So my first straight razor arrived in the mail yesterday (thanks bassguy.) But the mail man arrived while I was asleep
(I work evening shifts) It was kind of a good thing as today was my day off and I had lots of time to do it right.
The razor I got is a 11/16" Full Hollow Square Point Barber's Choice, I really liked it, although it felt a bit light to me. The shave was extremely exhilarating, there's nothing like a razor to your throat to keep you on your toes! The shave it self went better than I ever could have imagined! No weepers, no blood whatsoever, and ultimately irritation free (although I don't think I got a close enough shave to have irritation.)
The shave proceeded as such:
Steamy shower where I ran my beard area under hot water for probably 3-4 min, get out fill sink with hot water and soak brush. Splash face with hot water to keep my beard warm and moist (I usually skip Kyle's prep as I find the hot water in the shower generally get my beard pretty well prepped.) Strop razor 25 laps using the X pattern, kept the strop taught and stropped using only the weight of the blade for pressure (I definitely need to work on my technique though, as some of the strokes didn't feel even across the whole blade, particularly the strokes away from me.) Start building lather, I used CO Bigelow with the C&E BBB, I thought the lather looked a little runny, lathered up and realized it was just about perfect.
On to the shave it's self:
I take the razor in my hand and open her up, I test a couple different grips, settling on the three finger grip. Slowly I draw the blade up to my face and I think to my self I'm actually going to finally do this. I go to line it up with my side burn, struggling to see where it is past my hand, I figure it out and lay the blade flat against my face, slowly I tilt it away setting the angle and begin to draw. My ears are filled with the incredible music of the straight, singing away. I finish the first stroke realizing I've done it, I've entered into the halls of true bad assness, I felt more manly than ever before. I also reallize that the feel and angle of the holding position feel a lot more natural than I had originally anticipated. I continue till I have finished the cheek... now the chin... uh oh... round surface!
My heart races, I start rounding the corned of my chin making the most ridiculous faces I've ever made trying to keep everything as flat as possible. I make it and breath a sigh of relief. Now I'm faced with a daunting decision... do I continue to the other side of the face or go for the neck as I would with a safety razor, I opt for the left side. Panic strikes me again... I have to use my left hand?!?!?! I had been fearing this moment, but mercifully I had had the foresight to at least practice a bit with my left, by doing some simpler tasks like brushing my teeth, eating, and shaving left handed, so I kind of had the coordination downish.
I bring my left hand with the razor to my face, struggling to see my side burn, and trying to control the slight trembling I can feel coming on (I'm not kidding I was actually starting to shake a bit from nerves.) I pull the stroke off with out a hitch. Finish the cheek and come to the chin again (the funny thing is that my left hand actually felt better with the razor then my right... weird.) The left chin was a bit strange as I kind of got myself into that odd mirror disorientation. But quickly oriented my hand and finished the chin.
Onwards to the neck!
Now we're talkin' real danger this is the thrill I was lookin' for.
It took me a minute to figure out/remember that I was going to need to shave cross handed (left hand shaves the right, right hand shaves the left.) I grip the razor in the upside down meat cleaver grip and go to work. This was definitely tougher than face shaving, requiring multidimensional shave angles (working in 2 axis instead of one like on the face.) So even with the right hand I've got mad mirror disorientation, trying to figure out the blade angle while avoiding catching skin that is raised above what your trying to shave is nerve racking. Some how I manage to figure it out and shave from the left to the centerline of my neck with the right. I switch to the left hand... I stop... for some reason I can't bring myself to go all the way across my neck to the far right, mind mind simply wouldn't let my hand do it. So I shaved from the mid line to the right... It seemed to work out quite well.
I finished off the first pass with my upper lip, this I did with my right hand exclusively. Nothing too interesting to say here, although I did have to change the faces I usually make for this slightly from what I normally do, but no real problems.
I rinse off and feel my face... barely passable, I need a second pass. My plan was to only do one but I needed another.
Relather, on to pass two.
I would have liked to have done an XTG pass (I usually do ear to chin XTG) but after standing there, gripping and regriping the razor for 5 minutes, I could not for the life of my figure out how I would go about doing this. So I had to settle for another WTG pass, which went by and large much the same as the first. Although I got through it a bit faster, as I knew what I was doing at this point, and I added ever so slightly more pressure (which was still hardly any at all) to try to get a little more fuzz off my mugg.
After this pass, a quick warm rinse followed by a cold rinse. I preform a quick inspection of my face to make sure it was safe, and apply Aqua Velva. No stinging or burning just lovely cooling action. While I let the AV set and dry I went to cleaning my gear. Rinsed the blade thoroughly with water and wiped the the scum of the blade avoiding the edge (if anyone has suggestions on how to eliminate this scum which I had to work pretty had to remove, would be greatly appreciated.) I stropped the blade, 15 laps and applied light highly refined mineral oil (that I got from the hardware store.) Applied some ASB with wet hands and called it a day!
Now I kind of regret having gone all out with the BBS shave the day before using my Micromatic b/c there wasn't as much grass to mow today as I would have liked. Which probably contributed to the pure quality of shave. But that just means that I'll be awaiting tomorrow with extra anticipation to shave off the hoboesque growth I'll likely have by then.
All in all a very enjoyable and bloodless experience! I would like to thank everyone for all the great posts that allowed me to do this successfully. If your reading through this (and I know it's long, I just wanted to give a full accurate description) and notice any serious error that I've made or anything I'm doing that is unnecessary please let me know. I was also wondering if I had the number of laps on the strop in the right ball park of what I should be doing on a daily basis? I'd also appreciate any advice/pics/videos that would help me do an XTG pass. Any and all advice is welcome.
I think I'm definitely a convert to the straight shaver army. This is private Kevin reporting for duty!
Thanks again!
(I work evening shifts) It was kind of a good thing as today was my day off and I had lots of time to do it right.The razor I got is a 11/16" Full Hollow Square Point Barber's Choice, I really liked it, although it felt a bit light to me. The shave was extremely exhilarating, there's nothing like a razor to your throat to keep you on your toes! The shave it self went better than I ever could have imagined! No weepers, no blood whatsoever, and ultimately irritation free (although I don't think I got a close enough shave to have irritation.)
The shave proceeded as such:
Steamy shower where I ran my beard area under hot water for probably 3-4 min, get out fill sink with hot water and soak brush. Splash face with hot water to keep my beard warm and moist (I usually skip Kyle's prep as I find the hot water in the shower generally get my beard pretty well prepped.) Strop razor 25 laps using the X pattern, kept the strop taught and stropped using only the weight of the blade for pressure (I definitely need to work on my technique though, as some of the strokes didn't feel even across the whole blade, particularly the strokes away from me.) Start building lather, I used CO Bigelow with the C&E BBB, I thought the lather looked a little runny, lathered up and realized it was just about perfect.
On to the shave it's self:
I take the razor in my hand and open her up, I test a couple different grips, settling on the three finger grip. Slowly I draw the blade up to my face and I think to my self I'm actually going to finally do this. I go to line it up with my side burn, struggling to see where it is past my hand, I figure it out and lay the blade flat against my face, slowly I tilt it away setting the angle and begin to draw. My ears are filled with the incredible music of the straight, singing away. I finish the first stroke realizing I've done it, I've entered into the halls of true bad assness, I felt more manly than ever before. I also reallize that the feel and angle of the holding position feel a lot more natural than I had originally anticipated. I continue till I have finished the cheek... now the chin... uh oh... round surface!
My heart races, I start rounding the corned of my chin making the most ridiculous faces I've ever made trying to keep everything as flat as possible. I make it and breath a sigh of relief. Now I'm faced with a daunting decision... do I continue to the other side of the face or go for the neck as I would with a safety razor, I opt for the left side. Panic strikes me again... I have to use my left hand?!?!?! I had been fearing this moment, but mercifully I had had the foresight to at least practice a bit with my left, by doing some simpler tasks like brushing my teeth, eating, and shaving left handed, so I kind of had the coordination downish. I bring my left hand with the razor to my face, struggling to see my side burn, and trying to control the slight trembling I can feel coming on (I'm not kidding I was actually starting to shake a bit from nerves.) I pull the stroke off with out a hitch. Finish the cheek and come to the chin again (the funny thing is that my left hand actually felt better with the razor then my right... weird.) The left chin was a bit strange as I kind of got myself into that odd mirror disorientation. But quickly oriented my hand and finished the chin.Onwards to the neck!
Now we're talkin' real danger this is the thrill I was lookin' for.
It took me a minute to figure out/remember that I was going to need to shave cross handed (left hand shaves the right, right hand shaves the left.) I grip the razor in the upside down meat cleaver grip and go to work. This was definitely tougher than face shaving, requiring multidimensional shave angles (working in 2 axis instead of one like on the face.) So even with the right hand I've got mad mirror disorientation, trying to figure out the blade angle while avoiding catching skin that is raised above what your trying to shave is nerve racking. Some how I manage to figure it out and shave from the left to the centerline of my neck with the right. I switch to the left hand... I stop... for some reason I can't bring myself to go all the way across my neck to the far right, mind mind simply wouldn't let my hand do it. So I shaved from the mid line to the right... It seemed to work out quite well.I finished off the first pass with my upper lip, this I did with my right hand exclusively. Nothing too interesting to say here, although I did have to change the faces I usually make for this slightly from what I normally do, but no real problems.
I rinse off and feel my face... barely passable, I need a second pass. My plan was to only do one but I needed another.
Relather, on to pass two.
I would have liked to have done an XTG pass (I usually do ear to chin XTG) but after standing there, gripping and regriping the razor for 5 minutes, I could not for the life of my figure out how I would go about doing this. So I had to settle for another WTG pass, which went by and large much the same as the first. Although I got through it a bit faster, as I knew what I was doing at this point, and I added ever so slightly more pressure (which was still hardly any at all) to try to get a little more fuzz off my mugg.
After this pass, a quick warm rinse followed by a cold rinse. I preform a quick inspection of my face to make sure it was safe, and apply Aqua Velva. No stinging or burning just lovely cooling action. While I let the AV set and dry I went to cleaning my gear. Rinsed the blade thoroughly with water and wiped the the scum of the blade avoiding the edge (if anyone has suggestions on how to eliminate this scum which I had to work pretty had to remove, would be greatly appreciated.) I stropped the blade, 15 laps and applied light highly refined mineral oil (that I got from the hardware store.) Applied some ASB with wet hands and called it a day!
Now I kind of regret having gone all out with the BBS shave the day before using my Micromatic b/c there wasn't as much grass to mow today as I would have liked. Which probably contributed to the pure quality of shave. But that just means that I'll be awaiting tomorrow with extra anticipation to shave off the hoboesque growth I'll likely have by then.
All in all a very enjoyable and bloodless experience! I would like to thank everyone for all the great posts that allowed me to do this successfully. If your reading through this (and I know it's long, I just wanted to give a full accurate description) and notice any serious error that I've made or anything I'm doing that is unnecessary please let me know. I was also wondering if I had the number of laps on the strop in the right ball park of what I should be doing on a daily basis? I'd also appreciate any advice/pics/videos that would help me do an XTG pass. Any and all advice is welcome.
I think I'm definitely a convert to the straight shaver army. This is private Kevin reporting for duty!
Thanks again!
