Today is the day!

[Tricky]

Gentleman,
I am just finishing watching a few videos of people shaving with the straight razor and I think I may have sufficiently built up the courage. My razor and strop came in from Kenrup and now is the time! I about to go hop in the shower, lather up with Tabac, and take all the time in the world I need to not lose a nose or cut the jugular or carotid! I think I will take a picture of the setup before it all goes horridly awry

 

[mainaman]

Good luck,
just remember to keep the angle 30* or less, and stretch.

 

[JPM]

Good for you. I agree with the 30 degree angle. It is really much shallower than you think. At least that's what I figured out after a few shaves.

 

[ama015]

Good luck!

Tell us how it went

 

[Tricky]

I am going to chalk up this experience as a victory because I ended up with no cuts or weepers and I have very little irritation. Here's the play by play

I was a bit apprehensive, but almost immediately with my right hand (dominant hand) I found the cheeks to be rather simple. My left hand had a terrible time and I cut very little while going against the grain. After working with the left hand, I got things worked out to the point where I was satisfied with the results. I did not need touch ups here.

The jaw line was very simple for me strangely enough. The growth of my hair allowed me some simple sweeting motions and I was satisfied with the results here.

The chin and the upper lip were a totally different story. It was pretty bad. I think I am still too timid as I had a really tough time just getting the blade to start on the upper lip. I felt like the starting motion of the razor was the toughest aspect. I did not get anywhere near a passable shave here. The chin was a similar situation. I could just not get started or I felt like I had to use more pressure than I wanted to remove hair. Did not get anywhere near good results on chin or upper lip.

Places around the adam's apple of my neck were really easy, but due to my strange hair growth pattern, it will take me a good deal of time and contortion of my hands to find ways to shave this successful. I believe this area will take the longest for me to figure out.

I got a little excited and did a few different passes WTG only and I think this is why irritation came from. That is OK, as I probably let the novelty and newness of the situation get the better of my judgement. I did go back and clean up every with just a single WTG of the DE, but there was no way I could go out in public without it

So I feel like this shave was a success. I know where my biggest improvements will come and I feel like a lot will come with confidence and sureness with the blade. I am already thinking up a few different ideas how to attack the upper lip and the chin area.

I took this picture of materials for historical significance And yes, I am sorry for the bad picture and thank goodness I didn't need the styptic pencil

 

[chilipepper]

Awesome, feels good doesn't it? For the first few shaves I only did WTG with my straight and it takes a while to just get all the somewhat contorted positions figured out to shave WTG. After you get a bit more comfortable WTG then you can start some basic ATG or XTG strokes to see how it goes.

Keep working at it until you get a pretty good shave with the straight WTG. Clean up as necessary with the DE and then start working on the rest. Like the posts before, pay close attention to the blade angle and skin stretching. If I concentrate on those two areas I can really transformed my shave.

Congrats and welcome to the addiction... just for good measure keep the styptic pencil handy! Ryan

 

[cooltide]

congrats on the first of many
when i started first i used my DE as a touch up
no pressure = no burn,nicks
best of luck

 

[vitaman]

Nice story! Congrats and keep us posted on future shaves.

 

[Luc]

Good work!

+1, keep us posted!

 

[flylot]

Congrats! Welcome to the club. It only gets better from here!