I have always had extremely sensitive skin, which always made comfortable shaving an issue.

The last two weeks I was away on vacation and wanted to travel light, so I used only safety razors. When I came back I immediately went to my str8s and took a shave with one and it was great. Last night, I shaved with a str8 razor I had just received shave ready from one of our honemeisters. It was perfectly sharp, but something felt wrong; my skin felt raw. I couldn't understand why I was doing everything the same as the night before. But I finished the last pass with a DE.

This morning my skin is somewhat sore. I happened to be at a dermatologist's office, and he took one look at my face and asked what had happened. He said I had a skin condition (permanent) call rosacia (?) and the str8 shave had irritated it. He gave me a prescription for a balm.

I asked if this kind of shaving was a problem and he said it could happen again. I've been a wet shaver for over 40 years without something like this happening. For now, I need to lay off the str8s until my skin clears. Then I'll try again. If nothing happens the first day, I may just have to not str8 shave two days in a row. I still need to shave every day. I don't know why it happened now. I've done str8 shaving more than two days in a row before with no problem.