my neck, even though using cartridge before it was my neck that suffered!
I use pre-shave, AS balm, I can't shave the following day, I have to leave it for 2 days before I go back and play again!
I understand the 30 degree bit and almost flat on the neck, but should I lay the blade down a bit more on the main areas like the neck, will that change things, or will I dicing for a slicing?

Appreciate the help!

Mart

Whenever my skin has that tight feeling, it's almost always a lather issue. I've only had bad irritation when using a new soap, and I didn't have it "dialed in" yet.

When you say it's a lather issue...in what sense?
I use MWF, I think I lather up well, very smooth and creamy, I've just bought a tube of Palmolive which I'll give a go tomorrow

Razor burn is almost always caused by pressure and/or steep angle. Micro chipping will also cause irritation. Mess around with your technique a bit - very little pressure and shallow angle - and if that doesn't help much you may want to examine your edge.

Many thanks! I'll try to sort the angle out! As sad as it sounds...I like the feeling because it feels smooth with out touching it!

+1 on Ryan82's advice...

I know during my first 10 or so shaves, I was getting great results. One day, going ATG on my neck gave me BAD razor burn. To solve this, I did several things:

1. Gave the burn time to heal COMPLETELY- If you must shave, for work, etc., only do as many passes as it takes to get a passable shave so that you lessen any further irritation.
2. REEEEALLY focus on pressure and angle- I did this and saw a DRAMATIC improvement in my results, though I still had a slight bit of irritation.
3. Focus on your edge- For me, I determined my stropping wasn't up to par, but it was close. I could shave, but not comfortably. I re-evaluated my stropping, again focusing hard and taking my time, and got even better results, though not completely hitting my goal.
4. Examine your prep/post shave- This one may take several shaves to figure out. For me, it took using the same face cleansing soap, the same hot shower, the same shave soap, the same brush, same aftershave, etc. before I finally singled out the cause of my irritation (slightly dry lather). In using the same elements over and over, I could vary only a single one and see if my results changed. In my case, I got to using a different soap and got perfect results. This told me that either my face didn't like the soap any longer, or I wasn't getting enough water in my lather. I tried adding more water first, and bam! problem solved. I've since changed other variables from that formula and had mostly good results, though a few of them weren't. It has allowed me to really personalize my shave.

Just keep at it and change one thing at a time... you'll get there!

Consider the advice above...all of it. But specifically, you may want to evaluate the edge. For me, a good shave will be a balance between the aggressiveness of the edge vs. the number of passes required to get it all. If you push the edge too far with certain hones or pastes, you may end up with a very sharp edge that is very harsh. On the other hand, if you are not sharp enough, you end up compensating with more pressure or more passes. Another thing to consider is how effective your passes are. The general consensus is that you should do a WTG, XTG, and ATG routine. In most places on my face/neck this is fine. But there are other places on my neck that require ATG passes from either the start or in my second pass. If I don't, the passes Im making are not efficient and I'm running the risk of getting a good burn because I'll require a lot more of the blade to get it all. If you're new to this, don't fret. For the short term, accept sub par shaves. You'll get where you need to be, some with the helpful advice you get here and some on your own. Also, if you don't have one, try picking up an old Sheffield wedge. I find I get the best and smoothest shaves from them.

Thanks for the advice to you all! Much appreciated!

Marth this will sound a little crazy, When I started I had the same problem. The above advice is spot on. The one thing I did to cut my passes down was I had my wife take a picture of my face. I printed that picture and as I watched TV one night. I ran my hand on my face and sketched the direction of the hair growth on the picture. I taped that picture to the mirror and followed the pattern with WTG XTG & ATG I cut my time by 1/3 and the Razor Burn to next to nothing by not going over the same area in a useless direction repeated times. I don't know if this will help but it worked for me.