JRobinhood's Shave Journal

JRobinhood · Jul 24, 2012

I thought I'd start one of these to keep track of how my shaves progress.

Preshave: Warm shower plus Proraso pre/post cream
Razor: Whipped Dog Sight Unseen, the blade says "Union Razor Cutlery Co: Union City, GA."
Brush: Shavemac 177 23mm Finest
Soap: Mike's orange, cedarwood, and pepper
Aftershave: Thayers lemon witch hazel and Pre de Provence aftershave balm

I stropped the blade on the whipped dog strop using an x pattern, it took me a little while to get to the 50 laps, but slow and steady wins the race I figured. I was a little nervous to make the first stroke, but I pulled the skin next to my sideburn taught and carefully drug the razor straight down. "No blood? Good, let's keep going." It was a little hard seeing what I was doing while still pulling the skin, but I'll get used to it. I did one north to south pass on my whole face, it went well so I lathered up again and did a south to north pass. Overall the shave was great, definitely not the closest shave I've ever had. I can feel where I missed some spots on my neck, but for a first shave I'm satisfied. I did nick my chin just a tiny bit and when I was doing the right side of my face (I'm left handed), I nicked my ear. It wasn't anything major though, a splash of water and it stopped bleeding, no need to whip out the styptic. I finished the shave with some Thayers and the Pre de Provence balm. Should I be learning to use both hands while shaving with a straight? I tried a little, but it felt really awkward. Also, how often should I use the pasted balsa strop? I'm really looking forward to shaving again tomorrow. I'll keep you guys posted. Any tips are more than welcome too.

Sorry about the low quality picture, it was taken with my iPad.

Gissy · Jul 24, 2012

Hi! Welcome to the high life and congrats on a great first shave! I'm a newbie myself with 21 shaves behind me, but I still have some advice. You should absolutly try to use both hands if you can. The first couple of times it's real awkward, but at least to me it came together quite quick. I would also recommend to do a across the grain pass before the against the grain pass, actually I would wait a while before doing a Against the grain pass at all. WTG and XTG shoul give you nice shaves in itself.

Raithskar · Jul 25, 2012

Congratulations on your first shave. Sounds better than mine did, especially with you trying a ATG pass right out of the box. I would +1 what Gissy said about the WTG, XTG. You will get a DFS with that method. When you are confident in those, then try adding a ATG pass.

Cheers and more good shaves to you!

JRobinhood · Jul 25, 2012

My beard actually grows where when I shave N->S or S->N it is essentially just XTG. My neck is so slim that there are pockets that make it almost impossible to go with or against the grain. Maybe once I'm older and my neck fills out a little more I'll be able to shave WTG and ATG in there, but for now I'm stuck with two XTG passes. Not really ideal, but it could be worse. Here is a rough face mapping if that'll make it a little easier for recommending passes and such.

UPDATE:

Shave #2:

Preshave: Warm shower plus Proraso pre/post cream
Razor: Whipped Dog Sight Unseen, the blade says "Union Razor Cutlery Co: Union City, GA."
Brush: H.I.S. Shaving Brush (it's maiden voyage, worked like a charm)
Cream: Kiss my face lavender and shea
Aftershave: Thayers lavender followed by Aqua Velva Ice Sport

I followed the same N->S then S->N pattern today. I felt a lot more confident, maybe a little too confident... I nicked my chin again. Is there a trick for shaving the chin area? Besides that little mishap the shave went very well. On the N->S pass I followed your advice Gissy and tried using my other hand, it worked a lot better than yesterday. I think eventually I'll get the hang of it once the muscle memory builds up. I am still REALLY slow at shaving though, it takes me so long that my lather starts to dry out, but I think it's how I'm maintaing a relatively blood free shave. Sadly I won't be able to shave tomorrow, I'm getting my wisdom teeth out in the morning so that'll be a fun experience :thumbdown

. I hope I'll be back at it by friday though, we'll see how I'm feeling.

KindestCutofAll · Jul 25, 2012

Definately work with both hands.

I fought it for about 4 months. When I finally gave in and started using both hands it actually was easier.

Since you are beginning you are going slow and being careful. Perfect for learninig to use your off hand.

It takes a few weeks to get comfortable, then it kicks in and feels a little more comfortable.

Wid · Jul 27, 2012

Congrats on your first couple shaves.

cleanshaved · Jul 27, 2012

welcome - sounds like a good start.
+1 on using both hands. It does not take long for your non domanate hand to not feel awkward.

JRobinhood · Jul 28, 2012

Thanks for all of the kind words guys,

Shave #3 today:

Pre-shave: Warm shower
Razor: Whipped Dog Sight Unseen
Brush: Custom TGN 2 Band/Fat River Trading Company White Teak Wood 22mm
Soap: QCS Bay Rum sample (picked up a number of these from the never ending PIF thread)
Aftershave: Proraso Splash (old formula)

First blood free shave today ! Although, to be fair I only did one pass because I am still pretty swollen from getting my wisdom teeth out on Thursday, but my face isn't nearly as tender anymore so I decided to go back to the straight razor. Yesterday I tried a DE shave and was moderately successful, but it just wasn't the same as using a straight. This was the second time using QCS for me (yesterday was the first) and I am really impressed. The soap might be my favorite bay rum I've smelled so far. Plus the lather didn't dry out during my slow shave unlike other soaps. The brush might be my new favorite too, I love the TGN 2 band hair. I used both hands today with no problems, you guys were right.

JRobinhood · Jul 29, 2012

Day 4:

Pre-shave: Warm shower and Proraso Pre/Post Cream
Razor: Whipped Dog Sight Unseen
Brush: Custom TGN 22mm two-band/Fat River Trading Company White Teak Wood
Soap: The Strop Shoppe Baker St.
Aftershave: La Toja Balm

I went back to my usual two passes. The razor seems to be having a harder time cutting through whiskers. Is it time to whip out the balsa strop for a light touch up? I've read it normally takes about a week of shaves to dull it, but I think because I'm still learning how to strop I might have dulled it on the leather a little more than someone with experience. Also I'm still have a hard time getting a good clean cut on my chin without nicking it. Besides that, the shave went really well. At this point in the journey the shaves are visually a lot closer and they feel almost as close as with a DE.

JRobinhood · Jul 31, 2012

DAY 5 (sorry it's late, I'm a little behind):

Pre-shave: Warm shower and Proraso Pre/Post Cream
Razor: Cattaraugus Cutlery N.Y.
Brush: Simpson Duke 2
Soap: D.R. Arlington
Aftershave: 4711

I'd like to start off by thanking Rick (Wid) for being such an amazing person. He not only honed my razor for me for free, but because he felt the razor didn't reach the edge he was hoping for, he sent me another razor along with my Cattaraugus to try. I was blown away. It is people like this that make B&B such an incredible place. Now onto the shave, I think I'm getting a little better understanding of how to strop, but it's definitely a work in progress. I followed my usual two pass method again which seems to be giving me a fairly close shave with minimal nicks, I am still having trouble on my chin though. Another problem I have been having is by the time I get towards the end of my second pass the razor seems to be sticking to my face quite a bit.

Wid · Jul 31, 2012

I'm just happy you liked the edge and gift. As far as the lather drying out just relather the area for now. It pretty common when first starting out.

JRobinhood · Jul 31, 2012

Day 6:

Preshave: Cold shower and Proraso pre/post Cream
Razor: A.W. Wadsworth & Son (From Rick)
Brush: Whipped Dog 20mm silvertip in amber handle
Soap: QCS Vostok
Aftershave: Aqua Velva Ice Blue

I tried to use the most face freezing products I have right now to mix it up a bit. It worked out great, it was the smoothest straight razor shave that I've had so far. I added a little more water than usual to my lather and it seemed to help the sticking problem. I was bracing myself for a major chill from the Vostok, but it didn't seem any colder than Proraso. Rick said he honed the razor using a coticule and finished up using a translucent black Arkansas stone, he honed my Cattaraugus with lapping film, and my Whipped Dog was done with synthetics by Larry. I thought it was a very nice touch of him to think of something like that. I have to say, out of all three I think the Wadsworth is my definite favorite. Maybe my mind is just playing tricks on me, but the razor honed with natural stones just felt like it cut much smoother. I'll keep rotating razors and see if this is true. My face is finally back to normal after getting my wisdom teeth out on Thursday, so I plan on working on my skin stretching technique over the next few days.

Wid · Aug 1, 2012

Your mind is not playing tricks, I too find a razor done with natural stone(s) to be more face friendly.
Sounds like you are making some nice progress, keep up the good work.

JRobinhood · Aug 1, 2012

Day 7:

Preshave: Cold shower + Proraso pre/post cream
Razor: Whipped Dog Sight Unseen
Brush: TGN 22mm Two Band/Fat River Trading Co
Cream: Every Man Jack Cedarwood
Aftershave: Aubrey Organics Northwoods

One week of straight shaves! I received a few new products in the mail today so I decided to try them out. I found the EMJ Cedarwood while browsing drugstore.com one day, they were having a 20% all natural products sale so for around $7 I figured it was worth a shot. After using it tonight I was pleasantly surprised, it preformed very well. I'm not a huge fan of the scent, but it's light enough where it doesn't bother me too much. It has an almost perfume quality to it that ruins what could be a great smell, but you sure can't beat 8 oz of shaving cream for $7. The Aubrey Organics aftershave (also picked up during the 20% off sale) was another pleasant surprise. It has a great fresh forrest smell to it and it really feels great on the face. For an aftershave with alcohol, there really was no burn. As for the straight shave, it was another enjoyable one using the whipped dog. It wasn't as smooth as yesterday's shave and I did have issues with my chin again, but I made some progress on my skin stretching technique. I did have some issues with my fingers slipping from the lather, but I bought an alum block (I know, I'm a year into wetshaving and don't own one... blasphemy :behead:

) which should be here soon and that should hopefully fix my problem.

JRobinhood · Aug 5, 2012

Sorry about the lack of updates recently, a bunch of razors came in the mail so I have been busy using them. I plan on heading back to the straight razors tomorrow.

JRobinhood · Aug 6, 2012

Day 8:

Pre-shave: Cold shower
Razor: Cattaraugus Cutlery N.Y.
Brush: Semogue 830
Soap: D.R. Arlington
Aftershave: Proraso Splash

It seems I took two steps backwards today, I ended up with three large nicks in various places around my face and the shave wasn't close at all. I was a little confused by this, but I'm hoping tomorrows shave will be better. My new "Big Mama" strop finally came in so I'll get to test that out tomorrow, aesthetically it looks MUCH better than the poor man strop I'm currently using and I hope it works as good as it looks. I have a rolls razor on the way, I think it will be interesting to try out a "straight razor on a stick". I've heard of people cutting lapping film to fit on top of the honing stone and then using that to get the head of the razor honed up for the first use, is this a viable concept?

JRobinhood · Aug 7, 2012

The Rolls razor arrived in the mail today. I took a bit of a gamble on this one, the seller didn't show any pictures of the hone. I was worried it would be cracked like almost all of the other ones on ebay, but I lucked out and it is pristine. The razor looks almost NOS, the shell of the razor set is in perfect condition. I don't think I'll have to do much cleaning at all. For $15 I'm extremely satisfied, I'm excited to get it honed up using the lapping film I ordered which should get here soon.