Seasoned shavers: What do you think is the #1 mistake made by newbies?

So I've been DE shaving for almost two years now, and I'm thinking back on my first few shaves, wondering what was my biggest mistake. That's a tough one to nail down, as some things are simply technique that takes time to learn, while other things are more related to lack of knowledge, impatience, or even laziness. I'm interested to hear what everyone's thoughts are.

My top pick, and one that was true for me personally:

Newbies don't spend enough time learning to make a good lather. Without good cushion and slickness and quantity of lather, irritation is going to be bad. I knew I was bad at making lather, but I didn't know what to change and I didn't want to put forth the effort to work at it. And I almost gave up. Thank heaven I found an old tube of C O Bigelow I didn't even remember I had, because it was so much easier to whip up than whatever puck I was using.

To much pressure.

I'm going to go with pressure on this one.

Many newbies (including myself) have spent years / decades cranking down on the multi-blade cartridge in hopes of a close shave.

As we quickly found out, that's a recipe for disaster, no matter how "mild" your DE set up is.

Angle. You don't hold a DE razor the way you hold a Mach3 or Fusion. That messed me up for quite some time.

Haste. Most other problems stem from being in a hurry: to finish shaving, to achieve mastery of technique, to try every product, to build a collection.

A Blade angle that was too steep was causing me a lot of irritation early on.

A combo of angle and pressure.

The most common newbie mistake is probably using too much pressure.

But, I'll go with one that hasn't been said yet - beard prep. It's one of the easiest ways to improve the quality of your shaves, regardless of your skill with a razor and brush.

Ill give you two...

Too many products and too many passes.

When starting off, it would be nice to stick with one cream/soap and get use to it. Also, people start trying for the BBS and will do 4 or more passes till everything feels entirely smooth. While there are no issues right away, many people develop ingrowns, weepers, and razor burn. With that, you are definitely behind the eight ball again.

M14Shooter said:

To much pressure.

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Exactly this. The key for a quality wet shave is the light touch. A few other aspects are important, like the proper prep, the good lather and the sharp blade, but the "no pressure" theme is to me the most important of them all.

Biggest mistake?
Trying to learn everything at once. I would recommend that newbies learn to use a brush and soap/cream whilst still shaving with a cartridge. Once their lathering skills are up to speed, there is one less hurdle to getting a good shave. Pressure and blade angle are probably the major issues once one has the razor in hand.

Really it's all of it. Truly spectacular shaves only come when when you get the right lather, angle, and pressure.

Excess pressure, especially if you are transitioning from carts to DE.

Too much pressure.
Too little patience.

chongo gordo said:

Too much pressure.
Too little patience.

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This!

Always thinking bad shaves are the result of some variable with the stuff they're using instead of concentrating on learning how to use the razor, any razor, as mentioned in most of the posts above.

Logging onto the forum after every bad shave, asking a question about a prep or shaving technique, a particular razor/blade combo, a certain brush, soap or cream and getting 200 different answers doesn't help any, either......

Another vote for too much pressure.

Jaybeez said:

I'm going to go with pressure on this one.

Many newbies (including myself) have spent years / decades cranking down on the multi-blade cartridge in hopes of a close shave.

As we quickly found out, that's a recipe for disaster, no matter how "mild" your DE set up is.

Click to expand...

In my opinion the quest for a perfect BBS is the biggest mistake for anyone to make. Enjoy them when it happens but don't waste to much time and effort trying. It only causes pain.

Pressure.

Too much pressure.