Thread: First shave

More stretching, less pressure. Got it!

BaseballPlayer,
Congrats, that's one big giant step. try this: Work up a lather in your bowl and just before you apply it, splash warm water on your face and rub it in.
Haroldg48 had a good suggestion. Short Strokes allow you to find the right blade angle. Many Happy Shaves!

MisterClean is correct.

Water is the secret. There have been many threads on beard prep but all basically come down to having the hair wet and soaked.

Some maintain is takes 10 minutes for the facial hair to fully soften. If you watch vids of professional barbers preparing a customer for a shave you will see a good amount of time allowed for wetting and a pre-lather.

As your expertise builds I think you will see the advantages of fully wetting and soaking the hair.

Some here, IIRC is was Ace, did a shave using only water. I never tried that.

I do thoroughly soak my beard, massage in Noxema, let it soak for a bit, rinse, apply a pre-lather, let it soak, rinse and then apply the shaving lather.

Some will say this is overkill but it works for me. YMMV.

Shaved again today. Took more time in the shower to let the water sink in. Stropped my razor (didn't cut my strop thankfully). Then worked much more on my lather. I think I got it this time, or atleast I was close. I also wet my neck again before applying the lather. Then I focused on stretching the skin and only trying to remove the lather with the razor. Things went much better this time. No irritation. Little to no pulling. No cuts.

I'd say it's a closer shave too. Still only went with the grain so if I run my fingers against the grain I can feel the hair but I'm not going against the grain any time soon. Going with the grain is nice and smooth though so that's good. Overall I'd say I succeeded much better this time.

I've also been lucky that switching hands doesn't seem to bother me like I thought it would.

I'm now excited to shave when the time comes. Before I would only do it about once a week because I just saw it as annoying. It's going to be an every 2 to 3 days thing now. The whole experience is enjoyable and I can't wait to do it each time.

Good job! Keep at it and isn't this a joy? I wish I would've learned sooner.

Great job! Master With The Grain and then try XTG (across the grain) as your second pass. I've been shaving 50+ years and have no need or desire to go against the grain on my face.

congrats! and good work not cutting yourself!