its best (but by no means necessary) to have a shave just after/duing a hot shower. get your face wet with the warm/hot water, which opens youre pores up, allowing a closer shave. if youre not having a shower you can always just wet a handtowel with hot water and hold it against your face for a few minutes, keeping it warm enough (but not scalding) and wet enough.

then yeah, youve got the shaving motions. try to use as few strokes as possible on the same area, but keep the areas small. what i mean is that you may only shave a few centimetres at a time (rinsing the blade between strokes) but only needing one stroke to get all the hair in that area. id suggest sticking with going with the hair or maybe perpendicular in some areas. avoid going against the grain just yet. you get a closer shave by going against, but youre skin is more likely to get irritated and youre more likely to get ingrown hairs. if i ever go against the grain, what i do is shave with the grain once for my whole face, then apply a new layer of shaving cream and shave against the grain. oh also one thing just for shaving in general is that if you try to pull the skin tight with the hand that isnt holding the razor, youll get a closer shave. you dont really have to do much, just like e.g. push your cheek up with your thumb when doing the cheek.

after youve shaved, one thing i was recommended recently (that i rate highly!!) is of course firstly clean any remaining shaving foam off your face... and then splash on COLDDDDD water. and i mean cold. just like leave the tap running for a second or 2, and then splash the water onto the areas youve shaved a couple of times. yeah its cold and not nice, but it closes up the pores (that have been opened by the warming water and shaving foam) so that they dont get irritated or get any gunk in them and get infected. after youve splashed on the water, DONT TOWEL IT OFF. leave it to air dry. yeah its kinda inconvenient but only takes a few min. i used to find that id get some kind of razor irritation at the bottom of my neck stubble, but since doing this method i dont have any problems :) this might make youre skin feel quite dry btw, but once all the water is air-dryed you can apply a moisturing cream if you so desire.