BUT I don't know yet what I should get to be able to do it correctly, any advice you can give me would be great. I am going to get a shave tomorrow at the local barber (it's my birthday) and since I'm new to the area I figured I can also ask him for some advice on where to go shopping, also they did just open an art of shaving store near where I live or is that place too expensive to make worth shopping. Thanks in advance for any advice
So I want to start using a straight razor
- Thread starter Magaern
- Start date
Look up Larry at whipped dog straights on google... He will have a good starter kit (sight unseen deal) his kit is solid... The razor maybe ugly but it'll be shave ready... I also suggest buying an extra poor man strop from him as you WILL nick your strop.. Use that for a month THEN start looking at dovo's or other modern razors... I also recommend one of our many vendors and hobbyists that restore or make razors... Some of their deals can be very cost effective too..
I've been at it on and off for a year straight and now I'm restoring my own but it's been a long expensive journey
I've been at it on and off for a year straight and now I'm restoring my own but it's been a long expensive journey
Last edited:
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
www.whippeddog.com rocks as a place to get your first razor. But get two, not just one. Consider one of Buca's shave ready Gold Dollars as a second or third razor. At $22 it doesn't get much cheaper than that. A Whipped Dog brush is a good purchase, too. His Poor Man Strop Kit is a good buy, but after you have learned to strop without hacking up the leather, you will want to upgrade to maybe the Big Daddy (my favorite strop) from www.starshaving.com. VDH soap from Walgreens, and a mug from the thrift store, and you are in the game pretty darn cheap.
AOS is crazy overpriced, and too often the sales person trying to sell you a straight is some 20-something cutie who refers to the razor scales as the "handle" LOL! Don't buy a straight razor from someone who doesn't shave with a straight razor. And don't buy your first couple of straights in less than full shave-ready condition.
I strongly suggest a badger as your first brush. Boars have about a month long break-in period and you want good performance right from the start as you learn to shave. A badger doesn't have to be expensive. Try to go with "Pure" grade or above, though even a "Black" badger will still have less scratch than practically any new boar and will hold more water and soap. Get a boar as your second brush if you want to try one.
After your first three shaves or so, I suggest you begin stropping after every shave on the pasted balsa that comes with the Poor Man Strop Kit. Go a couple dozen laps on the green, followed by 3 dozen or more on the red. You should be able to go a long time before the razor needs to be re-honed. Even better, get a bigger balsa, lap it flat on sandpaper glued to a polished marble 12x12 tile, and paste it with .5u and .1u diamond pastes. That's what I use and I never have to re hone at all.
While you are waiting for your gear to arrive, read all the newbie threads and the wiki. Don't make the common mistakes and you might get a decent shave first time out, and certainly by the 4th or 5th shave. Go it on your own, and it is a long process, believe me. THat's how I learned, in pre-internet days, and I made a lot of pink lather and had a lot of raw skin and terrible shaves before I started to get it. Seriously it was probably a year before I was finally satisfied with my shaves, because I didn't have resources like this forum to learn from.
The main things will be:
1 Keep the shave angle low. Lay the razor flat against your cheek, and slowly rotate the SPINE of the razor outward from the face until there is one spine thickness between the spine and the skin. That is your basic shaving angle.
2 STRETCH the skin to be shaven. Tight skin doesn't get cut so easily and it pops the whiskers out so they can be cut easier.
3 Map yoru face. Determine which way yur beard grows over the different parts of your face. Your first pass should definitely be WTG (With The Grain) or as close as practical to it, and NEVER ATG (Against The Grain.) A good first shave is two WTG passes. In fact, the double WTG shave should serve most guys well all the time. After one or two WTG passes and an XTG pass, you could try ATG but you should never NEED to go ATG and it is the cause of much shave trouble, so Don't do it, at least for the first month.
4 LIGHT pressure. If it takes lots of pressure to cut whiskers, your blade likely isn't sharp.
5 place the blade in motion before actually touching skin with it. Sort of a brushing motion. Don't put blade to skin and then start it moving.
6 Take your time. Relather when needed.
7 Learn to lather first. Whatever type of razor you are currently shaving with, you can shave with real lather just as well, or better, than canned foam or gel crap. Prep is important, especially when straight shaving, so learn to do it before touching straight to face. Basically, put a puck of VDH soap in your mug and microwave for 20 seconds. Check it and if it isn't melted, give it 5 seconds at a time until it melts. Watch it that it doesn't foam over or you will have a mess to clean up and the house will smell like VDH all day. Let it cool and solidify. To lather, let hot water stand on the soap in the mug while you run hot water on and through your brush. Dump water from soap, flick excess water from brush. Apply brush to soap with vigorous swirls to pick up soap. Apply brush to wetted face, distributing soap to begin the lather process. Run a tiny bit of hot water onto brush and apply to face. You are introducing more water into the lather. Keep working it until it is nice and slick and looks lathery. The lather mostly provides lubrication and protection for the face, reducing irritation and cuts. The action of the brush also helps to lift and soften the whiskers. Lathering immediately after a hot shower without drying the face is a great way to get good prep with a minimum of fuss.
8 Get a styptic pencil. You WILL cut yourself. Immediate application of styptic will stop bleeding and promote healing. YMMV on also using an alum block after shaving but I also use it for deodorant so since I have it anyway, I use it. It is a mild antiseptic and astringent. You can get it in the form of "Crystal" or "Thai Crystal" brand natural deodorant at Whole Foods in a convenient stick form that will last for years even pulling double duty as shaving and underarm alum.
9 If you don't like the burn of most aftershaves (most of us do, actually!) then get an aftershave balm or a witch hazel based aftershave. Don't make yourself suffer if you can't handle it like a man. But me, I like Clubman, or almost any Bay Rum aftershave, for that great retro smell.
10 Depart from the collective advice of the forum membership AT YOUR PERIL. We have all been there done that and usually learned our lesson to not discount the standard advice thinking it isn't important. We want to get you up to speed quick on your shaving and won't tell you wrong just to be talking.
I left out stuff about stropping and razor care but just read the threads.
AOS is crazy overpriced, and too often the sales person trying to sell you a straight is some 20-something cutie who refers to the razor scales as the "handle" LOL! Don't buy a straight razor from someone who doesn't shave with a straight razor. And don't buy your first couple of straights in less than full shave-ready condition.
I strongly suggest a badger as your first brush. Boars have about a month long break-in period and you want good performance right from the start as you learn to shave. A badger doesn't have to be expensive. Try to go with "Pure" grade or above, though even a "Black" badger will still have less scratch than practically any new boar and will hold more water and soap. Get a boar as your second brush if you want to try one.
After your first three shaves or so, I suggest you begin stropping after every shave on the pasted balsa that comes with the Poor Man Strop Kit. Go a couple dozen laps on the green, followed by 3 dozen or more on the red. You should be able to go a long time before the razor needs to be re-honed. Even better, get a bigger balsa, lap it flat on sandpaper glued to a polished marble 12x12 tile, and paste it with .5u and .1u diamond pastes. That's what I use and I never have to re hone at all.
While you are waiting for your gear to arrive, read all the newbie threads and the wiki. Don't make the common mistakes and you might get a decent shave first time out, and certainly by the 4th or 5th shave. Go it on your own, and it is a long process, believe me. THat's how I learned, in pre-internet days, and I made a lot of pink lather and had a lot of raw skin and terrible shaves before I started to get it. Seriously it was probably a year before I was finally satisfied with my shaves, because I didn't have resources like this forum to learn from.
The main things will be:
1 Keep the shave angle low. Lay the razor flat against your cheek, and slowly rotate the SPINE of the razor outward from the face until there is one spine thickness between the spine and the skin. That is your basic shaving angle.
2 STRETCH the skin to be shaven. Tight skin doesn't get cut so easily and it pops the whiskers out so they can be cut easier.
3 Map yoru face. Determine which way yur beard grows over the different parts of your face. Your first pass should definitely be WTG (With The Grain) or as close as practical to it, and NEVER ATG (Against The Grain.) A good first shave is two WTG passes. In fact, the double WTG shave should serve most guys well all the time. After one or two WTG passes and an XTG pass, you could try ATG but you should never NEED to go ATG and it is the cause of much shave trouble, so Don't do it, at least for the first month.
4 LIGHT pressure. If it takes lots of pressure to cut whiskers, your blade likely isn't sharp.
5 place the blade in motion before actually touching skin with it. Sort of a brushing motion. Don't put blade to skin and then start it moving.
6 Take your time. Relather when needed.
7 Learn to lather first. Whatever type of razor you are currently shaving with, you can shave with real lather just as well, or better, than canned foam or gel crap. Prep is important, especially when straight shaving, so learn to do it before touching straight to face. Basically, put a puck of VDH soap in your mug and microwave for 20 seconds. Check it and if it isn't melted, give it 5 seconds at a time until it melts. Watch it that it doesn't foam over or you will have a mess to clean up and the house will smell like VDH all day. Let it cool and solidify. To lather, let hot water stand on the soap in the mug while you run hot water on and through your brush. Dump water from soap, flick excess water from brush. Apply brush to soap with vigorous swirls to pick up soap. Apply brush to wetted face, distributing soap to begin the lather process. Run a tiny bit of hot water onto brush and apply to face. You are introducing more water into the lather. Keep working it until it is nice and slick and looks lathery. The lather mostly provides lubrication and protection for the face, reducing irritation and cuts. The action of the brush also helps to lift and soften the whiskers. Lathering immediately after a hot shower without drying the face is a great way to get good prep with a minimum of fuss.
8 Get a styptic pencil. You WILL cut yourself. Immediate application of styptic will stop bleeding and promote healing. YMMV on also using an alum block after shaving but I also use it for deodorant so since I have it anyway, I use it. It is a mild antiseptic and astringent. You can get it in the form of "Crystal" or "Thai Crystal" brand natural deodorant at Whole Foods in a convenient stick form that will last for years even pulling double duty as shaving and underarm alum.
9 If you don't like the burn of most aftershaves (most of us do, actually!) then get an aftershave balm or a witch hazel based aftershave. Don't make yourself suffer if you can't handle it like a man. But me, I like Clubman, or almost any Bay Rum aftershave, for that great retro smell.
10 Depart from the collective advice of the forum membership AT YOUR PERIL. We have all been there done that and usually learned our lesson to not discount the standard advice thinking it isn't important. We want to get you up to speed quick on your shaving and won't tell you wrong just to be talking.
I left out stuff about stropping and razor care but just read the threads.
Do what slash says.
To to clarify, melting the soap is just to get it to fit your particular mug and is only done the first time you put it in that mug. It's not actually necessary. You can wet the bottom and it will stick eventually. Mug too small? Shave some soap off the sides with a cheese grater and smash the puck down on top of the damp shavings. Not all soaps can melt like vdh.
also, LIGHT pressure means as little pressure as you can while keeping the edge touching your skin. Too much pressure causes razor burn and nicks. Watch the toe and heel of the blade--they like to get you when you aren't looking. If gotten several little cuts in my ear lobes from not paying close enough attention to the toe of the blade and they just don't want to stop bleeding.
To to clarify, melting the soap is just to get it to fit your particular mug and is only done the first time you put it in that mug. It's not actually necessary. You can wet the bottom and it will stick eventually. Mug too small? Shave some soap off the sides with a cheese grater and smash the puck down on top of the damp shavings. Not all soaps can melt like vdh.
also, LIGHT pressure means as little pressure as you can while keeping the edge touching your skin. Too much pressure causes razor burn and nicks. Watch the toe and heel of the blade--they like to get you when you aren't looking. If gotten several little cuts in my ear lobes from not paying close enough attention to the toe of the blade and they just don't want to stop bleeding.
- Thread starter
- #5
All of your advice sounds great, I already use a Merkur 34c DE to shave and have been using D R Harris Soap to shave, occasionally I will use my ToBS Sandalwood also
Great thread and advice. Thank you. I am also considering getting a straight soon.
Similar threads
