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What and where should a new wet shaver for his first month of shaving

Welcome! And enjoy your gear! Stick to it for at least a couple of months so as to develop your technique.

You need nothing more than what you just got. Unless you want to a ticket to the BOSC ward.

Off the top of my head I don't remember exactly what the name of the razor is, but somebody will come along with the answer pretty soon.
I think you mean the Gillette 7 o’clock or Gillette Blue razors. Available in India indeed. And the Blue also in other places I believe. 3 piece razor so you can swap handles.
 

Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker

Likes a fat handle in his hand

Hello there @Osyri Welcome to B&B, and welcome to traditional wet shaving with a DE as well! :)

I agree with you, B&B is full of very helpful and knowledgeable people.......That will deliver you to the rabbit hole before the week is over. HAHA! If you could read my shirt, it says, "SWCT, B&B Enabler, DE Division."

When I first started out on B&B almost 2-years ago, I also started with only a few items as well. I just wanted to say that I am proud of you for starting out small, only but the essentials. When your just beginning to learn traditional wet shaving, starting with just the essentials, this is the way!

Hopefully the Razorock pre-shave works out good for you, I swear by the PAA Pre-Shave cubes myself. I am sure you will enjoy the aftershave splash, just remember, don't slap it on your face like Kevin Mcalister in Home Alone, that is not the way. The recommendation for aftershave, is to rub it into your skin for 30-seconds to get the full effect.

I haven't looked up that shave soap to see whether or not it is Tallow based or veggy based. So many shave soaps these days have been moving onto veggy based soaps. For some folks, Tallow works best, and for other's, they don't mind the new veggy soaps. It will be interesting to see which way you fall on, once you've had a chance to try out a Tallow based soap, VS a veggy soap.

Synthetic brushes used to be completely awful years ago. Having said that, synthetic brushes have come a long way over the years, and if that synthetic brush you bought has a dense knot, and it splays well, while maintaining some backbone, I will guess that you are going to like it for your first brush. I say first brush, cause you know as well as I do, that your going to buy more. I have 5 myself lol.

I have never used any Razorock razors, but I am fully aware that they make a lot of excellent razors. My only hope for your, is that you didn't buy an aggressive razor right out of the gate. So I hope that razor is either a mild or medium aggression at most. It will be interesting to see how you like it. Gosh I am just so excited for you right now, first time DE traditional wet shaver.

I tell you what fine sir, this is going to open up a whole new world to you, a world of unrelenting mitigated rabbit hole spending, of the supreme variety. Oh what fun awaits you my friend. Thats a lovely sized blade sampler kit you ordered. I am sure you will enjoy at least one of those blades, if not several! Quick word of advice for DE shaving, we all have to learn this.

Maintain your blade angle at all times, and DO NOT use any pressure. Let the razor do the work. If you have course whiskers, I find shorter cutting strokes work better then long cutting strokes. Ooooooo, I am just so excited for you, I want you to have your items now, so you can shave, and let me know if you enjoyed the experience. HEHE

Speaking of that. Let me tell you what, there is no greater pampering for a man, then applying shave soap to his face, with a brush. Its literally the xen moment of the shave, a feeling of luxury, and a desire for more. Some folks even lather up for 4-minutes, simply because they enjoy it so much. I personally don't take that long to lather up, usually only about 1-minute for me. But yeah, so much fun! 😁
 
welcome to the rabbit hole.

I will suggest one more or two thing.

Reflect on your shave after each shave, write it down, it will help you get better at it. Join one of the group, may I suggest the GRUME ... as one said above stick with what you got and work on technique, I have what 8 10 razors and only use 1, the second one I bought, I got plenty of blade and generally stick to one type only, once you found what works for you start to venture on soap AS etc ...
 
Maintain your blade angle at all times, and DO NOT use any pressure. Let the razor do the work. If you have course whiskers, I find shorter cutting strokes work better then long cutting strokes. Ooooooo, I am just so excited for you, I want you to have your items now, so you can shave, and let me know if you enjoyed the experience. HEHE
😁
Your enthusiasm is contagious! and Thank You!

Now I'm even more hyped to to have my first shave with all the essentials and I promise you I will write my first experience on this forum and dedicated it to you!
 
Some great advice here, and I want to emphasis what @Guido75 said - give it a few months.

Experienced folks can take any razor and blade and have a great shave. Me? I've only been at this for 6 months and only now am I beginning to get a handle on all of the variables.

One thing that doesn't help me is my OCD tendencies - going for too close of a shave.

Before I found this place, I watched a lot of Geofatboy's videos (Shave Nation).

This video from Mühle has a lot of great technique tips:


... Thom
 

Dave himself

Wee Words of Wisdom
It's probably been said here but your prep can be just as important as the tools you're going to use to shave, I know mine is. Like a lot of people on here I shower before a shave. I shampoo my whiskers and also use conditioner to soften them. Choose a time when you don't have to rush, take your time and enjoy your shave. My shave time is my time, when get to close the door on the world and for a small period of time forget my worries and cares.
 
Some great advice here, and I want to emphasis what @Guido75 said - give it a few months.

Experienced folks can take any razor and blade and have a great shave. Me? I've only been at this for 6 months and only now am I beginning to get a handle on all of the variables.

One thing that doesn't help me is my OCD tendencies - going for too close of a shave.

Before I found this place, I watched a lot of Geofatboy's videos (Shave Nation).

This video from Mühle has a lot of great technique tips:


... Thom
Thanks for this, I have a pretty bad razor burn and irration right on my left side underjaw area, your post and that video gave me an idea what I did wrong.
 
Thanks for this, I have a pretty bad razor burn and irration right on my left side underjaw area, your post and that video gave me an idea what I did wrong.
Regarding the linked video, some areas are impossible to make "flat". My chin is one such problem area, and it's my most tender spot. In another thread, I was advised to take really small strokes (say, 5mm long) around my chin - to not try to follow the curves in one pass. This has really helped me.

Another mistake we make in transitioning from carts is taking multiple swipes over an area (after scraping away the lather). This is a recipe for irritation.

You'll read comments about beard reduction. Basically, this means accepting that you won't remove everything on the first pass. Accept what you removed and go after it with fresh lather.

You'll see comments about buffing an area which is a slightly different concept - going back and forth in short strokes while maintaining razor contact to redistribute a bit of lather while performing a touchup. I tend to avoid doing this. I don't quite have the touch.

... Thom
 
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