Thread: Beginner's luck?...

... Were the stars in alignment?... Clean living (probably not)... l dunno!

But whatever the reason, I just completed my first straight razor shave! Did my entire neck (I have a full beard), without so much as a weeper (we doan need no stinkin' styptic pencil!), and no razor burn! I woudn't call it a BBS shave, but it's at least a DFS. And certainly better than my typical shaves with my Gillette® Fusion® ProGlide™ Power Razor!

Seriously, it went incredibly well. Most likely because of all my preparatory reading and practicing. Here are the details:

• Soaked my cheapo Van Der Hagen brush in hot water
• Washed up
• Applied a hot towel for five minutes
• Bowl lathered, using Art of Shaving Sandalwood Cream
• Took a deep breath, and laid the 5/8ths Griffon XX #60 Carbo Magnetic spike point razor...yeah, the one that I won here last month!... to the side of my neck
• With the blade flat against my skin, I raised the spine slightly, and began the first S-N stroke...while keeping a wary eye on that spike point!

I was a little surprised by how loud the razor was. There was no pulling, but there sure were lots of whiskers in the lather on the blade! To make a long story short, I shaved the left side using my right hand, and switched hands to do the right side. After re-lathering, I shaved both sides S-N, which I found to be more difficult. The most difficult areas were around my Adam's Apple, and the two surgical scars below it. I was tempted to try some more, but figured that I was pushing my luck; we all know how the gods feel about hubris. So I cleaned up and applied some Neutrogena aftershave.

I sure hope this wasn't a fluke!

I know...I know, "without pictures, it didn't happen". I didn't think to take any "before" shots, but here are the results (the apparent redness is from slapping on aftershave; it's NOT razor burn):







Some of you may be wondering why I didn't use the brush and soap that were parts of my winnings. It's just that I'd already been practicing making lather with my other stuff, and I didn't want too many unknowns in the mix for my first shave. That was probably a good call, because that was the best lather I've made to date.

Here's a special shout out to str8razor​ for the wonderful honing he did: Thanks, Bill, now I know how it feels to shave with a properly honed razor!