Feedback on my technique?

Hey all, I recorded my first straight razor shave, and I'm looking for some advice.

Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DFTvVob5ms

It's kind of long, and I definitely wouldn't mind if you skipped around in the video. But I'm looking for feedback on both my soap building technique, and my actual shaving technique. If there is anything that you think I should change, please let me know.

As for actual results: it wasn't the closest shave of my life, but considering I had a full beard, I think it went pretty well. I have a tiny cut on my chin, and a bit of razor burn around the cut. But, all in all, I think I'll take it.

Thank you all so much. This forum has made my dream of straight razor shaving possible!


~Darron

Darron, Love your enthusiasm. I have a feeling future generations in your family will benefit from your teaching.
1.) Your instinct to add more water to your lather building is correct. Your lather definitely needs more moisture. Build more lather with swirling motions. Less painting motions. More moisture will build more lather. The razor will glide better. Less pulling. You may want to add a preshave cream. It will also help to keep your lather from drying out so fast. It's a balance you will figure out with more practice.
2.) Your shaving angles and technique look pretty good.
3.) You'll need to incorporate skin stretching. It will help to get you a closer shave.
Overall a very good first shave despite the dry lather. Keep at it.

You obviously researched well the subject of SR shaving and it paid big dividends for you, congrats. To me that was a very impressive first go, especially starting with a full beard. Gotta agree with Brenngun about the lather and stretching the skin. Take her slow and enjoy yourself.

Bob

Good stuff, Darron.:)
It takes guts to post a vid of your first shave, so hats off to you. Oh, bonus points for using an heirloom razor.

My following comments are general observations, but they might help. I do not consider myself an expert in the least.
Lathering: You might have loaded the brush bit more than necessary. I struggled with using too much soap and not enough water in my first month of wet shaving. The result was a pathetic, thin lather that dried out.
It might also help to splash some water on your face just before you pick up your brush to lather.
Shaving: Your blade angle looked okay from what I saw. I find Evaluating blade angle while watching a video difficult.
There was not very much skin stretching in the video.
It look like you might have rested the blade on the skin before starting the stroke toward the end of the video. Watch out, it's easy to cut yourself that way.

Overall, you are off to a good start. Might I recomend a couple of videos? I watch videos like these, practice, and watch again.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...beginners.html
http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...-test-vid.html

Finally, Welcome to SRP, Darron! And good shaving:tu

p.s. I know some of what I wrote is a repeat of previous advice, but I had already typed this before I saw Brenngun's and Bob H's posts.

Good job, I would just rinse your face completely when your lather needs to be refreshed. Personally, I like lathering my whole face, shaving half my face, rinsing everything off, lather the whole face again, then shave the other side. Like others mentioned, experiment with your water to soap ratio (you don't have to actually shave to do this, hand-lathering for testing is also good to feel the difference in consistency as you add more and more water until the lather finally breaks down) to find what works best for your particular soap. Lather not only protects your skin and helps the razor glide, but it also helps keep moisture on your face. Remember to re-wet your face when you relater and when you refresh your lather, otherwise if there is no moisture on your face, your facial hair will actually draw the moisture out of your lather, which dries your lather out.
Also, as mentioned before, skin stretching is key.

Good luck and have fun

Wow, your first shave went so much better than mine. It was nice to see the big clumps of beard fall away. The last time I had a beard I was using a DE and had to use a hair clipper to take it down first. You almost make me want to grow one just to shave it off, heh.

As everyone says, stretch that skin. I always have to stretch the area under my jaw up and then down too, to get at the whiskers there. I'm still trying to figure out my chin. If I'm going to bleed, that's the most likely place.