Part II: The Shave

Fedoras and shaving, what's manlier? 

Now we are getting into the real fun part of the ritual, the actual shave! Because you have prepared for the shave, your skin should be soft and your whiskers ready to cut! So unlike shaving with a cartridge razor, there is a lot of technique used with safety razor shaving, while it may take a while to learn to get the perfect shave, it will all be worth it in the end. The first rule of shaving is to remember that you do not apply pressure, I can not stress how important this is, if you apply pressure you will simply be cutting and hacking skin off. To help not apply pressure, try holding the razor at the end and as farthest away from the razor as possible, the weight of your safety razor should be enough to cut all the hair off. Next is how you angle the blade, and this is the part that takes the most time to learn, because each face is different so there is no exact angle, but it is usually around 45 degrees. If you do not want to learn proper angling on your face, try your arm, see where the blade is the farthest angle away from your skin, while still being able to cut hair off. If you have a lot of facial hair, you are probably going to need to shave multiple times, this is due to gradual beard reduction. Gradual beard reduction is taking a bit of hair off each time instead of trying to shave everything off in one sweep. Trying to get the perfect shave in one sweep will not work, and if you try, your razor will simply clog up and you will probably end up damaging your blade, or even worse; your face. With gradual beard reduction, you'll want to shave with the grain multiple times, now shaving against the grain might give you a closer shave, but you are much more susceptible to razor burn, razor bumps, and general skin irritations. So if you follow all these steps and have a nice sharp razor, your face should be thanking you for the most comfortable shave it has ever gotten! Remember to be careful and enjoy a great tradition men have passed on for centuries!