Thread: Most recent attempt

Originally Posted by steve

I haven't been willing to try an against the grain on my upper lip yet so until I get comfortable holding the razor and get a better feel for just the right cutting angle for my face, I'm going to leave it at the with/cross grain passes on the sides of face and the with/against passes on the neck. I'll leave the ATG passes on the chin and upper lip for a while.

Sounds like a pretty good attempt. The first shaves are always tricky, it's just such a foreign skill compared to a cartridge razor or DE. Generally as long as you escape without major injury it's a good shave. Worry about BBS once you can shave without injury.

Everybody's face is different, but you may find out that you don't actually need an against-the-grain pass everywhere. I don't need one on my upper lip at all, I just do a cross-grain pass from the sides in to the middle and that's all I need for BBS in that area. Figuring out exactly what each part of your face needs is a large chunk of the learning process.

Against the grain on the upper lip is a trick. The best advice is only to do the areas on ether side of your nose, as Charlie Chaplin would have, and to shave up at an angle outward clear of your nose. As for that bid right under the nose, read this for my suggestion. Mostly I'd say don't think about trying it for a while at least. Wait until you're ready.

X

If you go through the barbers manuals you learn to true shaving direction orientation for each piece of the face. Going against the grain on the upper lip is a good way to end up with a variety of facial pieces left on the floor.

Try a very slight "scooping" motion in the cavity under the nose and a very slight scything motion on the section under and to the sides of the nose.

I know this will raise a howl of protest but I find that if I remove the lather from my upper lip before shaving it the razor will grab and shaves the whiskers much, much, much better. Not only do I do this as the typical water only pass but I'll dab a towel on it to dry off excess water. But be careful, your very nick prone at this moment. It does leave a BBS shave on the upper lip though going WTG.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I know this will raise a howl of protest but I find that if I remove the lather from my upper lip before shaving it the razor will grab and shaves the whiskers much, much, much better.

I do my whole against pass with water only. A good cream will leave my face more than slick enough.

X

Originally Posted by xman

I do my whole against pass with water only. A good cream will leave my face more than slick enough.

X

Wow bold. I still use cream on the second pass but I like using the cream. I may try the water only someday.

Originally Posted by xman

I do my whole against pass with water only. A good cream will leave my face more than slick enough.

I wouldn't recommend it to newbies, but I intermingle my first and second passes. First stroke with lather, followed immediately by a different stroke on the same area without lather or water (usually with/across or lr/rl. If my initial lather is wet and slippery enough then I've got 5-10 secs or so after that first stroke before the face dries out too much for the second stroke. If it does dry out then a wet finger gives enough water to finish the stroke.

This is great advice - but, as you say, Michael - might be a bit hard for beginners to get right at first

Cheers
Ivo

Today, I tried using the 14 positions recommended in the barber manuals. The poor results left me with a great lesson. I can't do the L-R pass on the chin. I have to actually divide my chin into 3 sections: straight down the middle and kind of diagonal on either side (that seems to be how my hair grows).

The other issue I'm trying to figure out is the cutting angle. I've heard 30 degrees is optimum but I can't figure out what that looks like on my face. The barber manual said to keep the spine "just" off the face but that seemed to be too flat and nothing really got cut well. For some reason, I still have a lot of beard left after doing a N-S pass. I know the razor is sharp enough because Lynn took care of it for me.

So from today's experience I've learned that I need to do a regular N-S and S-N pass on the sides of my face, one N-S pass seems good on my neck and nothing I've tried gets really close on the chin and upper lip yet. My blood loss today was a few minimal drops and I suspect that I didn't so much cut myself as I did rip a few hairs out using a L-R pass on my chin.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

If you go through the barbers manuals you learn to true shaving direction orientation for each piece of the face. Going against the grain on the upper lip is a good way to end up with a variety of facial pieces left on the floor.

Where can I find these barber's manuals? It will be interesting to see how they recommend shaving my most problem areas.

Originally Posted by steve

Where can I find these barber's manuals? It will be interesting to see how they recommend shaving my most problem areas.

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