What am I doing wrong?

Dave Q

Dave Q

Joined
Tuesday February 25, 2014
Not sure what I am doing wrong but after shaving this morning my face didn't feel smooth.
I used the brush, and yes still got my Gillette foam, but proper cream is on the way.
I soaked my face before hand, and rinsed between shaves. Small straight cuts.
The main problem, for me at least, is my chin and underneath. It has always been tougher to shave there.
I had to do an extra pass to get it close to smooth. I am not giving up because of problems, I'm still learning, and trying to correct mistakes.
 
Every shave has a difference and every shaver is different.

I don't rinse between shaves and just have one pass WTG (really, it's just south).
My chin gets a XTG and an extra bit of work.
My jaw line also gets XTG sweeping towards my chin.
I gave up with ATG, although under my shin does see a tiny bit of that action.

But them I take long strokes like a cartridge razor as smaller strokes made no difference to longer ones.

See what happens on the next shave.

Think about your blade - is it time for a change?
 
Hi, cuts like that have little to do with cream or soap, but more to do with technique.Go easy on pressure and make sure the razor is properly aligned to the direction of shave ( i.e not pulling the razor sideways in a slanting motion). Also, check that the blade is properly seated in the razor (behind the blade stops and centralised.)
 
Thanks, I guess in a way I am over thinking it. Expecting perfection and smooth from the go. It's going to take me a bit of time to understand how my hair grows. I am fairly soft with the pressure, yesterday it was way too hard and face felt raw afterwards. I may, today, have been too gentle. I'll get there.
 
Think you self-diagnosed that one, practice makes perfect. Personally I would recommend sticking to a single razor/blade/brush/soap/cream combo till you get comfortable with technique, pressure etc. Smooth BBS shaves will become more frequent :)
 
As I said elsewhere by the weeks end I'll have my TOBS soap and a pre-shave. Which may help me a bit. I must admit though I now look forward to shaving. It used to be a chore.
 
You'll have inconsistent shaves for a while yet - even those of us with several years' experience of traditional shaving have the odd shave where we can't get as close as usual without risking irritation/ingrowns. I like to think of it as being part of the charm of this way of shaving - cartridges provide a standardised, reasonable shave which is OK but unrewarding and which rarely varies.
 
If I understand you correctly, you used foam with a brush - I don't think this will help at all - all you will do is break down the foam so it provides even less cushion. You'd be much better off getting a cheap tube of palmolive or any other lathering soap whist you wait for what you've ordered.
 
I'm pretty new myself and still in the stage of trying to get the technique down.

Because I've had some wildly different results from the same kit, it can only be down to technique. After just a few weeks, I am now getting that rough patch just above and to the left of my adams apple, without suffering 2 hours of burning agony afterwards. That will be down to practice then :icon_razz:

Keep it up, you will get there.

Also, just spotted what Rob said.

Pop into Asda as they have a Palmolive shave stick for something like 50p, or Salisbury do the tube of cream for about £1.90.
 
Get some Real Shaving Co cream shave and face lather - its awesome!
Also I've found that if the shave is too mild, I end up "touching up" too much causing more irritation than I really should be.
Tonights shave with a Tech and Silver Blue was a case in point, such a mild shave that I needed multiple passes/touch up that I ended up with a very close shave but a little more irritated than I would have been with my EJ DE89/Black Beauty.
 
I now have TOBS Sandalwood and Proraso pre-shave. And used them both today and got a much "cleaner" and less irritated shave.
 
I remember the standard of my shaves dipping wildly about a fortnight into learning - might have had something to do with me putting the baseplate back on upside down when changing a blade.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom