Thread: Still dealing with irritation

Before I begin, I'd like to say that in the two months I've been shaving with a straight razor, I've made great strides. I'm finally getting the most comfortable and smoothest shaves I've ever gotten. It's done everything for me I wanted it to do, and I'm really enjoying myself. It's a more-than-significant improvement. But I'm a perfectionist, so I was hoping for a little advice.

I'm still struggling with irritation on my neck. Most of the time, it's mild, but tonight it was pretty bad. I'm pretty sure I know the cause, and it's the pressure of the blade on my face. When I begin shaving, my first pass is smooth and easy with no irritation. But it seems that as the shave goes on, I start to press. After 15 years of electrics and cartridges it's still hardwired into my brain to press and scrape, and I've had a lot of trouble overcoming it.

What I need help with is calming down a bit. When my first passes go well, I get really confident. Normally I'd think it's a good thing but I feel like I start to feel a little impervious and unconsciously apply more pressure. I start to enjoy myself a bit and get excited. Tonight I kept catching myself pushing too hard and when I'd look at my neck I'd see big red patches of irritation. I'm not losing my focus or anything. I just get really overzealous.

Even with the irritation, it's a massive improvement that I'm really happy about. With an electric or Mach3 the irritated areas bled a lot and would be sore for days. Now, it's 30 minutes after my shave and my neck already feels a lot better, and I know that when I wake up it'll be completely gone.

Ultimately, it comes down to me just putting in the extra mental effort to regulate my blade pressure. But does anyone else have any advice?

You've got what you need to do figured out. If you were like me, when you still used a cartridge, you used long strokes with lots of pressure on the neck. So, you need to break that habit. Try short strokes while concentrating on trying to just wipe the lather off your neck with the blade, not trying at all to cut whiskers.

Nope, you've got it right. Pressure is likely the cause of any irritation. Concern yourself with pressure and don't worry about shave quality until you've successfully dealt with the irritation.

+1 Too much pressure or the wrong angle will lead to irritation. Go slow. Just lather one area of you face/neck at a time. Pause between strokes. If you can have someone watch you and explain what you are trying to do they can point out when the angle gets too steep or it looks like you are applying too much pressure. It takes time, but you'll get there. That's when you really need to pay attention! Good luck.

Originally Posted by ace

Nope, you've got it right. Pressure is likely the cause of any irritation. Concern yourself with pressure and don't worry about shave quality until you've successfully dealt with the irritation.

True. True. I guess it's kind of like when I started out, where I wasn't concerned about how smooth my face was but whether or not I cut my ear off.

interesting thing: I just got out of the shower. Irritation gone, no more tenderness. Success.

I'd ask my wife to "spot" me like you suggested, but she's so worried I'm going to accidentally slit my throat that I think she pretends I don't have a straight razor.

When I started I noticed that my hand got heavier the lower on the neck I went. When I made a concious effort to keep it light and let the blade wipe the lather away my shaves got notably better immediately.

+1 on all of the above advice. Another suggestion is to drop your blade angle after your first pass. I used to get quite a bit of irritation from the second and third passes. I was told to drop my blade angle in half when going xtg and atg compared to wtg. Doing this along with easing up on the pressure has helped me get a smoother, irritation free shave.

Originally Posted by Theseus

+1 on all of the above advice. Another suggestion is to drop your blade angle after your first pass. I used to get quite a bit of irritation from the second and third passes. I was told to drop my blade angle in half when going xtg and atg compared to wtg. Doing this along with easing up on the pressure has helped me get a smoother, irritation free shave.

I'm about two months in myself, and I've been getting neck irritation as well--but only on my second and third ATG and XTG passes and usually only on my right side. I've gotten to the point where the first WTG pass goes so smoothly and the straight feels great in my hand, it just glides along. The shave is good and close now for a WTG pass as well.

Then I try to go ATG and it's like I'm pulling a donkey out of the mud. The blade feels clunky. I can tell I'm just shy of cutting myself at times and it's just not a smooth process like my first pass has become. I will try lessing my blade angle on subsequent passes as you suggest.

I'm also wondering if I'm seeing more irritation on my right side because that is my stronger hand. It really doesn't feel like I'm adding pressure (I do my best to be aware that and not use too much pressure), but it sure seems to be a plausible answer, like U2Bono mentions. I just don't know exactly what I can do to be sure that I'm not using too much pressure with my strong hand since I can't feel the additional pressure yet, if that is, in fact, what I'm doing. I also don't have any problem with that hand on my first WTG pass--it's smooth as silk.

I'm still finishing my shaves with either my SE or the DE adjustable set on 8 or 9. I haven't been able to get those additional passes with the straight very close. But I've become a junky for that BBS smooth skin (so has my wife...) and I can get it with the SE and even the DE, when it's set to "kill" rather than "stun".

U2,
I had the same issues, still do at times and I tried all sorts of things. All of the things you have said are right and with practice you will get there. One of my main problems when I started out was that the razor I had was a piece of crap. Almost made me quit. Since then I have scoured my local second hand shops and antique/junk places and picked up about half a dozen straights that are far superior to my original (Cyril R Salter) one. Last month I got a TR Cadman & Sons Bengall and it's the best one I have so far. I have a couple of Thomas Turners and a Puma and one or two others. They take a little time to clean up by hand but well worth it. I even have one with no scales on!! And I have not yet paid more than £5 for one yet!!!!!!
One thing that I did find improved my shave was to start with XTG instead of WTG. For some reason this works for me and gets me much closer on the sides of my face. My neck area around my Adams apple still needs working on but I'm getting there, as you will too

Pdav