Beginners Progress or Not So Much

[coachmike]

I see many newcomers post here when they start to wet shave. They post many questions, which is awesome because that's how we all learned, and get helpful answers.

My idea in this thread is to have the new guys come back and post the advances they have made in shaving , any problem areas that they may need help in tackling or even new questions that have arisen since

they started out and never saw coming. Maybe if you are one that has had little or no success this would be a good way for us to help you get on course. Let's hear it!

[WadePatton]

Most of the shaving/honing problems i've yet to conquer end in "AD". whaddayah gone doo?

[coachmike]

"AD" is part of the fun that keeps us all coming back here.

[crouton976]

I'm about two weeks shy of the one year mark since I began shaving with a straight. Of all the challenges I've faced during the learning curve, I would say that building a good lather is what I've struggled with the most. Angle, pressure, general technique, stropping and honing (at least the razors I own, anyway) have been easy in comparison to building a good lather (not to say that they each haven't had their challenges).

You know what method I've found to be 100% effective, absotively, posolutely (wait, scratch that... reverse it) foolproof?

Do you?


Do you really wanna know?


Huh?



PRACTICE, PRACTICE, EXPERIMENTATION AND MORE PRACTICE!!

Seriously, if you shave every other day, practice on your days off. Give yourself an extra 15 mins. each day if you shave every day. Try adding more water, less water, soaking the puck, using a boar brush, using a badger brush, etc.

In short, go nuts! eventually, you'll figure out the secret to each type of soap you own eventually (though, I gotta admit, I'm still trying to crack Williams).

Just throwin' in my $.02...

[coryschmidt]

Great idea for a thread! I've made a lot of progress due to the helpful brethren of the forum.

I struggled at first confusing whisker resistance with 'pulling' so I questioned if I was doing something wrong or if the blade wasn't sharp enough, especially as I used it 5 or 6 times. I started with an SRD razor so I knew that it started sharp but after a few shaves it would dull so my baseline was skewed. Plus, when I tried to touch it up with Chromium Oxide my stropping technique wasn't the best so it wasn't very effective. It has taken me many weeks to discover when a razor needs to be touched up with CO and when I'll need to touch it up with the hone.

I guess to sum up it took a while to start reducing variables enough to know what the right solution was to each of the problems that came up when I started. Pressure, sharpness, blade angle, beard prep, beard type, razor width and type, etc. all play a role in the quality of the shave and it just takes practice to figure out what your baselines are. Then you can start to tweak things to see how it affects your shave. Patience and practice are the keys.

That was kind of rambling but I think it captured my experience.

[BDRebel]

Just short of a year here, and some of the things I have learned:
As a beginner, it is extremely easy to kill the perfect edge that Lynn gave you -- whether bad stropping, technique, or other "sin".
It is not difficult to use stones to regain the edge, but then again it is equally as easy to destroy your blade.
After a while, your blood vessels will cower at the sight of your blade. At that point, you will notice that you bleed less, if at all after a shave.
You will suffer some type of acquisition disorder -- whether it be soap, blades or bay rum. Be prepared for it.
And, as stated above, Practice, Practice, and then Practice some more.

One thing I still have to grasp is how to shave my fu#%*ng chin It is getting better though.

[coachmike]

One thing I still have to grasp is how to shave my chin It is getting better though.

This was a funny one that hit a nerve for me. When I started with straights I grew a goatee so as not to deal with the chin..LOL I kept it and still have it after all this time. I guess that was my solution back then.

As for building a good lather, many things enter into the equation on this one. Soaps vary and you have to tweak your lather building sometimes between one soap and another. Then there is the issue of what the water is like by where you are. I notice the difference when i go on vacation to other parts. The good news is that once you get it down, nothing can stop you. I would think one of the biggest factors is the amount of water we add when building a lather.