Second Shave - Questions

Second shave went better than the first, no bleeding and less burning.

I have some questions though:

Lather: I noticed that about 1 minute after I applied my lather, it dried. I am using proaso white out of their bowl with a badger brush. What I did not remedy this was to run a little water on the rush and then rub the brush on my face. The lather then was went again but at points got milky. I do not know if this is good or bad.

Shaving: I tried to put as little pressure as possible when shaving but at times if I did not use pressure the blade simply would not cut the whiskers. I thought maybe my angle was too great (>30) so I would bring the blade in closer to my face. Then a new problem manifested, the blade would not drag, but not all the whiskers would cut either.

The rest of my problems were more of the "how do I cut that" variety, e.g., area around side burns, chin by side burns, chin itself. I do not know what the hair under my chin is doing, every which way I try to cut it the blade does not want to cut the hair without force which I do not do since I know its going to lead to a nick like it did last shave.

Overall I think my second was better than my first, still have a lot to figure out.

Less blood and stinging so I count that as a win.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

Congratulations on your progress! Sounds pretty much normal for a second shave. A couple of comments and suggestions.

For shaving with a straight you generally want a fairly wet lather, definitely much more than with a DE, and keeping the lather moist will go a long way toward a comfortable shave. I made the mistake early on of trying to do a complete pass with the same lather and by the time I got toward the end it was dry and, as a result, painful. This is made worse by the fact that when you're starting you're going slow (fear) and experimenting with angles, grip, etc. Don't hesitate to stop and refresh the lather!

Angle and pressure are the hardest things to learn, at least they were for me. There are some areas of my beard where I apply a bit more pressure but in general I try to keep things pretty light.

Stretching the skin is really important! If you're shaving anywhere on your face or neck without the skin being taut you are inviting a poor shave, razor burn or worse. Organize your shave so you can use the parts you've already shaved to grip the skin and stretch areas you've not shaved yet. A little alum on the fingertips improves grip as does keeping a towel handy to dry them off if needed.

Hope this helps!