Week 2 and starting to have problems.

Newbie here again.
Ok, so I'm on week 2 of straight razor shaving and have successfully shaved 5 times. The first 3 were pretty slow and very satisfying. Then I started to see a problem. I am now starting to get a pretty good case of razor burn/ingrown hairs. I am showering first, using quality soaps (Strop Shop Baker Street and Kell's Black Tea, Energy) and stropping the razor adequately. I am not using anything but quality soap. Is this a sign that I need to seek out a pre or post shave treatment? Or should I just suck it up and work on my shaving technique? I am at a point where I feel I might need to give my face a week or so to heal up but really don't want to.

I found i get ingrown hairs from shaving in the wrong direction ie. against the grain. have you mapped out your hair growth direction? as for razor burn make sure you are using enough pressure to just wipe off the lather and keep your skin stretched tight JMHO.(i found that too many passes irritates my skin as well, sometimes i just let the shave be good enough. there's always tomorrow.

I would not go as far as to say that I have "mapped out" my hair growth, but I do make a point to go with the grain entirely. I have been shaving my whole face, washing and re-lathering, then making a second pass. Probably leave it at one pass for a while. But why am I just now seeing this problem? Why not on the first 3 shaves? Am I overdoing it by shaving every other day at first?

I have no idea on the ingrown hairs, never really suffered from them fortunately. The razor burn you are getting may be due to using too much pressure on the blade and or the wrong angle. Use next to no pressure on the blade and have a gap between the spine and face of between 2 to 3 spine widths.

You could also have dulled the razor by poor stropping technique. Very few people strop a razor "adequately" in the beginning. I sure did not and dulled the razor very quickly with poor stropping at the start.

To help sooth the irritation you could use a good after shave balm such a Nivea extreme comfort.

Bob

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Originally Posted by BobH

I have no idea on the ingrown hairs, never really suffered from them fortunately. The razor burn you are getting may be due to using too much pressure on the blade and or the wrong angle. Use next to no pressure on the blade and have a gap between the spine and face of between 2 to 3 spine widths.

You could also have dulled the razor by poor stropping technique. Very few people strop a razor "adequately" in the beginning. I sure did not and dulled the razor very quickly with poor stropping at the start.

To help sooth the irritation you could use a good after shave balm such a Nivea extreme comfort.

Bob

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+1 BobH wrote my post for me...

It is all about the edge. And the better your edge the easier it is to learn - unfortunately when we are atarting out edge care is one of the skills we are trying to master.

Hang in there - Smoother shaving is around the corner...

Sounds like my razor is dulling and my stropping is incorrect. I strop 20 round trips on linen and 50 on leather before every shave. Do I need to have the razor professionally sharpened again or can I bring the edge back on the strop?

I,m in agreement with just about everything said , 5 shaves does not an experienced shaver. It takes months ,, I shave everyday, it took at least 50 shaves to have the technique right. As for stropping we all think we're doing good in the beginning, then we learn we haven't. Your description says now the shaves are irritating , good sign , blade was sharp on the first shave , now another opinion, some soaps can cause irritation, I have heard several guys who can't take tea tree oil. Maybe that's in your soap? Some guys have to use sensitive skin creams ,, I don't think your over doing, because 5 shaves in 2 weeks isn't much , also it does take time for your face to get used to it. Maybe as your confidence is growing , your being more aggressive with the blade, There are many things that can be happening, try a different soap " eliminate 1 item at a time Good luck. And also do you know your edge is as sharp as before? Tc

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Originally Posted by Straightandproud

Sounds like my razor is dulling and my stropping is incorrect. I strop 20 round trips on linen and 50 on leather before every shave. Do I need to have the razor professionally sharpened again or can I bring the edge back on the strop?

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If your razor has been dulled by incorrect stropping and not poor shaving technique then more incorrect stropping won't bring it back. OTH there is no harm in trying by increasing the number of strokes on leather to see if that helps.

Stropping like shaving needs next to no pressure on the blade.

Bob

I would bet the edge is not as shave ready as it could be

If your using a hanging strop....lay it down on a table and try stropping that way. You may be stropping with too much slack or to much pressure. This method will eliminate both of those mistakes. And strop till you drop. In other words double, your laps. I won't go into testing for sharpness because it probably won't do you any good at this point but if you follow all the advice above and it doesn't work , I suggest you find a mentor that can touch up your razor and help your stropping technique.

Cr 0x pasted on a linen strop would likely help bring it back, if it was originally shave ready. If it was not, then yes, you are going to want to have it professionally honed. Also, I would recommend finding a mentor near you. They can be very helpful, especially with things like stropping technique. One more thing I just thought of, what strop do you have? I just helped a guy I met on here, he sent me a video of his technique, which looked fine, but when we got together, it was the texture of beef jerky!

I'm with 10pups on this! Having a flat stropping surface takes some variables out of the equation: sag in the strop, twisting, missing part of the blade, etc. Also try using a slight X-stroke which will help make sure you keep the blade flat and strop the whole edge.

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Originally Posted by 10Pups

If your using a hanging strop....lay it down on a table and try stropping that way. You may be stropping with too much slack or to much pressure. This method will eliminate both of those mistakes. And strop till you drop. In other words double, your laps. I won't go into testing for sharpness because it probably won't do you any good at this point but if you follow all the advice above and it doesn't work , I suggest you find a mentor that can touch up your razor and help your stropping technique.

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I have a brand new Illinois #127. Seems very nice and supple. no abrasives added. The razor was professionally honed 5 shaves ago.

Pay close attention to your angles. I thought I was shaving correctly at first, because the beard was coming off, but I my was angle was too steep and I was "scraping" instead of "cutting" the hair. Its a huge difference, comfort wise. A little extra attention on keeping a correct angle through out your shaves could solve your issue.
Just a process of elimination, hang in there.

Good sound advice. I will work on my stropping and angles. also, I used a new soap for the first time last night. Will probably give my battered neck a few days to heal, give the razor a thorough stropping and go back to a soap I know I'm not having a problem with.

My first advice to a person with stropping problems, whether you're using a hanging strop, a paddle strop or a bench strop, think of a feather light touch as you strop. Imagery is key to physical action. You want to hear nothing or the slightest sound as you strop, that helps em-bed the feather light touch in your mind and muscle memory.

Sensitive to soap/cream ingredients are not rare. Soaps/creams are often loaded with ingredients that enhance the product but are also common irritants. The major ones that I know of are menthol, eucalyptus, Shea butter. And for some, the use of the alum block adds to the irritation level after the first sting. Also, alcohol in aftershaves is a problem for some.

Straight and proud. I live in Nampa and I could check out your razor and your stropping technique.
Send me an email address by private message if you are interested.
When I get aPM it is one letter across and a zillion lines long.
That makes a long message impossible for me to read.
Something is wrong with my computer setup?
I can loan you a razor that will shave you very smoothly and with comfort.
Of course your technique can have quite an effect on that but you should do pretty good.

Take Galaxy51 up on his offer. That's what we are here for. I still be struggling in the dark when I started if it wasn't for my Mentor (and now I are one).

Thank you Galaxy51. I will get ahold of you. Funny thing though, as the day progresses my rash has worsened. I think I'm having an allergic reaction to Strop Shop Baker st. Looks like hives now. Shure glad I payed $25. shipped to get a skin disease.

As a sensitive skin sufferer let me suggest Cetaphil skin cleanser or one of the lesser cost generic versions, found in the generally ladies section of creams and things. If it persists definitely see a dermatologist.

You said your first few shaves were very good. How smooth a result were you able to get on your first shaves?
I'm willing to bet you were stretching your skin too much, causing what was left of the shaft of hair to be further below the skin. This is a common cause of ingrown hairs.

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Originally Posted by WhiskyGsus

Pay close attention to your angles. I thought I was shaving correctly at first, because the beard was coming off, but I my was angle was too steep and I was "scraping" instead of "cutting" the hair. Its a huge difference, comfort wise. A little extra attention on keeping a correct angle through out your shaves could solve your issue.
Just a process of elimination, hang in there.

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Yes, angles and stretching are vital.

However, if your first shaves went well, I'm more inclined to go with the improper stropping technique....it is very easy at the beginning to roll the edge on your blade from incorrect stropping, and once the edge is rolled, you'll end up with the type of shaves your describing....as mentioned, take Galaxy up on the offer....proper stropping is a fundamental to straight shaving, without it, nothing works.

And don't worry, many have done exactly that...I went and visited a mentor, and he had a look at the blades I had at the time, over half had rolled edges...I had to go back and start from the beginning....slowly...speed kills!

My first 4 shaves were actually very good. used kell's soap and took my time. Nicked myself once. I believe the last one was on par with the first 4. didn't notice any more tugging or dragging than before. in fact I remember thinking that the baker st was a little slicker than the kell's. The shave felt the same and it wasn't till later that I noticed the rash coming on.

So last night I decided to get to the bottom of this stropping issue. I brought home a machinists loupe from work and took a real close look at that razor of mine. Up close it looks real good. Not bent or rolled over at all. I pulled a couple hairs and laid them over the blade and it cut them effortlessly. I'm leaning toward bad angles and a possible allergic reaction. makes me feel better about my stropping technique though.

Yep it's good that your doing well on stropping,, so really concentrate on the technique angles , and stretching now, like I mentioned before , lots of guys have allergic reactions to some ingredients ,, Good luck. Tc

I'd start a series of elimination of products used to pin down any allergic reactions you're having. Sometimes they are hard to pin down.

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Originally Posted by Straightandproud

So last night I decided to get to the bottom of this stropping issue. I brought home a machinists loupe from work and took a real close look at that razor of mine. Up close it looks real good. Not bent or rolled over at all. I pulled a couple hairs and laid them over the blade and it cut them effortlessly. I'm leaning toward bad angles and a possible allergic reaction. makes me feel better about my stropping technique though.

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The first thing I found odd about this thread was why we all went to a dull blade. A - you would have said as much were it pulling, but you didn't. And B - a dull blade can cause a bit of redness as it pulls rather than cuts, but I don't recall getting a rash because of it.

Weird?

Anyway yeah, angle and pressure is typically the reason we get burn. I got burn horribly when I started with a DE - and even more when I started using a straight. It absolutely caused me to get little whitehead type things, but they vanished rather quickly. If you are shaving every other day then...

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Originally Posted by Razorfeld

I'd start a series of elimination of products used to pin down any allergic reactions you're having. Sometimes they are hard to pin down.

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I am with Razorfeld. You'll need to focus on the product you are using.

All said and done, you'll either work out your technique before figuring out it had nothing to do with the product - or you'll discover that some products just don't work for you. And note this - product can irritate after having used it for some time.

I have used a product that was awesome only to discover that upon prolonged use (after shaving with it for more than 3 days in a row), it begins to irritate.

Good luck!!

It's well worth the trouble to learn this correctly. Thanks to all that chimed in on this. I will get this figured out and stick with it.

Well here is the update. This last week has been a breakthrough for me. I have figured out that I am not having an allergic reaction, just bad technique. I have concentrated on taking my time and controlling my blade angle to a hell of an improvement. I might have given up like many before me were it not for the help I have received in this post. You guys are "GREAT". Now I need to learn about the world of post shave treatment as I am feeling a little chapped using only shaving soap and no after shave. the learning curve continues.

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Originally Posted by Straightandproud

Well here is the update. This last week has been a breakthrough for me. I have figured out that I am not having an allergic reaction, just bad technique. I have concentrated on taking my time and controlling my blade angle to a hell of an improvement. I might have given up like many before me were it not for the help I have received in this post. You guys are "GREAT". Now I need to learn about the world of post shave treatment as I am feeling a little chapped using only shaving soap and no after shave. the learning curve continues.

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That's great news!

As for after shave(s)... brother, there is a big world out there for you :).

Personally, I use my alum block after each shave. Wipe that off with a very moist facecloth and then apply the aftershave of the day.

In my world, balms are awesome and very soothing for me. I use them the majority of the time. In the summer I find they have a tendency to bog down and feel a little heavy - in which case a splash rules the day.

But all said and done, I have never become too particular to any one type of aftershave too quickly. They all have their things. The good ones will really make your face feel great... and if my wife is to be believed, add some sheen. LOL