Theo OkaforBeards and shaves. , 5 minute read
Most of the cuts I see on men who shave at home come from one thing: pressure. The blade is sharp enough to cut hair with its own weight. Everything below is about letting it.
1. Prepare the skin like we do
Shave after a shower, or hold a towel wrung out in hot water on your face for two minutes. The hair swells and softens; the razor meets less resistance. A thin layer of pre-shave oil lets the blade glide instead of skip.
2. Map the grain
Run a dry finger across your face in four directions. Where it catches, the hair grows against your finger. Most men have the grain going down on the cheeks, sideways on the neck and in a whirl under the chin. Draw it on a mirror with a marker once; you will not forget it.
3. Lather by brush
A brush lifts the hair and gets the soap under it; a hand lays it flat. Work the lather for a minute until it holds a peak. Canned foam dries out before you reach the second cheek.
4. Hold the angle
Thirty degrees. Lay the blade flat on the skin, then lift the spine until the width of the spine itself sits under it. Steeper scrapes; flatter tugs. Hold the shank between thumb and three fingers, the tang resting on your little finger.
5. Stretch and go with the grain first
With the free hand, pull the skin tight away from the stroke. Short strokes, with the grain, the whole face. Rinse, lather again, and only then go across. Against the grain is a third pass for the brave and the thick of beard, and never on the first week.
6. Never press
If a patch does not come clean, lather it again and take another pass. Pressure is what opens the skin. The weight of the blade is enough; your job is the angle and the stretch.
What to buy, what to skip
- A shavette with replaceable blades to learn on. A true straight razor needs stropping and honing; buy it when the shavette feels slow.
- A boar or synthetic brush and a hard soap. Skip the cream in a tube for now.
- An alum block for the nicks you will make in the first fortnight. Skip the aftershave with alcohol until the skin is used to it.
Or let us do it. A hot towel shave in the shop is forty minutes reclined, two towels, and no part of it is on you.
