Originally Posted by
Razorfeld
Since it was only your 12th shave these questions and comments.
1. Did you strop the freshly pro honed razor before using? If you did you affected the edge quality because there is no need to do so before the first shave off a fresh edge.
2. Did you use a lot of pressure on the blade while shaving? Rule of thumb is old saying, "Shave the lather, not the beard."
3. Did you stretch your skin in various areas to increase the beard standing up? Not stretching the skin leaves it open to what I call 'plowing'.
4. Are you sure you are not allergic to some of the products in the soaps/creams that you use. A number of shavers are reactive to common products such as menthol, Shea butter, some fragrances, etc.
5. And finally, cold water/lukewarm water shaving has been the historical method since in home hot water is a recent development. Generally a cold water shave keeps things on a tighter level and a cold water rinse often will close up little weepers effectively.
Achieving an effective shave takes time. Generally several months of shaving produces slow progress toward an acceptable and satisfying shave. Take your time, don't rush, check your shaving angle frequently, make sure you have a good, rich lather. Strange image in my mind when I started out was the old saying, "Rome wasn't built in a day". Each day I shaved I saw myself as a Roman slave laying one stone a day traveling from the sticks towards Rome and hoping it was just over the hill.