DE Razors: How to Use One Properly

Double edge, or DE, razors can be tricky beasts when you first start out with one. Shaving with one is not a simple matter of grabbing it by the handle and dragging it down the cheek, as we see on the TV ads for cartridge razors.

With a DE, the blade edge is riding directly on the face. There’s no plastic buffer surrounding it that we can count on to soften the result of mistakes or poor form. We have to concentrate on our technique to achieve a good shave.

The two main concepts of properly using a DE razor are pressure and angle.

Pressure.
• One should use very little, next to no, pressure when using the DE.
• To do this, hold the razor at the very bottom base of the handle in a two or three-fingered grip. This will ensure that the only pressure on the skin is coming from the weight of the razor head.
• Don’t try to shave down to baby smoothness in one stroke. We’ll talk about ‘reduction passes’ in another post.

Angle.
• The blade should be at about a 30 degree angle to your skin in order to shave whiskers without being too harsh.
• Right! 30 degrees? What the hell is that?
• OK, OK. Start by holding the razor against your face, handle parallel to the floor, i.e. sticking straight out from your face. Begin ‘rolling’ the head of the razor down until you see the edge of the blade make contact with the skin. Once you roll to the point where the safety bar is what’s touching the skin, you’ve gone a bit too far.

When the DE you use, you must unlearn what you have learned.

This is going to take some practice to get right. You’ll probably get some nicks and cuts along the way, not to worry. This is a skill that used to be taught by a father to his son. These days, we have to figure it out on our own; with maybe some advice from a blog or the good gentlemen at the Badger and Blade or Shave My Face forums.

The important concepts to carry away from this post are what? Angle and Pressure, you got it.

Coming up we’ll address the idea of shaving in passes. That’s how you achieve the BBS (Baby’s Bottom Smooth) shave of which you’ve always dreamed.

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