Hi Gents,
First, a little history. I've been wet shaving with a DE for nearly 5 years now. I'll save most of the narrative, but to keep a long story a reasonable length, I recently decided to take the plunge into straight shaving. I tried a super cheap shavette with my feathers...and the end result was pretty gory. I could feel the cheapness of the razor, but could also tell that the years with a DE had primed me, my face, and my hand for knowing the feel of blade angles and such, and I liked the feel I was starting to get with the shavette...so I decided to make the jump and ordered a poor man's kit from Larry at Whipped Dog. Just got it in the mail on Monday, and tonight marks the 3rd shave I've had with it and I'll be darned if I don't actually have a smooth face right now. And no noticeable scars/slices/unstoppable fountains of blood (the same can't be said for the feather/cheap shavette attempts). I've still got a LONG way to go before I'm talking about BBS, or even getting consistent shaves with no cuts or missed patches, but it was encouraging (and, quite honestly, feels hella good right now).
I thought, while I"m feeling high on myself and this shave right now, I'd pass on a few things that a fresh newbie noticed that aren't always major points brought up that make more of a difference than I realized:
- GOOD QUALITY LATHER MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!! For the past month or 2 I'd been trying out a new shave soap that I'm just now getting good with getting the best lather out of it. I was spreading this on my face, and shaving with it, but shaving just didn't feel "smooth" (this is even with it being used on top of a homemade preshave oil) at all, and with as slowly as I was moving, it was drying out on my face. I had a sample tube of ToBS lying around, and tried it for the first time...and WHOA. Such a softer, slicker lather that it went from feeling like the blade was horribly pulling, to a "wow, that does feel nice" glide. I don't know if it was because I was faster and more practiced, or if it just doesn't have as tough of requirements, but I never noticed this much of a difference with my DE - as long as there was lather there, that was all I needed. Not the case with the straight - better lather felt A LOT better.
- "Great shot kid, now don't get cocky" Just because I got 3 consecutive good passes in wtg, doesn't mean I'm Zorro with my newfound sword. This is going to take time. The one and only attempt I've made on my cheek (the easiest part of my face) to go ATG (after a few smooth WTG passes) resulted in what is now a very distinct red line that only barely was shallow enough not to be a scab...but it's still distinctly noticeable 2 days later
- Start cheap. 3 days in, and the first strop isn't quite nicked to h**l, but it's not something I think I'm going to keep using without trying to sand down. And I'm pretty sure I'm not getting this stropping quite right...I'm probably going to end up going through this blade a lot faster than I should. I tend to err on the side of obnoxious snobbery when I buy into new hobbies, but I'm glad I went cheap first this time around, because this first set of strops/razor is going to take a beating out of sheer "learning the trade" experience
- DE shaving for years helped, big time. I've seen some people say to go one route or the other, but getting a feel for blade angle, pressure, and single blade sharpness/pulling over the years has helped with this transition TREMENDOUSLY. 2 things I've already noticed when using it to "clean up" the missed spots, one- I'm surprised to find how much closer I can get the straight up close under my nose (my biggest PITA spot) than the DE. two - the DE already feels as simple and safe as a mach 3 has felt for years. Like driving manual vs automatic. I already feel like I could whip my DE around my face in no time flat, and it would be a piece of cake.
- I need more mirrors, because my left hand is WORTHLESS. So many videos show people shaving down the right side of their face with their right hand, and the left with the left. No problem. Not me. I am having serious troubles with my left hand, and trying to turn my head, with my arm across my face, blocking the mirror, trying to shave by my left ear...I might as well have my eyes closed. Not fun (especially when one of the bloodiest shavette experiences involved my left ear). If your non-dominant hand is at a distinct disadvantage, prep yourself with adjustable mirrors. Trust me.
So those are my quick (HA! can you tell I'm in sales? I never shut up...) notes. Hopefully, maybe they'll help someone. If not, it felt good to spew out all of my excitement over my first decent straight shave regardless.
Happy shaving, everybody!
First, a little history. I've been wet shaving with a DE for nearly 5 years now. I'll save most of the narrative, but to keep a long story a reasonable length, I recently decided to take the plunge into straight shaving. I tried a super cheap shavette with my feathers...and the end result was pretty gory. I could feel the cheapness of the razor, but could also tell that the years with a DE had primed me, my face, and my hand for knowing the feel of blade angles and such, and I liked the feel I was starting to get with the shavette...so I decided to make the jump and ordered a poor man's kit from Larry at Whipped Dog. Just got it in the mail on Monday, and tonight marks the 3rd shave I've had with it and I'll be darned if I don't actually have a smooth face right now. And no noticeable scars/slices/unstoppable fountains of blood (the same can't be said for the feather/cheap shavette attempts). I've still got a LONG way to go before I'm talking about BBS, or even getting consistent shaves with no cuts or missed patches, but it was encouraging (and, quite honestly, feels hella good right now).
I thought, while I"m feeling high on myself and this shave right now, I'd pass on a few things that a fresh newbie noticed that aren't always major points brought up that make more of a difference than I realized:
- GOOD QUALITY LATHER MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!! For the past month or 2 I'd been trying out a new shave soap that I'm just now getting good with getting the best lather out of it. I was spreading this on my face, and shaving with it, but shaving just didn't feel "smooth" (this is even with it being used on top of a homemade preshave oil) at all, and with as slowly as I was moving, it was drying out on my face. I had a sample tube of ToBS lying around, and tried it for the first time...and WHOA. Such a softer, slicker lather that it went from feeling like the blade was horribly pulling, to a "wow, that does feel nice" glide. I don't know if it was because I was faster and more practiced, or if it just doesn't have as tough of requirements, but I never noticed this much of a difference with my DE - as long as there was lather there, that was all I needed. Not the case with the straight - better lather felt A LOT better.
- "Great shot kid, now don't get cocky" Just because I got 3 consecutive good passes in wtg, doesn't mean I'm Zorro with my newfound sword. This is going to take time. The one and only attempt I've made on my cheek (the easiest part of my face) to go ATG (after a few smooth WTG passes) resulted in what is now a very distinct red line that only barely was shallow enough not to be a scab...but it's still distinctly noticeable 2 days later
- Start cheap. 3 days in, and the first strop isn't quite nicked to h**l, but it's not something I think I'm going to keep using without trying to sand down. And I'm pretty sure I'm not getting this stropping quite right...I'm probably going to end up going through this blade a lot faster than I should. I tend to err on the side of obnoxious snobbery when I buy into new hobbies, but I'm glad I went cheap first this time around, because this first set of strops/razor is going to take a beating out of sheer "learning the trade" experience
- DE shaving for years helped, big time. I've seen some people say to go one route or the other, but getting a feel for blade angle, pressure, and single blade sharpness/pulling over the years has helped with this transition TREMENDOUSLY. 2 things I've already noticed when using it to "clean up" the missed spots, one- I'm surprised to find how much closer I can get the straight up close under my nose (my biggest PITA spot) than the DE. two - the DE already feels as simple and safe as a mach 3 has felt for years. Like driving manual vs automatic. I already feel like I could whip my DE around my face in no time flat, and it would be a piece of cake.
- I need more mirrors, because my left hand is WORTHLESS. So many videos show people shaving down the right side of their face with their right hand, and the left with the left. No problem. Not me. I am having serious troubles with my left hand, and trying to turn my head, with my arm across my face, blocking the mirror, trying to shave by my left ear...I might as well have my eyes closed. Not fun (especially when one of the bloodiest shavette experiences involved my left ear). If your non-dominant hand is at a distinct disadvantage, prep yourself with adjustable mirrors. Trust me.
So those are my quick (HA! can you tell I'm in sales? I never shut up...) notes. Hopefully, maybe they'll help someone. If not, it felt good to spew out all of my excitement over my first decent straight shave regardless.
Happy shaving, everybody!
