Shaving journal .first shave -fail

[Micheal Halliday]

OK New WHipped Dog delivered Red Injun i hand, and set out for my frist real straight shave.

2 days growth (that is have not shaved since yesterday morning)

no stropping as the instructions from Larry said not to on the first shave.

Colonel Conk Bay Rhum shave soap with a squirt of Men-u
IN scuttle after wariming water insde and out in microwave for 4 minutes, soak brush, and dump out only the water i the bowl and lather up (sometimes my second lather almost burns my face )

Prep face with tee tree oil pre-shave oil

First pass WTG not too eventful, though cannot really get the right approach to on chin and under nose

Second pass, decided to try a second WTG... still got quite astubble under nose and on chin, but cheeks seem ok, so next pass XTG

3rd pass XTG ...wow jsut cant quite figure out how to hold the blade for these XTG passes, expecially on the neck.

NOTE THOUGH, NOT BLEEDING

4th pass ATG,..s till alot of stubble, feel like I swould ahve to relly push the blade through the stubble. Resist the temotation though, SURE i would regret that..

So fater some re latehring and trying to clean up some areas, I decide that is enough for tonight,

Cold water rinse, alum block, WH and Colonel COnk Bay Rhum AS.

little sting, and no blood... Hmmm was I not agressive enough... is the blade not sharp enough? (With the shaveette I would have been bleeding everywhere with the same amount of pressure, etc)....I KNOW I need to improve my skin stretching...

after inspection it is a pretty **** poor shave better luck tomorrow.

Will definitly strop it tomorrow


WIll watch some more youtube videos to see about thw right blade handlilng approaches. You guys told me there was a learning curve so.....

 

[temjeito]

This is NOT a fail. This is a WIN!!!

Four passes is a lot for your first time out, and I would say don't even attempt ATG until you've gotten at least a few more shaves under your belt. Keep taking it slow, finish with a DE or cartridge if you need to to clean it up, and you will see a lot of improvement in just a few shaves. Stick with it, you're doing great so far.

Welcome to the dark side...

 

[Micheal Halliday]

So this moring, I needed to shave for work, and I did one WTG pass with the straight after about 20 passes on the leather strop. similar feel. No custs, some tugging as I tried to shave with the blad.

Relatherd and did XTG and ATG with my Merkur DE. Near BBS, Alum Block, WH, and Bay Rhum.. off to work


Will try again with straight tonight... will have only a little stubble at that point

 

[wolfsvein]

So this moring, I needed to shave for work, and I did one WTG pass with the straight after about 20 passes on the leather strop. similar feel. No custs, some tugging as I tried to shave with the blad.

Relatherd and did XTG and ATG with my Merkur DE. Near BBS, Alum Block, WH, and Bay Rhum.. off to work


Will try again with straight tonight... will have only a little stubble at that point

If you shave everyday you wont get the tugs as much. that one of the reasons I shave every day but once you get your system down you wont get the tugs.

 

[Chaloney]

So this moring, I needed to shave for work, and I did one WTG pass with the straight after about 20 passes on the leather strop. similar feel. No custs, some tugging as I tried to shave with the blad.

Relatherd and did XTG and ATG with my Merkur DE. Near BBS, Alum Block, WH, and Bay Rhum.. off to work


Will try again with straight tonight... will have only a little stubble at that point

This is how to do it. 1 pass wtg with the straight then finish with your de until you are getting comfortable with the straight with both hands. This will take at least a couple weeks. You may feel like its not doing anything. Watch the lather as you rinse it--you will see little specks of hair in it. You can also wipe a small amount off with your finger (spine to edge) and rub it between finger and thumb to see the stubble. Like any fine motor skill, it takes several attempts to gain proficiency. Sounds like you are doing great so far.

 

[Micheal Halliday]

MAN I think I must be dong something wrong, saved this morning with Straight, both with, and then 2 more passes in combination of XTC and ATG directions and with some pressure.... I would ahve thought if anything I would be bleeding now, but I am not, and my whiskers mostly remain. face is irritated a bit but still stubbly.

I Stropped 20 pass each on the Green and the Red sides of the "Poor mans balsa Strop" and then 20 on leather strop before shaving, .... Edge is very shiny (as is the spine - oops)

I would not presume to impune the well deserved rep of the Whipped Dog, but MAN i would have thought I would be smooth and bleeding given my approach, May try seeing if I can get the loacl abrber or someone to tell me if this razor is indeed razor sharp.

hrmpf

 

[temjeito]

The irritation is from the pressure, and maybe angle and the frequency of your shaves. The failure to cut close could be a number of factors. At what angle are you holding the blade? The spine should be 1-2 spine widths away from your face. Too little, you won't be cutting close. Too much, you'll be scraping instead of cutting. You may have dulled the edge by using the wrong angle. You may have rolled the edge with poor stropping. I'd be willing to bet my razor collection that the edge that came to you from Larry was sharp and smooth.

You can try holding the blade above your arm or other body hair, parallel to the skin, and see if it cuts ("treetops") the hairs. You can try the HHT (hanging hair test -- google it). You can try the thumb pad test (gently press the pad of your thumb against the edge, see if it feels sharp). You can try shaving some hair on your arm. If it fails most or all of these tests, you may have dulled or rolled the blade. If it passes, you need to work on your technique. (You need to work on your technique regardless--this takes a while).

Keep at it and don't be discouraged by the bad results. If you read some of the straight razor journals, you'll see very few of us got anything like a close shave the first few times we tried.

 

[Lmarkow]

Hi. Are you stretching your skin? When I started out, I forgot to pull my face in the opposite direction that I was shaving (kinda). Or, I was pulling somewhere that was irrelevant to where the razor was actually trying to shave. This, in addition to the correct angle (< spine width), will allow the razor to slice the hair, rather than scrape it.

It's a whole bunch to remember to do at once, and eventually you won't even think about it, the muscles in your hands, face, etc. will just shave. Until then, patience patience patience.