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Shaving

General Techniques

Lubrication and clumping

Applying soap and generating plentiful lather makes shaving much faster / less painful. Reasons -

friction between hair gets reduced,
hair clumps are formed.

Examination and special spots

Pay special attention to usual spots of neglect - example throat, close to the ears, borders or hairline, nape of the neck.

Examination is critical - especially while shaving the head - ugly patches may be left otherwise. Use hand or phone camera or another person.

Head shaving

Hold a small bowl in the shikhA area, trim the rest.

While self-shaving - Since one cannot see one’s head well, move the cutting device laterally one stripe after another, in an orderly way; feeling each stripe.

Post-shaving

Dry after use to avoid rust.

Straight razor

With Indian or Japanese straight razor - slide close to the skin, so that it is flat and parallel (not perpendicular!) to the skin. Can use regular soap for lather.

Keep the razor sharp. Indian straight razors allow replacable standard safety blades.

The safest way to use the straight razor is to move it completely parallel to the skin. But this does not yield a close shave. In this mode, the least painful technique is to move it in a quasi-circular motion.

For a close shave, the blade should be held at a small acute angle to the skin; and moved gently over the skin.

Electric trimmer

Press and move close to the skin.
Farther off, higher the likelihood of pain due to “hair pulling” effect.
Ensure that the blads move smoothly and rapidly - so clean - and perhaps oil them.

Some electric trimmers tend to leave lines of untouched hair - so move the trimmer laterally and repeat the motion a few times.