I broke down after wandering too deep into the Str8 forums and finding the old GD mod competitions. Before seeing those I was happy with the shaves I've received from my r41, even if I was a little intrigued with straight shaving. Once I laid eyes on those works of art though, I had to step into the world of straights. It just so happened a new GD mod competition started up to feed this desire.
So, I ordered five GDs from China, then felt it would be good to learn to shave with a honed razor prior to trying out anything I mod & hone myself. Last week I broke down and ordered a sight unseen & strop kit from Whipped Dog. Saturday, both my package of GDs and my Whipped Dog order showed up in the mail, so I was off & running.
I figured I'd start this thread to keep track of my shaving progress.
Shave One- Saturday 5/9
I'm a little stubborn--when I set my mind to doing something, I want to show I can get it done. this may be what lured me to the r41 and now to straights. It is also what made me decide I wanted to go in for a full shave (at least two pass WTG/ATG on Saturday evening.) I wanted to show that this wasn't too big a challenge to tackle even if it would take some time to master technique. I did allow myself the caveat that if things got too bloody, I'd let myself back out.
I had a pretty good feeling my WD order would arrive on Saturday (the arrival of the GDs earlier in the day was an added bonus--though of course none were shave ready). As such, I hadn't shaved since Thursday AM, so had about 2.5 days of growth.
I debated on which soap to use. A few weeks ago I'd acquired some Sterling Black Ice, Electric Sheep, and a Nag Champa sample. I debated mainly between the black ice and the nag champa. The menthol in the black ice would give me a slightly numbed face, which I've found nice with the r41, but wasn't sure if it would cause problems with blade placement with the straight. In the end, I decided to risk it and went with the black ice.
I let the brush and soap soak a bit in some hot water while I took a shower, then came out and got to work. I've got the soap stored in a tin and lately have taken to rubbing the bloom water across my face from the puck. this is a little messy, but seems to benefit my lather. I loaded my brush (VB 2 band badger) and then lathered up on my face to a nice, thick rich lather--maybe too thick for the straight I worried as many seem to prefer a really runny lather from what I've read.
After that, I went to town. I call it foolishness, but I wasn't as nervous with the straight as I'd been my first try with the r41. I wiped the Vaseline off the blade that had coated it during its journey to me, then got down to business. I started off with my WTG pass, right hand, right side, keeping the shoulder close to my cheek, focusing on beard reduction. At first it wasn't taking too much off, so I re-lathered and went WTG again, playing with the angle. Wherever I put the angle, I seemed to be getting quite a bit of resistance, but kept pressing on. A very watery lather seemed to help most to allow the blade to move smoothly. After not too much time, I was able to work over both cheeks, then went on to my
chin, and lower lip. On the lower lip, I accidentally misplaced the blade for a moment--knew what I was doing right as it happened, but it was too late, I gave myself a small cut. Also somewhere along the way I'd had a very minor weeper on my right cheek. I used my alum block to stave off the bleeding, then continued with the shave. I re-lathered areas as needed when I went through, generally adding a lot of water to my lathering efforts & often doing more than one WTG pass on areas. Next I went to the upper lip and tried to pay attention to the feedback from different areas of the blade (toe and heel).
Once done above the neck, it was the moment of truth. I hadn't managed to kill myself yet, so I proceeded down onto the neck. I made my way around the neck, re-lathering as I needed to. once again, my technique didn't seem to be pulling off a lot of stubble, so I went back over areas WTG. Some areas, particularly around the contours of my jaw were a little difficult, but I managed.
Finally I finished my WTG efforts, I was faced with the choice of whether to proceed or not. I hadn't drawn much blood, so I figured what's the harm. I re-lathered (again very wet) then started out on my journey. Its been a couple days, but I think I actually began down on the neck rather than on the face. At any rate, I eventually worked through almost a full ATG pass. I started getting frustrated in some areas though, particularly around the jaw and also some rough spots on the neck, both of which resulted in some minor weepers. A few times I thought I misplaced the blade, but didn't wind up with any blood. As I worked through these areas, I started playing with blade angles to see if I could lessen resistance, even going to a steeper angle, which had worked for the r41. I'm not sure if these worked well or not (see notes below).
Finally with everything else done, I got to the chin and ran into some difficulties around the very base edges. no matter what I did with the blade, I couldn't seem to get it to overcome resistance in this last area. Rather than slice up my face, I gave in, hit that small spot with my r41 really quickly, touched up a couple trouble areas on the neck and called it a shave.
Overall, I wound up with a DFS over most of my face, maybe CCS in a couple small trouble areas. At the end of the shave I had some definite burn from my alum block and a number of small weepers that had stopped bleeding on their own. Following the shave, the sides of my neck was very red, but I'd worked that area pretty hard.
I finished up by stropping the blade. I hope I did it well. My biggest fear is accidentally rounding off the hone early in this endeavor.
Sunday morning I still had some irritation in some areas and also noticed a couple marks from the blade along the corners of my jawline where I'd felt myself misplace the blade. They didn't draw blood, but looked kind of like a cat had lightly scratched me.
Overall I was encouraged by my first effort. Like I said at the top, diving in the deep end from the start was important to me to show that this is something I can tackle without being afraid. Now that I've done that, I have no problem dialing back a bit to hone my skills. I may likely only focus on one pass, or maybe certain areas. I skipped shaving last night and this morning to give my skin some rest and to allow some growth for another go, probably tonight.
My main concern going forward is finding the right combination of angle, grip, pressure, and lather to overcome resistance for a smooth shave.
So, I ordered five GDs from China, then felt it would be good to learn to shave with a honed razor prior to trying out anything I mod & hone myself. Last week I broke down and ordered a sight unseen & strop kit from Whipped Dog. Saturday, both my package of GDs and my Whipped Dog order showed up in the mail, so I was off & running.
I figured I'd start this thread to keep track of my shaving progress.
Shave One- Saturday 5/9
I'm a little stubborn--when I set my mind to doing something, I want to show I can get it done. this may be what lured me to the r41 and now to straights. It is also what made me decide I wanted to go in for a full shave (at least two pass WTG/ATG on Saturday evening.) I wanted to show that this wasn't too big a challenge to tackle even if it would take some time to master technique. I did allow myself the caveat that if things got too bloody, I'd let myself back out.
I had a pretty good feeling my WD order would arrive on Saturday (the arrival of the GDs earlier in the day was an added bonus--though of course none were shave ready). As such, I hadn't shaved since Thursday AM, so had about 2.5 days of growth.
I debated on which soap to use. A few weeks ago I'd acquired some Sterling Black Ice, Electric Sheep, and a Nag Champa sample. I debated mainly between the black ice and the nag champa. The menthol in the black ice would give me a slightly numbed face, which I've found nice with the r41, but wasn't sure if it would cause problems with blade placement with the straight. In the end, I decided to risk it and went with the black ice.
I let the brush and soap soak a bit in some hot water while I took a shower, then came out and got to work. I've got the soap stored in a tin and lately have taken to rubbing the bloom water across my face from the puck. this is a little messy, but seems to benefit my lather. I loaded my brush (VB 2 band badger) and then lathered up on my face to a nice, thick rich lather--maybe too thick for the straight I worried as many seem to prefer a really runny lather from what I've read.
After that, I went to town. I call it foolishness, but I wasn't as nervous with the straight as I'd been my first try with the r41. I wiped the Vaseline off the blade that had coated it during its journey to me, then got down to business. I started off with my WTG pass, right hand, right side, keeping the shoulder close to my cheek, focusing on beard reduction. At first it wasn't taking too much off, so I re-lathered and went WTG again, playing with the angle. Wherever I put the angle, I seemed to be getting quite a bit of resistance, but kept pressing on. A very watery lather seemed to help most to allow the blade to move smoothly. After not too much time, I was able to work over both cheeks, then went on to my
chin, and lower lip. On the lower lip, I accidentally misplaced the blade for a moment--knew what I was doing right as it happened, but it was too late, I gave myself a small cut. Also somewhere along the way I'd had a very minor weeper on my right cheek. I used my alum block to stave off the bleeding, then continued with the shave. I re-lathered areas as needed when I went through, generally adding a lot of water to my lathering efforts & often doing more than one WTG pass on areas. Next I went to the upper lip and tried to pay attention to the feedback from different areas of the blade (toe and heel).
Once done above the neck, it was the moment of truth. I hadn't managed to kill myself yet, so I proceeded down onto the neck. I made my way around the neck, re-lathering as I needed to. once again, my technique didn't seem to be pulling off a lot of stubble, so I went back over areas WTG. Some areas, particularly around the contours of my jaw were a little difficult, but I managed.
Finally I finished my WTG efforts, I was faced with the choice of whether to proceed or not. I hadn't drawn much blood, so I figured what's the harm. I re-lathered (again very wet) then started out on my journey. Its been a couple days, but I think I actually began down on the neck rather than on the face. At any rate, I eventually worked through almost a full ATG pass. I started getting frustrated in some areas though, particularly around the jaw and also some rough spots on the neck, both of which resulted in some minor weepers. A few times I thought I misplaced the blade, but didn't wind up with any blood. As I worked through these areas, I started playing with blade angles to see if I could lessen resistance, even going to a steeper angle, which had worked for the r41. I'm not sure if these worked well or not (see notes below).
Finally with everything else done, I got to the chin and ran into some difficulties around the very base edges. no matter what I did with the blade, I couldn't seem to get it to overcome resistance in this last area. Rather than slice up my face, I gave in, hit that small spot with my r41 really quickly, touched up a couple trouble areas on the neck and called it a shave.
Overall, I wound up with a DFS over most of my face, maybe CCS in a couple small trouble areas. At the end of the shave I had some definite burn from my alum block and a number of small weepers that had stopped bleeding on their own. Following the shave, the sides of my neck was very red, but I'd worked that area pretty hard.
I finished up by stropping the blade. I hope I did it well. My biggest fear is accidentally rounding off the hone early in this endeavor.
Sunday morning I still had some irritation in some areas and also noticed a couple marks from the blade along the corners of my jawline where I'd felt myself misplace the blade. They didn't draw blood, but looked kind of like a cat had lightly scratched me.
Overall I was encouraged by my first effort. Like I said at the top, diving in the deep end from the start was important to me to show that this is something I can tackle without being afraid. Now that I've done that, I have no problem dialing back a bit to hone my skills. I may likely only focus on one pass, or maybe certain areas. I skipped shaving last night and this morning to give my skin some rest and to allow some growth for another go, probably tonight.
My main concern going forward is finding the right combination of angle, grip, pressure, and lather to overcome resistance for a smooth shave.