Thread: My disastrous first shave.

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.

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.

Wellcome to SRP,do not give up,take baby steps.it will get better,takes a longtime.

Wow mattabaum one heck of an adventure there.
It does sound like your lather was off, most brushes will loose a few bristles when new (I said most not all).
Stropping takes some practice (many suggest using a butter knife).
you can get this and if you let us know where you are there is probably someone close enough to meet up with you and help you get started.
How bad did the blade get it we can probably get you fixed up there as well.
I hope your healing is quick and I am sorry to hear it started out rough.
If there is any thing I can do for you just let me know.

Regards
Pat

That is a tough first shave. All the worst has happened, so it's all up hill from here. First, spend some time reading. Post your location in the user data, the stuff posted on the left. After you study up some more and get your razor fixed, or buy another, meet up with someone that can help you.

As you are learning pay particular attention to videos, they will help a bit. Getting a feel for the razor and shaving though takes some practice.

Consider getting a Parker shavette so you can get some straight razor like experience under your belt. Until you can shave w/o using pressure or dropping the blade it's really too difficult a task to use a real razor, strop, etc.,

If your lather is too wet, turn your brush upside down, hold it over the sink, and squeeze the bottom portion of the bristles, and slide your fingers upward. Hold the bristles in an ok sign. The water will drip out, the lather rises. Gravity in action.

Do not give up, but do slow down.

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.

Wow, tough outing there. But let's slow down a bit and put things in perspective. The strop issue is common. If you sliced it really bad, consider a bench strop from classic shaving for about $25. It's easier to use and cheap. The lather and hospital grade injury should be able to be avoided on your next attempt. Just relax and have some respect for the blades ability to do some damage. But I think you'll do that without my advice now anyway. And finally the pulling, adjust your blade angle and make short deliberate strokes WITH the grain of your beard. Have another run at it. The first time with one of these is rarely memorable for all that went so well.

We should have a sub forum entitled "the worst shaving disasters" and give a consolation prize every now and then.

That was definitely a bad experience. You need to review what went wrong so you don't repeat it. Sometimes you are not in the best frame of mind to use a straight or you just get a bad feeling when you pick up the razor. Many of us rely on a DE on days like that.

Dude you're kill'n me. Words of encouragement it can only get better from here!

First read up on information in these forums. Tackle it one step at a time instead of everything all at once. Lets start off with the blade. When you say the razor was pre-honed does that mean it was professionally honed before being sent to you? Now if it was purchased at SRD it came with a second honing certificate and now is the time to use it. In the future should you ever drop a SR just get out of the way and always keep your hands dry..

By the time you heal up your razor will have been returned for round two.

Stopping go slow spine firat always. When the razor touches the strop sipne first. Most new to this will destroy a strop or two before getting the hang of it so just get an inexpensive one to learn on. A paddle strop will cut down the learning curve.

It's common for bristles to fall out of a new brush not a bunch but just a few hairs. Practice lathering and watching instructional videos fron YouTube. At least lathering you're not going to hurt yourself.

If the blade sticks to your face youre not holding it at the correct angle. It's too layes back. Look at the spine when shaving and 1-2 spine widths is about right off your skin for the correct angle. Hang in there. Oh yea you can use glue to repair the strop depending on how badly it was damaged.

Back up just a bit and give a timeline for clarification... You say you cut your Strop but the SR came Shave Ready... Did you damage the strop prior to shaving? If so, you may have negatively affected the edge.

Encouragement: Hang in there! I don't think anyone's First Shave has ever been Best or likely what they would later call Good. You have your Gear and that is a HUGE first step accomplished! First, give ae much detail about damage and potential issues related to the SR first as that is key. Pretty much all Brushes shed so post the brand and someone will be able to compare your issues to what they have seen. TOBS is awesome... I use that almost exclusively... Did your lather come out too Thin or too Thick? I have played with the mix of TOBS a ton and found if it is too thin try a couple more minutes of vigorous swirling with the brush and it will likely come around. Too Thick and just add a bit of water then vigorous with the brush again. Something else to try as you are checking your lather is to scrape the lather off the sides of the bristles before vigorously swirling again.

Get info from your Thread, hang in there and get ready for a much better (but still nowhere near Easy or Good) Second Shave! :-)

It gets soooo much better!

Thank you for all the advice. The cut should heal well.

The main concern I have at this point is my blade. there is one tiny little nick in the blade and Im wondering if it would just be ok to continue using. How much damage is ok? And if it is damaged to bad what should I do with it?

Originally Posted by Prahston

Back up just a bit and give a timeline for clarification... You say you cut your Strop but the SR came Shave Ready... Did you damage the strop prior to shaving? If so, you may have negatively affected the edge.

Encouragement: Hang in there! I don't think anyone's First Shave has ever been Best or likely what they would later call Good. You have your Gear and that is a HUGE first step accomplished! First, give ae much detail about damage and potential issues related to the SR first as that is key. Pretty much all Brushes shed so post the brand and someone will be able to compare your issues to what they have seen. TOBS is awesome... I use that almost exclusively... Did your lather come out too Thin or too Thick? I have played with the mix of TOBS a ton and found if it is too thin try a couple more minutes of vigorous swirling with the brush and it will likely come around. Too Thick and just add a bit of water then vigorous with the brush again. Something else to try as you are checking your lather is to scrape the lather off the sides of the bristles before vigorously swirling again.

Get info from your Thread, hang in there and get ready for a much better (but still nowhere near Easy or Good) Second Shave! :-)

It gets soooo much better!

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