Thread: Under pressure

This morning I woke up and discovered that I was an hour behind since I had forgotten to set the alarm clock, but I was determined to get a decent shave in anyway.

I had just recently switched to using a dbl duck that a friend had let me borrow until I get my Robuso from classic shaving. I was getting the typical newbie shave that wasn’t that close and occasional razor burn. So to get closer, I had decided to attempt going ATG after two passes WTG, and it burnt me up with some serious skin irritation. I went back to shaving WTG only until my face recovered.

After a few days of going WTG and to the side, my face finally got back to normal, but I was still having minor burning and not a close shave at all. So I took some time to evaluate what I was doing wrong. I felt good about the angle, the razor was fantastic, the soap was good (Dr. Harris), plenty of water, etc.., and then it dawned on me; it was the pressure. I would be really careful and light during stropping, but my hands were so used to using modern razors so that when I was shaving, I was pressing down too hard.

So after a week in Ohio for business, I was finally going home to my wife and I wanted to have a really good shave. So this morning I used a really light touch WTG and it felt great. After two passes WTG, I decided to attempt another ATG shave using that same light touch. Wow, what a difference. I got a great shave with no burning. So for me, it was all about the pressure.

It's been said before on this forum, that the first few passes are to "just reduce hair". It's a mental attitude. When I first started str8 razor shaving, I was pushing the razor too much on the first pass; trying to get it all in one pass . Once I realized that the first couple of passes was just to reduce the hair and to get to that last pass (2nd or 3rd), what a difference. Once the reducing is done, the next pass becomes so much easier.

Yes, it is definately a learning curve.

Good luck

Steve