I currently just started the wet shaving thing. I bought a concord de safety razor and vdh shave set. I worked the lather in a dish till it looked like in the video. 1st question it didn't spread evenly on my face skin always showed through. 2 I preconditioned my face applied lather and made one pass. I ended up with the closest shave I have ever gotten but the worst razor burn also. Can someone point out what I did wrong? Feather blade was in the razor
It sounds as though you got a decent starter set there. Without knowing more information, any suggestions I make are going to be generalizations. First, congratulations on starting your new life as a wet shaver. Things will get better, I promise. You were probably a cartridge shaver, and that tends to create bad habits that become far more noticeable when you wet shave. The most common mistakes are too much pressure and a tendency to do quick touch up passes over spots you've just shaved. Cartridge razors are designed to be idiot proof and to that end they make it really hard to cut yourself and they add that nice lubraglide strip for quick touch ups. DE Safety razors don't offer those protections. Thin or thick lather doesn't really matter. Sure you can look like Santa in the mirror, but it doesn't really improve the mechanics of wet shaving. The lather is just there to keep the water that you splash on your face there for the shave. The water provides much of the protection from the blade. That's not to say that lather doesn't help, because it does. But the prep is more important than the lather. You didn't say how many passes you made, so I'm going to guess one, with lots of little touch ups. Wet shaving is all about beard reduction, and it will take two or three passes to get everything. Some final thoughts, this is a new experience for your face. It will take up to a month for your face to get used to this new style of shaving. Learn your beard growth direction, try shaving with the grain only until you reach a point where you don't experience razor burn. Re-apply water to your face before each lather. Keep using witch hazel. Make sure you are holding the razor at the correct angle...and remember, let the weight of the razor do 95% of the work. Use only enough pressure to guide the razor. Hope some of that helps. Best of luck.
It was one with the grain pass. And it definitely was helpful. Do u think a pre shave oil might help? I showered pre shave and just used conditioner the first time around. Definitely the most aggressive shave I've ever had. funny thing is I made the switch to save money and I'm already looking at new soaps and brushes lol
You're not going to save money initially, but you will find it more enjoyable. I've never used Feather blades, but I understand that they are ninja sharp. No pressure, let the blade do the work. Take your time. And welcome to wet shaving. Oh, yeah, what PLANof MAN said.
Yeah, what PLANofMAN and Jayaruh said. Very light touch. SO light, in fact, try holding the razor at the very end of the handle and letting only the weight of the razor itself contact the skin and only increase the pressure slightly till you get good hair cleavage, and with DE, the angle you're holding the blade to the skin is important, too, like with a straight razor. You're doing fine, you'll be fluent in no time at all!
Thanks a lot guys when I found this forum searching for tips I knew I had to join. Unfortunately I think I'm hooked. does anyone have any tips for a pre shave oil? Seems a lot of ppl use jojoba
Sorry, I can't help you here, I don't use a pre-shave oil. I'm an evening bather and a morning shave, so it seems I would use one to help condition, but I have such good results by first washing my face in warm water using a home-made, cold-process soap, then lathering & shaving. What has been valuable is a post shave balm. e-Shave's post shave, in Lime for me, makes me say "Ahhh" every time, even though there's little to no irritation. I believe that the cold-process, non-commercial soap makes a differnce. Where most all commercial soaps have the glycerin and lanolin removed (they have their own revenue streams), old-fashioned cold process soaps have them in there, and if you use a super-fatted soap, you're getting good fats as well as good cleansing.
It will take time for your face to get used to wet shaving. Making and using the lather and getting the coverage you desire will also take some time. My lather wouldn't cover unevenly at first also in the beginning, it gets better. As far as the shave you are probably using too much preasure,lighten up some..Also the Feather blade is known for sharpness and with many people (I'm one) harshness and razor burn!! I'd suggest getting a large blade sampler pack also, so that you can try a variety of blades. Time,Technique,Practice and Patience will get you to your goal
Welcome to TSD, Michael! It's hard not to want to buy everything when you first start out. My weakness is soaps... Here are a few threads that may interest you: This month's Newbie Giveaway-- http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/february-newbie-give-away.31789/ GD Carrington's 30 Day Rule for new DE shavers (see post midway down first page)-- http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/a-new-convert.31798/#post-556153 Sara's Tutorial on making your own Preshave Oil-- http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/how-to-make-your-own-pre-shave-oil.31132 Ash
Remember in one of the videos you watched, Mantic says to use the whole arm on the shave strokes and not just the wrist. One of the 'bad habits' derived from cartridge shaving that PLANofMAN mentions, is in fact, using the wrist. The cartridge has a spring mechanism which compensates to some extent, the DE does not. Even with the cartridge, as Mantic points out, one should still be using the whole arm to allow the blade an even glide. Shaving from the wrist with a safety razor, can cause the blade to dig into the skin, potentially producing irritation and cuts in those spots. Also you can do just the lather thing with the cartridge for a while and return to the DE once you get more of a handle on the lathering part. Ryan is a man of his word and if he promises it's gonna get better, then you can depend on that lol. And welcome!..
Pre-shave oil might help, it certainly couldn't hurt. Hair conditioner is funny stuff, I've heard people say both positive and negative things about it. Saving money is something that might happen. It's not likely. Oh, "the per shave" cost will drop, but many here on the forums will cheerfully admit that they have more than enough soap, cream or blades to last them the rest of their lives.
First pass make sure you go in the same direction the hair grows. Another tip that helps me is don't use any pressure, just let the weight of the razor be your pressure and just drag it down your face and do very short strokes. Making short strokes, rather then long ones like I did with a cartridge razor was key for me. You will basically have to unlearn every bad habbit cartridge shaving taught you and establish a new technique, once you get that down you will love it. Also, my face needed a couple shaves to get used to the closeness the DE razor provided. Also look into a preshave prep, Proraso makes a great cream preshave and there are some great PS Oils out there also.
Haha, I did the same thing. I made the switch to save and spent a lot more, but I'm enjoying it and once I use all of the soaps, creams, oils, balms, and sftershaves I use the savings will kick in, lol! Welcome to TSD!
Thanks a lot guys I purchased co bigelo cream this morning and it seams a better lather for my face a lot less skin irritation. Thanks planofman I did go back and correct a lot of missed spots in my once over. Less pressure and shorter strokes helped too. A few Knicks but I figure that will go with the learning curve
you're welcome. Just remember that if there's no shaving cream on the spot you are shaving, you are asking for razor burn. Creams are a little easier to use when you are starting out. C.O. Big's has menthol in it, which also helps keep the soothing factor high. It sounds like you are on the road to success!
Yep if my shaving supply gets to be like my pocket knives and fishing poles my fiance is going to be very unhappy lol. Any suggestions on a good economical badger brush? Currently looking at a tweezerman lol
I should expand on that I think. Tweezerman brushes aren't bad, but I would recommend a high quality boar or synthetic over the Tweezerman. Check out my brush sticky in the brush forum for reasons why I don't recommend machine made brushes with trimmed knots. I used to be an opponent of boar brushes and was convinced that badger was the only way to go. Now I believe that there are high end experiences available for all brush types.
