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Start of my straight razor journey

Hi All,

Had my first straight razor shave today, only trimming my beard, so neck and cheeks.

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Shave #1
Date: 13/10/18
Prep: Shower
Soap: Tabac
Brush: Vulfix 660 Medium Super Badger
Razor: Vintage The Fisher Paul Kohl Solingen
Post: Alum
A/S: M&S Woodspice

I don’t think I got my lather right, it was slick but a bit thin, I think I’ve got lazy with my DE. I used an old soap bowl to build up the lather, but I think I’ll need to do better next time.

I marked out my beard, well a little lower actually and then started bottom to top following the grain, no issues there all fine, using my right hand for the left hand side of my face. Moving across to the right I switched to the left hand, not sure if it is normal to use the opposite hand to the side of face for bottom to top, but felt more natural, less cramped.

I then moved to the cheeks, this time going outwards in (ear to nose), this time it was right hand for the right and left hand for the left. I got one small cut to the top of my left cheek.

I re-lathered and did two more passes on my neck, another WTG and one ATG. I got a few weepers ATG, but no worse, and possibly better than if I had done it with my DE, I usually avoid ATG on the neck as it never ends well, but thought I’d give it a go.

All in all a good shave, not as scary as I first thought, but then I am doing the easy bits of the face!
 
Congrats on a first great shave!

Which hand you use is all personal preference. Some only right/left hand and some use both, use whatever feels natural to you.

Lather when using a straight should be thinner and slicker IMO rather than thick. It's not a DE so it shouldn't be treated like one, sickness is king with a straight.
 
COngratulations on your first SR shave! Your shaves will only get better.

Mind the angle of the razor and keep the spine one to two spine widths off your face. Skin stretching will be your friend. You will want a wetter lather than what you would normally use for DE shaving. Take it slowly at first and develop a feel for the razor and shave. Become ambidextrous and learn how to shave with the razor in either hand. It’s not necessary, but that one really helped me.

Welcome to the dark side!
 
Congrats on a first great shave!

Which hand you use is all personal preference. Some only right/left hand and some use both, use whatever feels natural to you.

Lather when using a straight should be thinner and slicker IMO rather than thick. It's not a DE so it shouldn't be treated like one, sickness is king with a straight.
+1 on slickness.
 
Great that you look at it as a journey, because this is how I still like to think of it after years of straight shaving.

Thin lather can be fixed easily, especially with a shaving soap like Tabac that works very well for straight shaves.

In the beginning you may have days when you look like you tried to strangle your cat and you might wonder whether it is really worth it, but keep persisting and eventually you will get there.

One of the challenges with straight shaving is that you have to come to terms with three distinct techniques: shaving, stropping and (sooner or later) honing.
A mistake in either can ruin an otherwise perfect shave, but remember we all have been through this and with practice and persistence it will eventually fall into place.
Over time you will also realize that big new discoveries become rarer and improvements become smaller, but still today I sometimes try a new tweak here and there to see whether it makes a difference.

I hope you can as much enjoy the journey as I do...



B.
 
Congrats! Welcome to the fold. Keep it up. I'm a year in with straights. My lesson learned along the way, always pull the skin. It's key to keeping your blood below the surface.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Congratulations on your first shave with a straight. There have already been excellent comments: slick lather, stretch the skin, keeping the spine close to your face (my preference is 1 spine width initially), and learning to properly strop. If you go slow, and realize that it takes time to master shaving with a straight, you'll be handsomely rewarded. There is nothing like a zen moment with a straight.
 
One of the challenges with straight shaving is that you have to come to terms with three distinct techniques: shaving, stropping and (sooner or later) honing.
A mistake in either can ruin an otherwise perfect shave, but remember we all have been through this and with practice and persistence it will eventually fall into place.
Over time you will also realize that big new discoveries become rarer and improvements become smaller, but still today I sometimes try a new tweak here and there to see whether it makes a difference.

I hope you can as much enjoy the journey as I do...



B.

Yes, it was the stropping and honing that initially put me off, I think I’ll wait a while before honing!
 
Congrats! Welcome to the fold. Keep it up. I'm a year in with straights. My lesson learned along the way, always pull the skin. It's key to keeping your blood below the surface.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, I’ll bear that in mind, below the skin is where I like my blood!
 
Congratulations on your first shave with a straight. There have already been excellent comments: slick lather, stretch the skin, keeping the spine close to your face (my preference is 1 spine width initially), and learning to properly strop. If you go slow, and realize that it takes time to master shaving with a straight, you'll be handsomely rewarded. There is nothing like a zen moment with a straight.

Thanks, I’ll try to keep slow and resist the temptation to get ahead of myself!
 
Shave #2
Date: 14/10/18
Prep: Shower
Soap: Tabac
Brush: Vulfix 660 Medium Super Badger
Razor: Vintage The Fisher Paul Kohl Solingen
Post: Alum
A/S: M&S Woodspice

(The above is likely to be the same for every shave)

I felt that today’s shave didn’t go as well, although I didn’t get any blood there were a couple of times I felt like I had almost caught myself, I was also more aware of blade angle, and realised that it is tough to get the right angle on my neck going with the grain bottom to top with the scales at 75ish degrees from the blade as my chest is in the way, I think having the scales out in line with the blade may be better. I tried both and that seems better.

On my cheeks I really struggled, trying to trim without taking a chunk out of the beard was tough with the length of blade, either it was too far up and my eye socket caused a bump or I felt I was in danger of catching the mustache area.

I gave the neck area two passes WTG, but the cheeks just one, I was really struggling, not sure how I managed yesterday!

So it went ok, but I just found maneuvering especially with my weak hand very tough.
 
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