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Newbie from Montreal, Canada

Hi All,

After lurking here for a while and doing much reading (especially the FAQ and instruction guides), I made the plunge!

My girlfriend bought me a nice Thiers Issard Special Coiffeur 5/8 Straight razor, to which I added a leather strop and a pure badger brush (I was already using a shaving soap with another brush when using cartridge razors).

I attempted my first straight shave this Sunday. Tense moments indeed! I had almost three quarters of my face done, and was starting to feel a bit cocky, since the bear had mostly disappeared, and there was not a hint of a cut anywhere.

Things got more... interesting? after that, as I proceeded to nick myself pretty good right under the nose, then pretty deeply on the right jawbone, and lightly in a few more places. Ok. Looks like it's going to be more difficult even then I thought... I'll chalk that up to the inevitable learning curve.

I do have a few questions however, since having no experience, it is hard to know whether what I felt during the shave was normal or not.

1. First question: I had been told that a straight shave is supposed to be smooth as butter. It turns out that it pulled and tugged much more than I expected. The lower part of my face (neck in particular) was really irritated.

I shaved right after a hot shower. I lathered my face once with Proraso shaving soap and brush, with a nice lather. I stropped my razor, and relathered a second time.

I don't know if it pulled because my blade angle was not optimal, because my beard was a tiny bit long, because the lather was too dry, or because the blade is not quite where it needs to be.

The razor was purchased from a trusted Canadian seller, is a good brand (Thiers Issard) and is supposed to have been made "shave ready" by the seller, who again has a good reputation.

Thus, I'm inclined to think that the reason for the pulling is something else. Just to be sure, how can I determine with certainty whether my blade is as sharp as it needs to be?

Would you have any advice as to how to minimize pulling and irritation further?

Thanks for letting me know!

Best regards,


Claude
 
Hi All,

My girlfriend bought me a nice Thiers Issard Special Coiffeur 5/8 Straight razor, to which I added a leather strop and a pure badger brush (I was already using a shaving soap with another brush when using cartridge razors).

...

Thus, I'm inclined to think that the reason for the pulling is something else. Just to be sure, how can I determine with certainty whether my blade is as sharp as it needs to be?

Would you have any advice as to how to minimize pulling and irritation further?

Thanks for letting me know!

Best regards,


Claude

Claude, great razor and even better girlfriend!!

a couple of the first shaves will tend to feel that way... sometimes it shave technique, sometimes it's degradation sometimes caused by shave technique (including bad stropping), and sometimes thr edge even thought it's been pro sharpened isn't there.. there is one more but that is edge finishing preference which is more advanced and expensive problem.

try skin stretching and matching the passes to your beard grain.. start with WTG then XTG then if you want ATG..

lather is typical wetter for a straight than DE or cartridge, so if it's drying out or too thick relather.. if the lather doesn't come off teh blade when washng it off, then the lather isn't that optimal.

there are so many threads at many different stages of straights so jump into some and read away! welcome!
 
Thanks! It's good to come to a forum where people appear to be more concerned about helping than showing off their superiority! I think I'm going to like it here!
 
Jon (Global_dev) gave you some great advice.

If you are absolutely sure the edge is Shave-Ready, then we can rule that out (to a degree) for right now.

Probably the thing that caused the most discomfort for me, when I first started, was the fact that I had to much of an angle. You really, really, really want a shallow angle - like one spine width away. Did I say really... :lol:

The next thing, for me, was the fact that I was so focused on not committing involuntary manslaughter on myself, that I wasn't pulling the skin tight that well. In fact, this is one aspect I still probably lack at some, although I try to make sure I am doing it well.

The lather, also something I am still struggling with (although gets better each day), is much more integral, to me, in SR shaving than it is in DE shaving. It needs to be thinner/wetter/looser (however you want to say it). The big pillowy/thick lathers don't work well for SR shaving.

And the last part, which is getting back to the very beginning of this post is: Make sure the blade is truly shave-ready. I am not saying that yours isn't, but I know many have said that not all vendors sell blades that are truly shave-ready. I have no idea who you bought it from, so I don't want to make it sound like it is absolutely your problem, but know that not having a shave-ready razor can make your learning difficult. I got lucky and was able to buy my first 2 razors from people who are known to put good edges on blades. I can tell you that my first attempt at honing, had it been my first blade, would have completely befuddled me as it was sharp enough to shave, but wasn't the truly shave-ready edge, and I wouldn't have known the difference at that point.

Hopefully some of this is helpful.
 
Jon (Global_dev) gave you some great advice.

If you are absolutely sure the edge is Shave-Ready, then we can rule that out (to a degree) for right now.

Probably the thing that caused the most discomfort for me, when I first started, was the fact that I had to much of an angle. You really, really, really want a shallow angle - like one spine width away. Did I say really... :lol:

The next thing, for me, was the fact that I was so focused on not committing involuntary manslaughter on myself, that I wasn't pulling the skin tight that well. In fact, this is one aspect I still probably lack at some, although I try to make sure I am doing it well.

The lather, also something I am still struggling with (although gets better each day), is much more integral, to me, in SR shaving than it is in DE shaving. It needs to be thinner/wetter/looser (however you want to say it). The big pillowy/thick lathers don't work well for SR shaving.

And the last part, which is getting back to the very beginning of this post is: Make sure the blade is truly shave-ready. I am not saying that yours isn't, but I know many have said that not all vendors sell blades that are truly shave-ready. I have no idea who you bought it from, so I don't want to make it sound like it is absolutely your problem, but know that not having a shave-ready razor can make your learning difficult. I got lucky and was able to buy my first 2 razors from people who are known to put good edges on blades. I can tell you that my first attempt at honing, had it been my first blade, would have completely befuddled me as it was sharp enough to shave, but wasn't the truly shave-ready edge, and I wouldn't have known the difference at that point.

Hopefully some of this is helpful.

This is great advice by Rob!
 
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