Thread: My disastrous first shave.

Originally Posted by Trimmy72

I've made small repairs with success using liquid band Aid, it's held up great I can't even see where I made the repair.

I think the OP is referring to the chip in his blade....

Originally Posted by mattabaum

I bought my razor from classic shaving and it was professionally honed. I cut it on my first pass. This was before my shave.

The up-side then would be that you may have affected the edge so that it was no longer Shave Ready prior to actually shaving! So, you really can't count this experience toward what using a Shave Ready SR is really like.

Once you get your SR fixed you'll be all set for your "first" experience with a Shave Ready SR! ;-) Definitely keep working on lather during the interim and it should be a much smaller issue when you try again!

There is a learning curve. Read about it. Slow down. Get the blade fixed. DO NOT buy a hone. Listen to your elders.

There is no such thing as INSTANT SUCCESS in the world of straight shaving. (nor in anything worth doing)

Originally Posted by WadePatton

There is a learning curve. Read about it. Slow down. Get the blade fixed. DO NOT buy a hone. Listen to your elders.

There is no such thing as INSTANT SUCCESS in the world of straight shaving. (nor in anything worth doing)

+1

...what Wade said....

Bad luck there. Like the others have said take your time study the forum everything improves with proper time and practice. My first shave I had a blade that was supposed to be shave ready and truly wasn't. Larry from whipped dog helped me to get it shave ready and with baby steps and time the shave improved immensely. Couldn't have gotten better without advice and pointers from this forum. Again take you time don't give up and better shaves are in your future!

Originally Posted by mattabaum

My shipment of straight razor, cream, brush and strop arrived in the mail today. To start, i cut a nice gash in the strop. Second, the bristles were falling out of my pure badger brush. My lather was pretty bad as well. I used Taylor of old bond street cream and i suppose I used to much water in my lather. My razor was pre-honed so this is not the problem, but throughout the whole shave, my blade was sticking to my face and tugging the hair. When I finished, I began drying my razor and it slipped from my hands, cutting an emergency room quality gash in my wrist and dinging up the blade as it hit the floor. I could A) Use some advice on how to do it properly, B) Use some encouragement and reasons why I shouldnt bring my fusion pro glide out of retirement.

I too had some nasty cuts when I was first starting out. I had one that was a flap of skin about 1 inch long on my upper lip. It took about 2 hours to stop bleeding. It healed quite well, however, being made by a nice, sharp razor.

I once fumbled and dropped a brand new Hart 6/8 onto the bathroom quartz counter, leaven a nice big dent in the edge.

It all gets better (thank goodness) with practice. After a few weeks I threw away all of my triple edge disposables and never looked back.

Hang in there and it will get better. It's well worth the effort.

Patience dude. It's a learned art. By art that means that it's not an exact formula to get it right. These folks on here are an awesome resource to learn the basics of how to use the SR so good on you for getting on here. I'm learning as well and can feel some of your frustrations. I'm just too hard headed to give it up lol. Follow the advice and keep at it man!

Originally Posted by mattabaum

My shipment of straight razor, cream, brush and strop arrived in the mail today. To start, i cut a nice gash in the strop. Second, the bristles were falling out of my pure badger brush. My lather was pretty bad as well. I used Taylor of old bond street cream and i suppose I used to much water in my lather. My razor was pre-honed so this is not the problem, but throughout the whole shave, my blade was sticking to my face and tugging the hair. When I finished, I began drying my razor and it slipped from my hands, cutting an emergency room quality gash in my wrist and dinging up the blade as it hit the floor. I could A) Use some advice on how to do it properly, B) Use some encouragement and reasons why I shouldnt bring my fusion pro glide out of retirement.

Hi,

Sorry to hear about your bad experience, don't let it put you off though.

I've only been straight shaving for a few weeks but the route I've taken is to buy a shavette first, that way I can learn some of the skills of shaving without having to worry about honing, stropping or damaging the blade etc and can concentrate on the shaving skills first. Once I get competent at that I'll gradually add the rest bit by bit.

Next on the agenda is brush, soap and mug, I can then learn the art of getting a good lather for use with my shavette.

Then I'll get a strop and probably practice with a butter knife while still using the shavette to get the proper stropping skills without damaging the strop/blade of a SR. After that then I'll probably buy a straight razor and start using it while getting it honed by a professional when needed. After that then who knows, I may continue to get it honed by a pro. This may sound like a lot of steps but I'm hoping it'll all click into place quite quickly. I find it's best not to overload the brain with a lot of any new skills at once and to gradually introduce them step at a time whether it be playing golf or shaving with a straight razor.

These are only my thoughts and reasoning for going down the route I've gone down, it may help if you practice with a shavette first to get a bit of confidence, I certain couldn't say it would as I'm a newbie also.

Hope you get to where you need to be at the end of it all anyway.

As others have noted get the razor rehoned before using it again.

Also if it makes you feel better I actually stabbed myself in the cheek with the toe of my razor my second or third shave and then sliced off the very tip of my left index finger in the rush to close the blade and put it down to staunch the blood coming from my face. I think most of us have something silly happen to them in their early shaves. Though I do think your story is the winner.

I had my first straight shave yesterday, like a tard I didn't read into it too much myself and sorta just rushed right in with a $250 razor and did my whole face. I had been using the brush, mug, and soap for about a week prior to getting my straight so I did know that much about it.
I sharpen my own knives and have used a strop on some of them just because I like my blades to be as sharp as they can possibly be so I knew about that from prior experience, so no chopped up strop either. I did however nick the hell outta my face LOL! Toward my chin on my jawline on both sides there are several tally marks LOL! I too look like I got in a fight with a cat, nothing serious though. I generally sharpen my knives to the point where I can shave some hair off of my arm without a tug so I actually got the angle right on my face for the most part, the chin area is a tricky one though bud, it gave me hell lol, my face still burns a bit but I must say I really enjoyed the process, it was quite nice. I actually just ordered another new straight razor, this time I didn't spend a weeks pay on it though. Sight unseen razor from Whipped Dog, I just heard of them on a previous post here, so I stopped by and there they were, sight unseen razors for $41 dollars, you really cannot beat that, I mean really? $41 dollars and shave ready? I'd go do that brother, don't chop your face up using a nicked edge, trust me, you may not be able to see it too well, but know for a fact that you WILL feel it! I've only been straight shaving for a day now, I'm going to be an optimist today and say it's all rosy from here on out! Good luck man!