Thread: how much is a straight supposed to pull?

I got a shave ready razor and used it for the first time yesterday and experienced a lot of pulling when shaving the thick hair on my neck/under chin...it almost hurt to shave it. i was using the right angle and I stropped 20xlinen/50xstrop before i started.

Should I be getting that much resistance? I am assuming not. I would guess that I might need to touch it up but i haven't tried honing yet so It'd probably end up in worse condition.

Thoughts?

I'm having the same problems, especially with the Satinedge. That's why I do a N-S pass first, re-lather, do an outward pass and that's when the fun starts: I start using just water and tiny movements. That will reduce the amount of pulling and give you a clean shave, EVENTUALLY Unfortunately, it is time intensive.

Joseph,

It could be several different things. If it pulls on your cheeks like it did on your neck, then it might be the razor. In that case, it might be good to strop it a bit more (maybe 80 laps versus your 50), or if you have a pre-pasted strop, give it about 10 laps on the 0.25 micron side before you strop it on the regular strop. However, if it's not pulling the same on your cheeks, then I don't think it's the razor. Shaving the neck can be tricky though. Usually, you'll want to decrease the angle on the blade to around 10 degrees or so (one blade width) and also you should really try to stretch your skin as tight as possible (stretch from behind where you're shaving). If you can't get a good grip on your skin with your fingers because of the wetness, use a small towel or wash cloth to improve your grip.

I get just slightly more pull then a DE with the grain and definetly more pull against the grain. But its a sharpness issue.

If it's not pulling anywhere else on your face, we should look at the problem area. If it's pulling everywhere, we need to look at the razor and/or prep.

Make sure your first pass is with the grain. Don't assume how the hair grows, rather study it. You'll likely find there are a couple of directions in the barbed wire jungle. It's OK to strop the razor between passes or during a shave, just make sure you keep the lather on your face wet as you do so. Like Firestart said, you may want to do a pass where your pass is side-to-side instead of up & down. Against the grain shaves require a really sharp razor, as well as the skin being pulled taught.

the hair on my cheeks isn't as thick/abundant as the hair under the chin/moustache. it's pretty light actually. anywhere that I had 'thick' (and i say that lightly, it is thick for me) it pulls a ton and hurt a bit. this is going with the grain in both spots, under chin and moustache. basically anywhere where my facial hair is normal, it is kind of patchy or light in other places.

I will try again with a different cream but haven't had the problems with my feather artist club. i realize that the straight won't be as sharp as the AC but i'm not sure if it is sharp enough. i don't want to make it worse, though.

Obsessis, if you send the razor to me, I'll hone it for you and get it back to you to see if it makes a difference for you. My guess is that the razor could be sharper.

Let me know if you don't take Robert up on his offer, I'll send one of mine. :-)

I`agree with papa`and af...It doesnt sound like your razor is as shave ready as you think...If it was you may have taken some of the edge off with too much pressure when stroping ...another factor which can cause a razor to drag is lack of moisturizing your beard...once in a while when Im in a hurry I dont spend enough time soaking and rubbing lather into my beard and then I dont wait for the lather to do it job...the result is dry skin after the first pass which tells me I didnt wait for the lather to soak into my beard...to keep this from happening I lather vigorously and then before each pass on each side I take lather off the brush and put on fingers and massage it into my beard...dont laugh a soft brush caves in against the face where I can control the pressure of my fingers against beard...I dont think stretching is the problem because if you dont properly stretch the razor will grab and cut you...also if you have a heavy beard a bigger razor 7/8 or 8/8 if sharp will give you a smoother shave the mass of the rz provides less resistance...

For some reason, with no additional honing, I'm getting no snags at all now and even cleaner shaves. My only explanation is that as I'm getting to know my face better, I'm starting to angle the blade properly. I did get nicked a couple of times though but that was b/c I could barely lift my arms and they were trembling from the workout lol.