Thread: length of stroke

Originally Posted by 32t

I am not one to follow the pack but am interested in the fact that most do it differently than myself. . . . What am I missing?

You aren't missing anything, Tim. Every one of us has a unique facial bone structure, thickness of skin, direction of growth, not to mention facial hair that varies from baby-soft peach fuzz to iron hard bristle. No matter how many videos we may watch, no matter how long we study the Wiki, no matter how many questions we might ask our fellow shavers, we all eventually figure out what works for our individual beard and face.

I wear bifocal glasses as thick as Coke bottles. When I was first learning to shave with a straight, between my glasses and the hand I held the razor in getting in the way, I couldn't see what I was doing in the mirror. I solved the problem eventually by taking my glasses off so I could just concentrate on the feel of my stroke. In fact, for the strokes when my hand gets in the way of the mirror, I close my eyes and do it entirely by feel. ATG from under my right ear, down my cheek and jawline and neck to under my chin, I do with short, overlapping scything strokes with my eyes closed, holding the blade down and the handle up in my right hand. WTG on the left side of my face mirrors that with the razor in my left hand.

I never saw that in anyone's video and I sure didn't read it in the Wiki, but once I had the confidence to trust my right brain, that was the technique I developed that worked for me. Just like you developed the technique that works for you. THAT is what all of us who shave with a straight have in common.

But getting back to your question, the short overlapping strokes you are trying, that you describe as "chopping" and cause you razor burn . . . it seems to me you may be using too much pressure. Just barely touch the skin with your razor and try to work in a bit of a guillotine or scything stroke so your razor just slightly slices through the hairs rather than chops through them like a hatchet.

And if after a while you still like your original technique better, go back to using it. What ain't broke don't gotta be fixed!
Namaste,
Morty -_-

Sad to say,,,,,, short stroke.

I always go with as long a stroke as I can, both on WTG and ATG. I go from the top of the cheek all the way to the neck in one stroke. On ATG, I go from the bottom of the neck to the top of the chin. It saves time and irritation, and I get a fine shave this way in just a couple minutes. Plus, my strokes are all I have that can be described as long.

You will know you have the buffing done right, when you shave, and slide the razor back and it redeposites the lather where you just shave. Not chop chop.

thanks for all the replies.

I see that I am not alone in longer strokes. I also see the idea of buffing and/or redepositing the lather on the return strokes. I think that is what I was missing in looking at this way of doing things. I have read about stropping in the middle of a shave and basically my face is leather so now I know how to do it!

here is a video for example that is not to the extreme but may show why i used the term chopping.

Straight Razor shaving demo