In need of some advice

Hi gents,

It's been ages since I've posted here even though I've been coming to B&B occasionally to read a few posts here and there. Been busy with the job and all.

Anyway....

My shaves as of late have gone downhill. I've been walking away from each one with a few nicks (styptic applied, of course) and so much irritation that I'm hating myself. I don't think I've deviated that much from the kit that I've been using for the last few months. I've been wetshaving since February.

Basically what I've been doing is washing my face with Noxzema before I shave or, in light of that, splashing plenty of warm water on my face, then prepping my lather (3 drops of KoS Alpha Oil + 3 drops glycerin + almond sized amount of cream + least amount of water in the brush - not sopping wet but not bone dry) and shaving one WTG pass and one XTG pass. My followup is a cold water splash followed by styptic and aftershave balm.
The cream and ASB I am using are Anthony Logistics.
The razor is a Merkur 34C HD and the blades are Ascos. I'm also making sure I go slowly and watch my angle and pressure.

Problem one is that I feel like the blades have been getting dull on me much faster. I used to get 5 shaves out of each blade but now I'm only getting two.
Problem two, as stated, is the nicks and irritation.
I also feel like my lather, no matter what I try, is still very bubbly and "thin"... Maybe its me? Or the cream?

I don't know if shaving more frequently has contributed to this. I used to wait about 4-5 days between shaves and now I'm waiting only two... Mostly to present my best face to my supervisor .

An unrelated question - is there any way to tell if a brush is "past its prime", so to speak? I'm using a Tweezerman brush and I may spring for something softer because I feel like this thing is pulverizing my face.

EDIT: Maybe it's the water? I did just move to a different place... Maybe I'll use some of the brita-filtered water we have lying around.

Sorry for such a lengthy post but any and all advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

- ice

Can only go on what you wrote, but sound like lather and freqency of shave are issues.

If you're concerned about the quality of lather, I'd stop adding stuff to it, and revise your technique to make it good. I believe before you can make a lather better with additves, you need to be able to make a good one without them first. I think you're already diluting your lather with oil and glycerin before you start + using too much water.

If you've always had bubbly and thin lather as your post suggests, that will always be a problem, no matter what you add to it.

A change in water quality could be the factor, but this still comes back to making good lather - no one can get a decent shave without it.

Hi,

I am fairly new to this myself but from what I gather thin bubbly lather always means too much water. Try taking a bit more water out of the brush after soaking it by squeezing it lightly and then giving it a shake. Creams tend not to need as much water to foam up.

I hope that helps.

Drubbing said:

Can only go on what you wrote, but sound like lather and freqency of shave are issues.

If you're concerned about the quality of lather, I'd stop adding stuff to it, and revise your technique to make it good. I believe before you can make a lather better with additves, you need to be able to make a good one without them first. If you've always had bubbly and thin lather as your post suggests, that will always be a problem, no matter what you add to it.

A change in water quality could be the factor, but this still comes back to making good lather - no one can get a decent shave without it.

Click to expand...

+1

When it goes sour, something changed...

You can test one variable for about $1. Buy a gallon jug of distilled water from the grocery. Use it to make your lather. It is soft water, as soft as you can get. Try that for a couple of shaves, and get back here with a report. (that's more like a suggestion than an order).

I would recommend that you know end with an XTG pass. If you face can stand it, add a third pass WTG to just make sure you got everything lined up in a good direction. Even though shaving XTG is reasonable with DE shavers, in my experience it can still lead to irritation if I do not go back WTG afterwords.

Aside from lather and technique (blade angle) issues, are you stretching your skin too much to make sure you get everything? That can lead to some considerable irritation as well.

Good luck.

Within a few months of coming back to DE shaving, I had a similar experience to yours. After some degree of angst, I realized that the real problem was me. I discovered that with familiarity comes confidence and that's not bad. But I had become overconfident and that's not good. My technique was suffering. My lather was too thin or too dry and I wasn't spending enough time with the shave itself.

I forced myself to return to basics and repeat what I was doing when the shaves were good or getting better. The improvement came very quickly.

I would have to guess your problem is partly with the lather. I'm not familiar with your cream but if you feel you have to add oil and glycerin to it just to get a passable lather, something is wrong with the prep or the lather. Try one of the other creams recommended by the members here and see if that improves things. I would suggest beginning without all of the additives and concentrate on getting a real good lather.

Please keep us posted. It only gets better.

Anthony Logistics is not a great cream, in my experience anyways, and futzing around with all sorts of additives just makes things unnecessarily complicated. Why not try one of the well-reviewed soaps or creams that are most guys' go-tos here.

I would LOVE to get my hands on some Proraso (especially because my barber has a bottle of Osage Rub waiting for me) but I feel like I should finish this stuff first... Once it gets low I'll order some.

Beyond that, when next I shave, I'll let you all know how it goes.

- ice

I would also suggest eliminating all the extras you're adding the lather. Try just rinsing you face with alot of hot water to prep your beard. Then applying your lather.

The increase in frequency of your shaving could have something to do with the problems as well. I will repeat something that it took almost a year+ for me to learn -- don't apply pressure. I say this because I switched from a cartdrige razor to a DE. When I did so, I thought I was avoiding pressure, but really I still was applying some (just much less than I did with the cartridge razor). When I finally figured this out and really just let the razor do the work, the irriation issues went away.

If you want a softer brush, get one. Silvertips are soft as are boars, once you break them in.

The thing may be the razor. I started with the HD as well and found it to be too harsh. Try getting a used Gillette from the BST. Superspeed, Slims, and Techs are all nice. It would not hurt to pick up a blade sampler either.

I also agree with elminating that extra stuff added to your cream. If the cream is not performing needs all this stuff to perform, toss it. Why torture your face? Proraso, Speick, TOBS, and GFT are some great creams to look into. You could pick up a tube of Proraso and Speick along with a blade sampler from West Coast Shaving.

After a long time wet shaving, a few months ago I was starting to get lousy shaves. A few cuts, nicks, and razor burn. The cause was me. I did not realize it but I was putting too much pressure on my razors. Now I hold the razors with a thumb and two fingers and hold it so lightly it feels like it may fall from my hands. The result: perfect shaves.

Hi gents - status report!

I went as back-to-basics as possible this time. Washed my face with Noxzema and warm water first, then made sure I wrung as much water out of my brush as possible. Where I think I was going wrong was in the lather... Last time the lather was really thin and bubbly on account of too much water and not enough mixing. This time, I got stiff peaks and that really good lather you see in a lot of the tutorial photos on here, and, for the record, all I was mixing together was the cream and water - no additives or anything else. I also spent about 2 minutes mixing and pumping the lather in my mug, so that helped.
I also made sure to go very slowly, short strokes, and virtually no pressure. I got a single teeny-tiny nick in this one spot of my 'stache where these few hairs just kind of go out of line with everyone else and refuse to cooperate. I guess it looked worse at the time because of the water, although styptic solved the problem.
End result: I'm typing this with a shave somewhere between a CCS and DFS, no irritation.

Thanks everyone!

- ice

Find out which factor has changed.

After a few months of getting the hang of it all, i had a 2 weeks period where i got nothing but horrible shaves. I realised i had become too cmfortable and started taking technique for granted: My blade angle was all wrong.

Once I found out what was different, i fixed it and now i don't look back.


good luck

It looks like you have figured it out. I was going to recommend less water and no additives in your shaving cream, also I think you might benefit from washing your face with hot water and soap instead of the Noxema, after you get the soap on your face, wring out the washcloth and put it on your beard area over the soap for a couple of minutes. Then wipe off the soap, lather and shave as usual.