Thread: 3rd shave. and i still dont know what i am doing wrong.

ok gentelmen. because i have lost faith in my beloved blackhawks i shaved my playoff beard tonight. first i took a really hot shower and just steamed my face. and when i got out i shaved my face with beard trimming clippers so it was not much for the razor. then fallowed up with more hot water, then aos preshave lavender oil. fallowed by a thick lather on my face. and as soon as i started my with the grain pass all i felt was tugging. no matter what angle i tried it tugged! so i kept trying and nothing no matter what it tugged. can anyone help? i had to finish with the de. can anyone help?
p.s. do i need a scuttle for mixing or can i do without one?
thanks!

Sometimes it's tough when you're getting started. I know you tried different angles, also be careful about the pressure.
Did you strop the razor? Was is shave ready when you got it?

You don't need a scuttle, just a bowl or large mug will work fine. The scuttle just helps to keep the lather warm.

Any chance you can make it to Kenosha WI on Saturday? There's a meet there; You can get lots of helpful pointers and advice, as well as someone to check your edge and hone it if needed. Here's the thread about it: http://straightrazorpalace.com/get-t...up-please.html

Was your SR stroped properly? Did you have to much of an angle? Was your skin pulled tightly??

My first thought is either bad stropping or no stropping if you've tried multiple angles with no difference.

krism,

Please keep with it

As the above posters have mentioned, check out the 'usual suspects' first.

I am confident that you will find, very soon, that all will suddenly come together and all will then be well in your straight shave

It took me about a months worth of shaves to get competent in the stropping of the razor (my razor needed re-honing three times in the first two weeks and my strop was re-named 'ScarFace' !!) and the use of both hands in the shave. I looked like an extra from Fight Club with all the nicks I had.

One day it all came together (as if by Magic !!) , and touch wood, has been ever since !

Good luck and good shaving !

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

Third shave in, could mean any number of factors or a mixture of those factors combined. As has been stated, sort out the usual suspects and give it at least a month of shaves to get some good techniques happening. That meet up that HNSB mentioned sounds like a top idea for you as well.


Mick

i will be trying to make this weekends meet. i purchased the video world of straight razor shaving and watched the stropping part and also numerous youtube videos so many times and i think i kind of got stropping... well i only nicked the strop twice so far. and i purchased the razor from whippeddog.com and the package it came in said DO NOT STROP before first shave the razor is shave ready. i purchased two so after my face heals i think i am going to try the other razor and see if there is a difference. as for stropping how many passes am i really supposed to make? i made about 40-50 as it says in the videos,can i be dulling the edge? can it be possible i am pushing to hard? and also since i am new i am pretty slow stropping does speed matter? each pass only takes a second or two but its slow compared to the dvd and youtube videos.

Originally Posted by krism

can it be possible i am pushing to hard?
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Yes it is possible. Try just make sure blade barely touches your facial hair and shave . See what happens if your blade doesn't shave then i assume you have sharpness issue. you may dull blade etc.

I think stropping is probably the issue, especially if the first shave was considerably better than the third. I am routinely doing 30 laps on linen, then as much as 100 on leather each night on the blade I plan to use in the morning. I don't much care about the speed of the stropping passes, except I would advise that, if you are new at it which seems to be the case, then you should start with slow laps, with little pressure, and worry about speed after you build some competence with it.

Sorry you are having trouble. First thing I think about is that the 'heavy beard' is not too much for a straight razor. In fact, they work better than any other razor on thick heavy long beards. There is a problem with that much hair though and I have felt it as I wear a partial beard. The blade works fine for trimming but when I 'catch' the hair instead of trying to shave it the blade kinda skips or almost bounces. I need to get the sharp part of the blade down near the skin and then focus on pulling the razor through the hair rather than pushing on my skin. There is a tendency to try to push harder and this is not what we want to do. If you push, you will cut yourself. Rather think about 'scraping' the hair off.

I also got to thinking and realized that when I first started I did practice a bit on my arm also. I was trying to learn how to sharpen and used my arm as a test bed. The 'pulling' you describe may be your razor simply catching the hair or what some here call 'popping hair'. This is the razor cutting the hair above the skin rather than at skin level. When I do it I get the feeling the blade is 'stuck' in the mass of hair. However, now that you have shaved it all off, have you tried the straight again. If it still is 'pulling' it is probably dull or at least not 'keen' and stropping better may be the answer. It took me about a month to get the nack of stropping.