Thread: The Challenge of the Upper Lip

With a personally honed honed razor, which certaily could only be marginally sharpened, but I seem to be able to shave cheeks, jowls, chins, and throat without problem or incident. Then, mustache and goatee-less, we travel to the lip area. Having traveled there with our edged weapon we proceed to mercilessly hew the geography. The bay-rum would be greatly more appreciated were it bay-novacaine.

Are there any theories or practices out there for the newly initiated to try in attempt to minimize labial blood letting? Or, how much of the red stuff can one watch flow down the drain before becoming concerned? Can anyone recommend specific brands of DIY stitch-in-time kits in case one passes the concern point?

Bruce

It would help to know what your current technique in that area is...

A few of key points (at least for me).

1) Make sure that you avoid any slicing motion with the razor.
2) Use the middle of the blade for the portion just below the septum, and the point for below the nostrils
3) Be sure to stretch the skin well. For me this involves pulling up on my noze while curling my upper lip across the teeth of my open mouth.

I find the lower lip more difficult although, yes the upper lip is quite prone to bleeding. I think half the problem is it's difficult to find anything to do with your non shaving hand. Even though you're stretching the skin over your teeth, having the other hand holding on does help to steady your shaving hand. I've tried holding my nose up wich does help. I also find that as long as I only do a single pass, I don't suffer any irritation. Any more and it starts to hurt. Thankfully, the single pass in this area gives an acceptably close shave. Perhaps that's because I tend to use greater pressure because of the odd angles.

If you can't shave the upper lip comfortably, then you can always solve the problem the way Lynn does

More seriously, the upper lip - like the lower neck - seems to be a test of your honing skills more than any special technique. That said, I shave my upper lip in two phases:

1) Shaving the sides: I use my free hand to pull the sides of my lip towards my ears, and shave from the outside in on both sides of my lip. On my face this winds up being partway against the grain... a sharp razor makes this easy, comfortable, and 1-pass BBS.

2) Shave the center: coup de maitre - under the nose and straight down.

If I do a second pass (which is rare) then the two phases of the second pass are:

1) Shave the sides: Use the free hand to stretch the same way as pass 1, but shave from the corners of the mouth diagonally up towards the top of the ears. This is a cross-grain pass for most of my upper lip. There's not a lot to shave, but it's still a tricky stroke because the stretching doesn't help you as much.

2) Shave the center: coup de maitre - under the nose and diagonally down.

I find the coup de maitre not much use unless you have a few days growth. If only one or two days, I tend to use the side approach as well.

I do also try ATG on top lip. Yes, it is VERY easy to cut yourself. I've managed to get it down so that I rarely cut my top lip going ATG, but I've found that if you do go ATG there you need to use a lighter touch than with everywhere else.

For cuts I've found Proraso Styptic Gel is excellent at staunching the flow and (once it dries to a clear plug) holding the cut together to prevent further blood loss. (If you pick the dried plug off too soon it's like knocking off a scab... blood again.)

(P.S. He said "labial", snort-snort. )

I think the real trick is to have an ultra sharp blade and a well lubricated face. If you've got these two things working for you, then it comes down to technique. You can use a very light touch and save yourself a lot of discomfort.

X

I think the sharpness of my razor must be somewhat at fault as it seemed to be brought to full stop at a particulary stout whisker. I'm going to take another whirl at giving it a touch up hone to see if I can correct that issue. The sideways approach to the lipal area (labial seems perhaps to be not shavitically correct ) is something I will save for later and sharper. Although, I have tried something akin to it, but more with the blade diagonal rather than vertical, for a cross grain pass. For some reason I want to avoid shaving my lips: call it fear; call it lack of hair; call it something that sharp seems better placed otherwhere.

In the meanwhile I'll also practice my stretching grimace as it appears that may need work too.

Bruce

Curiously, out of all my 16 razors, my wapinieca razors are the only ones that can completely clean my upper lip and leave it baby soft. With all my other razors, I may get close to perfect but not quite. Those wapis were just made perfect.
Ernest

I get a clean upper lip most shaves. One pass with the grain and then one against.