Thread: touch up passes, techniques, oils?

Originally Posted by booga

Olive oil + mug soap works well for me but I have a different problem. I've been making a 2nd pass against the grain for the ultimate closeness. However, this irritates my skin & I am more apt to draw blood during this step. The most problematic area is my jawline. My hairs seem to grow horizontally here, so to go against the grain I need to drag the razor horizontally from ear to chin. I watched Lynn's video & notice that he doesn't do this step at all. Is back-cutting problematic for everybody, or is my technique at fault? I may just stop doing it & accept a less close shave. I have no trouble & don't draw blood with the forward cut.

I have the same exact growth pattern and the same problem. I can go forward on the jaw and just under it by pulling the skin onto the jaw, but just below that is impossible and nobody has ever been able to show me a way to do that.

I do a 3 pass shave: down, forward and up. The first two passes are non-aggressive (I don't try to cut down to skin and don't worry about what I'm leaving on my face, as long as I'm down to a light stubble by the third pass). On my neck, on the second pass, I go hold the blade on an angle to the jawline and shave down and forward. The blade is pointing down and I shave with the heel, which allows me themost forward movement I can get. The tip is hanging ou in midair. I do the same thing on the neck in the last pass. To avoid irritation, I need to stretch the skin there totally flat.

If you're getting neck irritation, you may be picking it up on the first pass if you're aggressive. You may not feel it yet at that point, but it accumulates, and after the first pass you're well on your way. For most guys, the grain on the cheecks is down, but it reverses on the neck below the jaw. That means an aggressive down pass on the neck is actually going against the grain. Check the grain on you're neck and see if it applies to you. If so, and you want to shave aggressively, Shave down on the first pass until just under the jawline, and then shave up from the bottom of the neck. Try really stretching on the neck. That should help with the irritation.

Also, instead of a second countergrain pass, try a touchup pass. Feel around for the spots that still need work and do them one at a time. Lather a spot lightly with your fingers, stretch it betwen your thumb and index finger, and carefully shave it very lightly from different diections. This is about as good as you'll get without usinga DE. I'm a perfectionist. I use a special razor on the touchup to get totally clean. It's an injector with a cut down Feather str8 blade.

On the second pass I shave across the grain (from ear to jaw and across my chin). Like others I pull the skin up and shave following the jaw line. When I do my neck on this pass I use a scything(arcing) motion that starts just above the freshly shaved jawline and ends at the base of the neck. I shave the chin the same way, only i just concentrate on that area. The same kind of motion you use when peeling an apple.

Originally Posted by Dr_Phong

On the second pass I shave across the grain (from ear to jaw and across my chin). Like others I pull the skin up and shave following the jaw line. When I do my neck on this pass I use a scything(arcing) motion that starts just above the freshly shaved jawline and ends at the base of the neck. I shave the chin the same way, only i just concentrate on that area. The same kind of motion you use when peeling an apple.

I think the problem we're addressing is that ideally we would need to shave forward under the chin, which is nearly impossible. A scything motion would still need to have that forward movement, so it doesn't really avoid it. I have done such a movement moving forward and most down, but it doesn't really help.

Sam,

Keep working at it. Today I was able to achieve a 100% stubble free shave under my jawline when felt across the grain. My final touch-up pass was using the heal of the blade under my jawline ear to chin.

I'm still working on the base of my neck - I'm at about 95% stubble free when felt across the grain. I have a feeling this will improve when I get my round nose razors back from the expert honers. Currently all my razors are spike tip.

That being said, these are simply experiments to improve my form allowing me to achieve a totally stubble free shave when necessary. My daily shaves do not require this level of closeness.

I would encourage you to keep at it and not be tempted to use a DE or anything else to shave these problem areas. The days I've been tempted and resisted were the ones I made the most progress with my str8 by following David's Uthe's advice to try different techniques. I firmly believe a totally BB shave is possible and using anything other than a str8 will impede the learning process.

As soon as I got a decently sharp straight razor I put the Track II down for good. Working at it with the straight is slowly covering all the bases and limiting myself to that tool is making me consider new techniques. It is still a challenge in one or two spots to get that perfectly smooth feel against the grain, but it's so slight and so small an area now that nobody can tell, but me. When my gal commends me on my smoothness, I don't bother telling her about my self criticism. She's happy. Let her think what she likes.

X

X,


That is me too. I dropped the mach3 for good as soon as I got proficient with a str8.

I am still having to use the mach 3. Just don't trust myself with the straight on my neck yet. I was under the impression that going against the growth would lead to ingrown hairs. Is that only true on the first pass?