Help please

[lesed]

Thank you all so much for the welcome. I do have a few questions that I'm sure the great font of knowledge here could answer:

1. After shaving with the grain and then across the grain my neck and under my nose (nowhere else) feels like its on fire, I use Nivea post shave balm or L'Oreal post shave (works a little better than Nivea) which cools the irritation for 20 mins or so I then need to apply more, how or what should I use instead of Nivea or L'Oreal?

2. What is the benefit or otherwise of an adjustable safety razor?

Thank youlesed

Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:04 am
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[man of leisure]

Too much pressure.......simples


then all the other reasons will be posted

 

[beejay]

It could be too much pressure, wrong angle, dull blade, wrong setting if you have an adjustabe.
Let the weight of the razor and the blade do cutting. You could also try a different make of blade.

An adjustable razor is designed to present more or less cutting edge to the skin. It does so by raising or lowering the blade from the support bar which alters the bevel of the blade basically and makes it feel less or more sharp.
regards, beejay

 

[mstrunck]

Or it could be lather either too dry or too thin.

Beware of the adjustable as a means of correcting this. My first DE was a Merkur Progress. I started at setting 2, used that until I got tired of the results, then switched up. By the time I got to setting 4 (out of 5), I got acceptable shaves, at the expense of a lot of irritation.

Only recently have I acquired other razors, also un-adjustables, and my technique has become very much better. I now only use the Progress at setting 1, and I get closer shaves as compared to setting 4.

Blades can be a big influence also. I used the same blades for a long time, only to find after sampling other blades, that I really do not agree with Derby blades...

Thats the beauty of this venture away from cartridges, there are so many variables to test

/Max

 

[antdad]

Stick with a couple of WTG passes until you are more used to everything. Comfort not close.

 

[moodymick]

If you think of shaving as getting rid of the lather - the beard will follow.

If you get too focussed on beard reduction, you can end up with irritation through over-passing, especially in heavy growth areas.

 

[Bemused]

If you think of shaving as getting rid of the lather - the beard will follow.

If you get too focussed on beard reduction, you can end up with irritation through over-passing, especially in heavy growth areas.

What a great tip

 

[lesed]

Thank you for the tips, not sure its the blades, I have tried Boots own brand, Asda personna and am on Wilkinson sword at the moment. I suspect it is most likely user error! Great tip about getting rid of the foam as opposed to the beard! Hopefully the irritation will lessen with more soap and a wetter foam applied first. Thanks again to all that responded

 

[mattlad]

One other thing to check is to make sure that you really are shaving with the grain and not inadvertently going against the grain, particularly on your neck. I recently discovered that I had been shaving my neck the wrong way for many years, and with multi-blade face-graters!

 

[chrisbell]

One other thing to check is to make sure that you really are shaving with the grain and not inadvertently going against the grain, particularly on your neck. I recently discovered that I had been shaving my neck the wrong way for many years, and with multi-blade face-graters!

Yes, it took me an embarrassingly long time even after I switched to DE shaving to properly understand the direction my beard grows in.

 

[lesed]

Hi again, Thanks for all the great tips, after taking all your tips onboard, I have finally managed to get a irritation free shave! The only thing I have changed is my techinique, now shaving face then neck WTG then reapplying soap and shaving face and neck XTG. instead of neck WTG then neck XTG before moving onto my face, also getting a closer shave, maybe the few mins rest between shaves is helping my skin, also treated myself to a pure Badger brush (love it) Thanks again for all the tips I am objiged

 

[Proudfoot]

1. After shaving with the grain and then across the grain my neck and under my nose (nowhere else) feels like its on fire, I use Nivea post shave balm or L'Oreal post shave (works a little better than Nivea) which cools the irritation for 20 mins or so I then need to apply more, how or what should I use instead of Nivea or L'Oreal?

I too have a bottle of Nivea ASB on my shelf and I often have to reapply when I get irritation around my chin. I'm going to PIF it to a friend who I've recently PIFed a brush and some shaving cream to to get him away from canned goo - still working on converting him to DE razors, but one step at a time

You might want to try some of the balms from Truefitt & Hill - 1805 being my favourite - or Trumper's Skin Food - Sandalwood for me here. Both work really well for me on the first application when I do get some irritation, and smell absolutely wonderful too.

Above all do, as mentioned above, work on that technique and try loads of different blades.