Thread: I can't get a proper shave with a straight

Hang in there, it takes time. Been SR shaving for less then a year and it took me quite a while to get a clean chin ( still don't occasionally ) and just started successfully doing ATG.
For irritation, work on good preshave prep and watch your touch on the razor! VERY light pressure is all that's needed. Find a good post shave balm, I recently got L'Occitane and it is awesome and soothing.

Best of luck on your learning process, it's worth it!

I've just started also, I have discovered I have to change the angle of the blade when doing the chin area, I almost go to about 45 degrees when doing the front part of my chin and under it. The neck area is about a 30 degree angle.

I had shaved for a lot of years, well 40 years, before I tried to learn how to shave with a straight razor. I considered myself pretty proficient with a DE already but it did not help me too much with a SR. Learning to get a decent shave with a SR as in not using a DE to finish can take months to get to that point. People just do not believe that the learning curve is long and steep compared to shaving with a DE. As others have said, just be patient and don't push things. You will get there in your own good time.

Once you get the hang of shaving with a SR I think you will find that your shaves with a DE will improve too, at least mine did. By that I mean before learning to shave with a SR using an aggressive DE like the Muhle R41 or Fatip was not pleasant but now it is.

Bob

It takes a lot of time to get it right just go slow and eventually it will get there!

Two weeks? Then be happy your still trying, some give up quicker than that, if quitting is the kind of thing you do, nothing comes quickly that is worthwhile, I got forty years I. A career to get to retirement, see where I,m going? First time popping a wheelie On your Huffy wasn't your best one either, your now about 80 shaves from getting good, all the prep ain't going to help inexperience, and that takes time, I like Bob shaved with a DE for over 40 years and it still took me a few months to get good at it, first month though was my stupid self not having a shave ready edge,man after that it starting going good , so hang in there and a few months from now you.ll be saying the same thing to the new guys. Tc

I would say that you need more practice, generally somewhere around the 100 shave mark and it will have come together, by my calculations you would have had around 14 tops unless you shave more than once a day.

There are a great many individual components to a good SR shave.
It might be helpful to consider each rather than just wanting
an overall better shave.
Razor prep, face prep, lathering, skin stretching, blade angle, blade pressure, pass directions, pass order, post-shave rinsing, alum/astringents, and post-shave skin products.

Sometimes..... one's expectations of a straight razor shave is that it should be as good or better than a DE shave, and in reality, it may not be the case.

I am one of those gents who cannot get as close a shave with a straight as I can with a DE. I also cannot get ingrown hairs like I can with a DE.

Some of us HAVE TO accept that our skills will not equal the ability of the DE razor in day to day shaving. I for one have dropped the 3 pass shave in preference for the 2 pass straight razor shave, not because it's just as close *everywhere* but because it is more than good enough, and I don't enjoy ingrown hairs. The main reason I cannot shave as close with a straight is that my left hand, does not work as well as my right hand, in shaving... I have tried to do the necessary strokes with my right hand on the left side of my face, but the direction my beard grows (spiral nebula style) on my left cheek prevents me from fully shaving bbs it two spots, but the rest of my face is.

Straight shaving is about you developing the skills to do the job. DE safety razors take much of the skill out of the equation, and while not as dumbed down as the current multiblade monstrosities, it too required some skill to be sucessful. The straight razor is as capable as any other razor in shaving close, it's the person who wields the razor who is responsible for how well it shaves. It takes time to learn how to do it right, sometimes you may well need to learn to use your off hand, and sometimes the learning curve is just too much, or you just don't care, in which case the DE, or even the Mach 4, or whatever they are called, may well be for you. King Camp Gillette made a fortune on DE blades and razors as many a gent back in the day, just did not want to "practice the art" of straight razor shaving, or spend the money on hones and learning how to hone their razors.

I worked in a public facing field where clean shaven was a requirment. A straight shave was more than adequate, nobody would reach out to see if they could feel a slight amount of stubble in some portion of my face. The lady I courted and later married was not impressed with razor burn, anymore that I was, and she much preferred a tiny amount of stubble in one or two sections.

It takes time to develop the skills, something that has been lost in this modern day. When I entered Machine and Mechanics school in the 70s in Norway, I was presented with a canvas tool bag with 6 files, two chisels, one hammer and a hacksaw. I was told if I needed anything else, I would have to make it with the tools I was issued. I spent 20 hrs per week for 6 months filing by hand, before I was allowed to touch any machine or power tool. It was a lesson worth learning, because it eliminated the excuse that just because I don't have a part, or a machine shop at my disposal, I cannot repair something.

Straight shaving has been done for a looong time, but you have to want to do it. If you do, keep at it and I guarantee, you WILL learn to do it well.

Regards

Christian

If your razor is shave ready then my friend it is your technique. Not to worry this can be fixed. The reason everyone tells you it should work itself out by the 100th shave is it takes that much trial and error before you find your groove. If the way you shave with a straight doesn't work then try another way. There is no universal way to shave with a straight but with a strong desire and will, you can learn your way. On the way have fun and enjoy all the successes.

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

It takes time to develop the skills, something that has been lost in this modern day. When I entered Machine and Mechanics school in the 70s in Norway, I was presented with a canvas tool bag with 6 files, two chisels, one hammer and a hacksaw. I was told if I needed anything else, I would have to make it with the tools I was issued. I spent 20 hrs per week for 6 months filing by hand, before I was allowed to touch any machine or power tool. It was a lesson worth learning, because it eliminated the excuse that just because I don't have a part, or a machine shop at my disposal, I cannot repair something.

Christian

I don't think you could find better tradesman than those who apprenticed that way.

Bob