Shaving Technique

Almost every problem a wet shaver blames on gear is a technique problem wearing a costume. Irritation, a shave that will not get close, weepers on the neck: those are usually angle, pressure, prep or direction, and no purchase fixes any of them.

Four fundamentals carry most of the weight. Find the shallow angle, roughly thirty degrees, by laying the cap flat against your face and lowering the handle until the blade just engages. Use no pressure at all; the razor is heavy enough to cut with its own mass, and pressing is what causes burn. Map your grain, because hair does not grow in one direction, especially on the neck, and shaving blind against it is the single most common cause of chronic irritation. And reduce the beard in stages across multiple passes, re-lathering every time, rather than trying to win in one aggressive scrape.

Lather sits underneath all of it. A lather that is too dry drags the blade no matter how good your angle is, and the fix is almost always more water, added slowly, rather than more soap.

This hub gathers the technique guides: the pass system, grain mapping, lather building, head and neck shaving, and diagnosing what went wrong when a shave goes badly.