Ughhhhhhh! Have I lost it?

Hey everyone.. just needed to vent a bit.

There's nothing better than starting your day off with a great shave! BUT there is also nothing worse than starting the day with a garbage shave! :/

My last 2 shaves have been horrendous. Tugging, pulling, slight razor burn AND irritation. The only thing I had going for me is no weepers or nicks. :/

It's just frustrating because about the last 3 or 4 shaves I had before that I thought I had my technique DOWN. I was able to get a DFS with 2 passes and NO irritation or hair tugging.

The first bad shave was with a fresh Astra blade. (I only use Astra now because they give me the best shave with my gold 46-50 fat handle tech.) I used my Synergy Frostbite soap and it had no slickness at all, which is what I think the main problem was. I even tried to re-lather and add water during my lather and no luck. I just couldn't get it. I was ready to leave my face half shaven I was so ticked.

This morning I tried my Stirling "Brutish" soap, which is my go to because I hadn't had a bad shave with Stirling yet. Well that was not the case today. Tugging and then irritation on my neck. Not as much as last time but still enough to be a nuisance.

Hopefully tomorrow morning's shave turns things around!

An old flame once told me you can't lose what you never had.

Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.

Do a check of your routing to see if there are any inadvertant changes or steps you are skipping.

Keep at it. You are early in your adventure and you will have some ups and downs.

Roderick said:

Keep at it. You are early in your adventure and you will have some ups and downs.

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^This.

August West said:

An old flame once told me you can't lose what you never had.

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Hahahaha this made me laugh.. good call man.

BSAGuy said:

Sometimes you et the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.

Do a check of your routing to see if there are any inadvertant changes or steps you are skipping.

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Funny you say that.. now that I think of it I have been varying the amount of water I have been using in my brush when I load it up. I used to knock almost all of the loose water out before loading.. but I have been trying not knocking any water out. I have had good shaves with this technique though.. so maybe I just really need to go back to basics. Take my time and think about it before my next shave.

I appreciate it!

Sometimes blades have burrs, load another blade right away. You need your water to soap ratio right, make practice lathers if you need to till you have a soap down.

I started shaving almost a year ago and had a bad streak of shaves a few weeks ago, I have no idea what caused those bad shaves. My last 10 or so shaves have been great. I think stuff happens for time to time to the best of us.

My shave was tougher this morning, a little more tug than usual. The reason? Slightly too much water in my lather bowl, so my usually superb Salter Wild Rose cream produced lather a bit thinner than usual. Once I felt the problem, I adjusted fine, for a very good shave.

OP didn't say how long he has been at this. Getting the wet-shaving routine down and consistently great shaves takes time. This is a marathon not a sprint so just relax and stay with it. We learn from the bad ones, adjust and move on. Even after a few years at this I can get a "not great" shave if I rush or don't focus on prep.

"So, do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble (or STUBBLE) of its own."

Dont go with a crap lather.

If you know its Subpar - which it seems you did, start again

Good luck on ya next shave !

1. Pre-shave prep - I recommend Proraso
2. Use more product
3. Change the blade
4. WTG/XTG only

mata777 said:

I started shaving almost a year ago and had a bad streak of shaves a few weeks ago, I have no idea what caused those bad shaves. My last 10 or so shaves have been great. I think stuff happens for time to time to the best of us.

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Mental Quicksand caused the bad shaves I think. You were probably worried about having yet another bad shave. Early on in my shaving career, I found that I shaved better when I did not think about anything shave related while shaving.

Just my .02, but the only time I have trouble is if I rush things, I am now in the habit of getting up early enough to ensure a relaxing shave.

I'd toss the blade. I'm very keen on the Astra's as well but occasionally you get a bad blade. I had this happen recently with a Polsilver SI. Fresh blade tugging from the start, switched to another razor that had a three days worth of shave on the same kind of blade no issues. Tossed the fresh blade for another new one and back to normal, no tugging.

bjtiger75 said:

I'd toss the blade. I'm very keen on the Astra's as well but occasionally you get a bad blade. I had this happen recently with a Polsilver SI. Fresh blade tugging from the start, switched to another razor that had a three days worth of shave on the same kind of blade no issues. Tossed the fresh blade for another new one and back to normal, no tugging.

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+1

This is also an argument against one blade of each samples.

You can't get a smooth ride with bad pavement. If your lather is bad, it doesn't matter how great everything else is.

Some things I found out along the way of my 2 year DE shaving journey :

- I have had some bad Astra blades in the 100-pack I bought. They usually are great blades, but sometimes you get one that's dull alerady. I guess Astra's manufacturing tolerances sometimes vary.

- When applying lather to your face. Make sure you apply for 2 additional minutes than you usually do, massaging every area with the brush. This seems to get more lather on your skin and prepare it better. I found the longer I apply and massage the lather on my face, the better/smoother and glidier the shave.

sharpen said:

Some things I found out along the way of my 2 year DE shaving journey :

- I have had some bad Astra blades in the 100-pack I bought. They usually are great blades, but sometimes you get one that's dull alerady. I guess Astra's manufacturing tolerances sometimes vary.

- When applying lather to your face. Make sure you apply for 2 additional minutes than you usually do, massaging every area with the brush. This seems to get more lather on your skin and prepare it better. I found the longer I apply and massage the lather on my face, the better/smoother and glidier the shave.

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glidier

New addition to the shavers lexicon.

Roderick said:

Keep at it. You are early in your adventure and you will have some ups and downs.

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I agree. I think we all hit rough patches here and there, this past May I was consistently getting bad irritation on my neck after a few months of having no issues. Now everything's normal again, and my routine is the same. Sometimes these things work themselves out naturally, at least for me.