New to DE Safety Razor Shaving

Hello all I have been wetshaving now for about 1 month after reading this message board and reddit wicked edge for months prior. Anyways my current setup is Merkur 34C, Parker synthetic brush, proraso green cream, astra SP or Feathers, proraso green aftershave lotion, razorock alum block.

So far I have been getting DFS daily using cold water. I am only getting irritation at the very bottom of my neck sometimes worse than others. What I have noticed is the more water I add into the proraso the more irritation I end up with. For example, if I put an Almond size of cream into my bowl but almost zero water I will leave the shave with alot less irritation than if I added about a teaspoon of water. (I soak my brush prior but shake it out before lathering)

It is weird because when I rub the alum block across my face I don't feel intense burning one way or another. It happens about 15-30 minutes later it is visibly razor burned. Otherwise the shaving has been going great I have yet to nick, cut, or otherwise make myself bleed in any way yet and I am definitely getting better shaves than with my Braun series 7 electric.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

If not bleeding skip the alum block. Just use an aftershave then lotion or vice versa. Whichever works for you. Sounds like a lotion being last might work.

Personally i found that some of the blades I've used gave me a facial burn especially around the neck, changed from Astra sp and Wilkinson Sword to Crystal blades and I don't have any more burn. My setup is EJ 89EG or Merkur 34c, Crystal or Rapira lux blades, Cella soap w Boar brush, Bay Rum aftershave.

Hello and welcome. Great to have you here. B&B is a super forum full of friendly, helpful shavers.

Try beard mapping. Sounds to me like you are inadvertently shaving ATG in this trouble spot. This will cause irritation for sure.

Just saw that you said "feathers". Great blades, but are you noticing burn more after those? I love Feathers. But if I am not paying attention with feathers I can not only nick myself, but scrape myself. May not even notice it until later. They are so sharp for me that after I am feeling cocky about my effortless man shave with a feather, I see the weeper. Never felt it. Stealthy, creeping, death blade!!!!

Welcome!!!

I was getting some irritation on the bottom of my neck right around my Adam's Apple. The skin was very irritated and you could tell visually. So I avoided hitting that area again for a few days and when I did I made a mental note to basically use no pressure at all and only did one pass.

I think pressure, or lack thereof, is key here. And I'm learning real quickly that while it's easy to allow the razor to do the work on the sides of my face it's much more difficult, for me, to do so on my neck area with all the trickier angles.

Welcome to B&B! I will be willing to bet that you are stretching the skin while you are shaving in the area where the irritation is occurring. Try not stretch the skin (with a DE razor) and I'll bet that the irritation becomes a thing of the past! Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

Hi, welcome to the forum! Thanks for all the specific info, it's helpful to people who want to help answer your question. I'm a relative noob here myself, been traditional wet shaving my head since August this year, but I've learned a lot in these four months, and I've been getting much better shaves in the last two months, thanks to B&B, and lots of diligent practice.

It's odd that you get less irritation when you use Proraso cream with no water. Have you tried using very small increments of water? I mean much less than a teaspoon. If you haven't, try dipping the tip of your brush, after you've started working it in your bowl, just the very tip, very briefly. Swirl that around until it's worked in good, and then keep doing that until you get a smooth cream that looks a little like yogurt. The volume should also increase a little.

As to the irritation itself, it sounds like it could be your angle. When shaving with a cartridge, angle isn't really that important, because he razor compensates for your wrist. When shaving with a cart you can get away with shaving almost exclusively with your wrist, but a safety razor wants you to move your whole arm and keep your wrist straight. The blade should just make contact with your skin, not pressing on it, and it should be angled as shallow as possible, so that the blade slices through the hair rather than scraping it away from the skin. Also, until you feel like you are getting close comfortable shaves, it might be a good idea to use blades no more than two, maybe three times. That way you can be certain that you aren't getting irritation from a dull blade even though you are shaving win good technique.

Happy Shaving, and happy holidays! Looking forward to hearing about your certain improvement in the coming days and weeks.

Enquerencia said:

It's odd that you get less irritation when you use Proraso cream with no water. Have you tried using very small increments of water? I mean much less than a teaspoon. If you haven't, try dipping the tip of your brush, after you've started working it in your bowl, just the very tip, very briefly. Swirl that around until it's worked in good, and then keep doing that until you get a smooth cream that looks a little like yogurt. The volume should also increase a little.

As to the irritation itself, it sounds like it could be your angle. When shaving with a cartridge, angle isn't really that important, because he razor compensates for your wrist. When shaving with a cart you can get away with shaving almost exclusively with your wrist, but a safety razor wants you to move your whole arm and keep your wrist straight. The blade should just make contact with your skin, not pressing on it, and it should be angled as shallow as possible, so that the blade slices through the hair rather than scraping it away from the skin. Also, until you feel like you are getting close comfortable shaves, it might be a good idea to use blades no more than two, maybe three times. That way you can be certain that you aren't getting irritation from a dull blade even though you are shaving win good technique.

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I've tried using various amounts of water from a drop to shaking my brush out various amounts. I'm only using the Astras for 3 shaves max and the feathers for 2.