Thread: Ecstatic!

Ok, I am so happy, and now I have to tell everybody how happy I am!
I just cleared up my last troublesome spot on my face. I am now stroking my first 100% BBS straight shave.
This one change I made was small, but VERY siginificant in the comfort and closeness of my neck and under my chin.

I think I posted before that the hair here lies very flat to my skin, and that shaving against the grain dug the blade into the skin and didn't cut well. I have been working on this since I started shaving, trying to get the blade sharper, trying different blades, soaps angles, everything I though of except this.

All I am doing is pulling the skin in a different direction. I didn't try this before, because I didn't think it would make any difference which direction you pull as long as there is tension, and also most of the advice I heard says pull the skin behind the razor, not in front

Before, I pulled the skin underneath my neck downwards, which now I think of it, must have retracted the hair and made it lie even closer to the skin.
Now I pull the tip of my chin up, which pops all the hairs up perpendicular to the skin, and allows the blade to glide through much more smoothly.

Ok I say this is a small change, however I do have to change my entire shaving order to do this, as I normally shave an ATG as -sides of neck, neck, cheeks, chin. Now I have to do-cheeks, sides of neck, chin, neck. This creates an interesting knock on effect with my other areas as the part of my skin I usually pull on now might have soap on it!
Aside from relearning the other areas to fit around this technique it is a relatively simple change, but I cannot believe it made such a difference.

Now I feel satisfied that my honing is fine, my stropping is fine, and my technique is fine. I was beginning to doubt all of them because of this one area, and now I know that I can do all of them perfectly well, and have been able to for ages. Strange how such a small detail can make you feel inadequate in all other areas!(oh, and don't think too deeply into that statment!)

Now I can't wait to get back to England as I have 2 Frederick Rogers and a Wade and Butcher waiting for me to try in about 3 weeks time. They will be my first proper wedges i will seriously try to use and I'm looking forward to it.

You pull from behind on the with-the-grain pass, and pull from in front on the against-the-grain pass. Sounds like you've got it figured out

Ah, If only I'd known!
I feel like when I first started and was finding all the little things that made big changes in the quality of the shave.

Originally Posted by mparker762

You pull from behind on the with-the-grain pass, and pull from in front on the against-the-grain pass. Sounds like you've got it figured out

Ok yes I like my fingers so there really is no other way....

Excellent! I think we need a little checklist for diagnosing shaving issues. If you get a good shave everywhere but one spot than stretching is a likely culprit over honing, stropping, or the razor quality.

I can imagine how, in this case, it might be easier for a barber to see stuff like this happening than for us.

It would definately be worth putting together a list of problems. It is very often that we talk about honing and stropping issues, blade angles and pressure, but I think many people starting out have other issues too. I think it is very easy to stop thinking about the shave too, and just accept the shave you get. I spent my first 3 months always thinking 'What could I be doing better to make this more comfortable/close?' After that I couldn't find the solution to this problem, so I just put up with it, assuming it was my face that was the issue. I guess I should have thought to change the stretching direction, but I had never read about this problem before on the forum, and therefore I didn't think to check it.
Is it possible to write a list of things to check or experiment with to improve the shave, after honing and stropping.
I guess the first ones on my list would be:

Stretching directions
Try different strokes
Try different combinations of passes
Different angles( I use different angles for each part of my face, it just seems to work better)
Try changing the hand/hands you use.(I use both hands, but not in a logical right hand shaves right side left hand shaves left way. Some passes are just easier with a particular hand.)

It's good to hear about your new technique and improvement on your shave. I think every guy is entitled to a relaxing shave in the mornings. It's a great start to the day and get's ya ready for anything. My job gets alittle stressful and my co-workers come dragging in, in the mornings. Meanwhile I come strolling in, stroking my face as I try to get over the BBS.
Ernest

Originally Posted by mparker762

You pull from behind on the with-the-grain pass, and pull from in front on the against-the-grain pass. Sounds like you've got it figured out

Originally Posted by RichZ

Ok yes I like my fingers so there really is no other way....

I am not sure how to interpret this?

I thbink my fingers are always behind the spine (and edge) of the razor. It doesn't matter if I am shaving WTG or ATG.

Cheers
Ivo

I am not sure about the specific case here, but if I pull up on the chin and go ATG under the chin - for me this means that I am seriously drunk and shouldn't be shaving. With my growth direction, if I want to go ATG under the chin I have to pull down around the Adam's apple. I can pull up on the chin and go WTG - downward but usually just tilting the head back and some grimacing suffice

This was my method too before I figured out this. I guess it depends on your hair growth. When pull from my adams apple, my hair lies really flat to my skin. I guess everyones grain and technique needs to be unique for each to have a good shave.

I've been getting pretty good results lately from pretty minimalist stretching. I tried shaving in sections from bottom to top ATG but going top to bottom on my cheeks and neck in bottom to top segments always felt awkward and leads to the blade running over areas where the lather has already been removed. I was having the same problem where pulling down on the bottom of the neck caused the hairs to lay flat.