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Hi all. Well I did it. First shave with the Straight Razor today. ;) Not bad. Did both sides of my face and ventured down the neck. NO Nicks. Finished up with the Safety Razor that I have become pretty good at. Hope the same will happen with the Straight Razor. Only thing I seem to be having trouble with is keeping the Shave Soap from drying out on my face.
Sounds like a successful first go. Not unusual to loose a bit of lather the first few times because of the extra care you're taking. Thicken it up a bit or re-lather as needed.
Thanks Brenngun, I tried adding a little Glycerin to the lather, seemed to help a little. Thinking about putting a fine layer of Jojoba oil on my face first then lathering up.
Hi flintlock!
I had the same problem. It was really frustrating. I have hard water and the Musgo I had wouldn't lather worth anything. I too started to add glycerin. Still nothing. Didn't matter how much water or how little.
I switched to a simple VHD deluxe shave soape from Walmart and there was lather all over the place. It stayed and stayed and never disappeared.
What soap are you using, for the record?
You can also try using bottled water.
Well done and welcome to the forum. In the beginning a shave can take up to an hour, so your lather can certainly dry on your face even if you have made it correctly. Just dip your brush in some hot water and go over the lather on your face with the wet brush; this can be enough to moisten it. It REALLY is important to have a correctly wet lather, or else your razor can dig in to your face. I think a thin, water lather is better than a gluggy thick one.
Don't rush to do more than one pass, really. Get good at one pass first; the rest will come later. I found it took me really up to a year to get really good at it.
What they said. I still go over patches with new lather if it is feeling a bit sticky, you really don't want sticky lather it will end up facilitating some sort of pain or injury. I make my.lather with soap, cream, glycerin and bottled water. I also squeeze all the left over lather out if my brush and back on top of my soap, which lives in the bottom of my lathering bowl.
I use col conk melted into a Giant mug with glycerine and cream. The heat lamps in my bathroom seem to dry it out a bit. I just wet the tip of my brush and a few rounds of the mug and Im good to go again. When you first start its normal to go slow and it can dry a bit so relathering or only lathering the section your doing is quite normal. Making enough to fill the brush in the first instance also helps.
Hi Siguy, I am using Proraso some shaves and Omega on others. Brenngun, I have soft water here. Carlmaloschneider, Your right it does take awhile to shave, I'm going slow right now. I do find myself re-lathering a few times during my shave. " I also squeeze all the left over lather out if my brush and back on top of my soap, which lives in the bottom of my lathering bowl". Me to edhewitt.
Thanks for the heads up eddy79. How about the wool-fat soaps I've been hearing about? Would they Help with Lubrication?
Thanks all,
Anthony
I don't know personally but I have heard that MWF is quite fussy to get a good lather with. I do know that musgo cream is pretty slick.
I had a shave tonight and had to touch up my lather 2/3 of the way through, don't sweat it.
Congrats, sound like you are off to a good start. Like all have said so far, when you start out with a straight it is pretty slow going with the shaving and soap drying out is common. You could re lather the dry parts as you get to them or just lather the part you want to work on as you go.
It is also easy to make the lather too thick/pasty which will let it dry out quicker too. You could try adding a bit of water but not to the point of having it runny. It can be hard to find the right soap to water ratio to get a good lather.
I don't know if going to MWF will give you more lubrication over what you are using now and some find it finicky to lather. I have and use both Proraso and MWF and if you get the lather right both seem to lubricate well enough. Maybe just play around with how much water you use to make the lather.
Bob