DE Shaving - Where am I going wrong?

Thanks everyone, the help is greatly appreciated. I'll stick in an order for some better blades this week. In the meantime I do have some Personna Platinums and some Gillette 7 o'clock greens. Are either considered a decent blade?
 
Thanks Steve. I shaved earlier with the Gilette 7 o'clocks and they felt sharper and smoother than the Wilkinson Swords. Still ended up with irritation in the same areas but I think at this point I need to give my face a break for a few days and come at it again once the redness and irritation fades.
 
One thing that really worked for me in terms of getting the angle right is to concentrate on making sure that the cap is touching your face as well as the blade as you shave. If you get the angle right it should just feel like you are stroking your face with the razor.

It's more difficult to keep the angle correct on areas where the face is not flat (for example around the chin or the neck). In those areas try taking shorter strokes rather than long sweeping ones as it's easier to keep the angle correct.
 
Lucido said:
Thanks everyone, the help is greatly appreciated. I'll stick in an order for some better blades this week. In the meantime I do have some Personna Platinums and some Gillette 7 o'clock greens. Are either considered a decent blade?
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They are indeed, and I'd recommend trying both. I can't get on with the standard Personna "Red" (Platinum) blades, though I love the Lab Blue/Med Prep version in my Merkur 37c slant, and I tolerate the Gillette greens pretty well.
 
If your getting irritation on just a couple of your parts of your face it's down to technique, make sure your lather is good and never ever shave the skin without a covering of lather no matter how tempting.
 
antdad said:
If your getting irritation on just a couple of your parts of your face it's down to technique, ...
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Not sure if I'd agree with that, the bottom ends of my Truckers moustache area have always been a problem for me. I've tried pretty much everything, angle, razor, direction etc. and that area is at best just on the edge of irritation. I think some bits can just be impossible to shave with complete comfort due to interstellar gerbils or something equally unfathomable.
 
Thanks everyone. I think it is a question of angle more than anything else. I've caught myself dropping the handle downwards when I'm shaving the front of my face therefore steepening the angle a lot.
 
Ugh. Another disastrous shave and a bright red face this morning. I'll pick up a Feather AS-D2 at the end of the month but for now it's back to the trusty old Contour twin blades.
 
You might hold off on the Feather blades for a while. Even experienced wet-shavers have problems with the Feathers at times. If you don't have to shave for work, etc., then stop for a few days and let your skin recover. There could be multiple reasons for the irritation. Analyse the problem logically by looking at each variable: soap, cream, razor, blade, etc. Find out what works and what doesn't. Get a sample pack of razor blades and start from there. If you have a mild razor (R89, D89, Parker) then use them.
 
Count of Undolpho said:
Not sure if I'd agree with that, the bottom ends of my Truckers moustache area have always been a problem for me. I've tried pretty much everything, angle, razor, direction etc. and that area is at best just on the edge of irritation. I think some bits can just be impossible to shave with complete comfort due to interstellar gerbils or something equally unfathomable.
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Well, the OP mentioned issues high on the cheeks and the chin...the chin can be difficult to negotiate angle wise to start with but the cheeks should be fairly straight forward especially if he can shave his neck irritation free so I'm not laying the blame with the blade perhaps a lack of concentration, practice and technique. Your issue is if I can take a punt and looking at your pic could be you're trying to shave up to the boundary of your tach but you can't effectively do it with a wtg pass and the other types of passes give you issues or borderline issues, not sure I'd bother but the best thing for that might actually be a straight razor/shavette where you could still shave beneath the tache with wtg pass.
 
Thanks guys. I'm using the plastic Wilkinson Sword Classic i.e the one that shaving forums describe as being ultra mild but it's still giving me huge red rashes on the cheeks even with WTG passes. I'd probably manage to decapitate myself with a straight razor so that isn't an option right now.
 
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