Thread: Tugging and Pulling when I shave.

Hello all. I got a Dovo straight razor and noticed when I shave there is a tugging/pulling pain when I shave. I strop before I begin and I take a warm shower before I shave as well as use a hot towel. I believe the problem could be either my lathering technique, or the angle. I use Van Der Hagen Luxury Shave Soap and use a wet shave technique. My strop is a Illinois Chicago 827 Fromm Razor 2 1/2" X 23" with one side of the strop coated with a honing compound, which I use that side about once a week to get that fine microscopic edge on the razor. I am fairly certain that the angle is off and I just can't tell how off it is. Any ideas to realize how bad my angle is? Thank you.

If your razor was in fact professionally honed and is not just a factory edge then it is probably your angle/technique. Try holding your razor so that the spine is just a couple of spine widths off you face, perhaps a little less. It is something that will get better with practice and experimentation on your part. It does take quite a bit of practice to get the technique down. Most say around 90 shaves. It took me about 5 months of daily shaving before I felt really good and comfortable with my technique and could actually get the great shaves that a straight will give.

If the blade was not professionally honed then it really needs to be.

Lather is another factor that takes time and practice to get the right consistency.

Stropping also takes a lot of practice to master.

Professionally honed razor and practice, practice, practice.

It will improve and soon you will be looking forward to that next great shave.

Enjoy and don't get discouraged, we have all been through this awkward stage, too.

Odd as this may sound, do you check to see if your razor is positioned parallel to the floor for most of the areas you are shaving as well as keeping the the angle off your face at about 1-1/2 the spines width? I have experienced a similar problem and after checking the afore mentioned have eliminated the problem. That, plus making sure I am shaving the whiskers and not the skin.

I made sure when I purchased it that it would be professionally honed. Thank you for your help. I found out 2 things tonight. One, using a bowl helps SO much to getting a good lather (at least for me it does). And two, shaving with a beard is way harder than shaving with stubble.

Angle is fairly easy to figure out, start flat and just increase the distance between the spine and your skin by a couple of mm at a time until it feels right.
3 other observations would be:
- skin stretching, you don't mention it, so I will assume that you aren't doing it. You want to try where possible to stretch the skin against the grain of your beard growth, as well as trying to create as flat a plane as possible to shave, this can take a bit of practice and some unusual contortions but is fairly critical. We all do it slightly differently but as an example when I am shaving the side of my face I turn my head in the opposite direction and pull the skin up and back at around side burn height.

- lather quality and moistness, a good moist lather works well with a straight, again preferences vary but you want it not so wet that it runs off your face but not so dry that it feels gluggy.

- pastes can do more harm than good if your stropping isn't effective.

The honing compound on your linen strop, what color is it? I assume from your join date and the troubles your having that you haven't been doing this very long. If your razor was pro honed( and you can tell us who did it cause maybe not) maybe your stropping has degraded the edge that was sent to you, we all think we can strop properly in the beginning. Did you strop it before the first shave? Ok now to the prep, if you need a bowl then use it, face lathering works every bit as well also. Now as Jimmy said, you have to stretch the skin. Shave the lather is an expression to use a light touch, a properly honed razor using no pressure will shave your whiskers. Now for the light at the end of the tunnel, this way of shaving takes time to learn! Everyone thinks they have it down pat in a couple shaves , they don't and later learn they didn't. Time and practice will cure this issue , that and finding someone to hone your razor for you a couple times till you learn how to shave and strop , Good luck. Tc

Originally Posted by Poni3s

Hello all. I got a Dovo straight razor and noticed when I shave there is a tugging/pulling pain when I shave. I strop before I begin and I take a warm shower before I shave as well as use a hot towel. I believe the problem could be either my lathering technique, or the angle. I use Van Der Hagen Luxury Shave Soap and use a wet shave technique. My strop is a Illinois Chicago 827 Fromm Razor 2 1/2" X 23" with one side of the strop coated with a honing compound, which I use that side about once a week to get that fine microscopic edge on the razor. I am fairly certain that the angle is off and I just can't tell how off it is. Any ideas to realize how bad my angle is? Thank you.

You seem to have most everything on a SR kit, do you have hones, maybe think of having it honed if not.

For me the most important question is whether your razor is actually shaveready. Making sure that it is will eliminate one important variable in your troubleshooting.

It's easy to believe that simply shaving with it should be enough to tell whether the razor is up to snuff, but gauging shave-readiness by the shave test is tough when you're new to shaving with a straight. This is because acquiring basic shaving technique requires weeks/months of actual time & practice in addition to whatever information you can gather online. Starting with a razor you can trust is already shave-ready is a huge help. Send it out for pro honing if you're unsure, then go from there