Thread: New guy, first post, need some advice/help

prep,stretching and angle perhaps ? My first thoughts.salute.

It's hard to tell, and you'll have to figure it out largely yourself, so think what could be it. First the razor can cut arm hair - that's a good sign. Is the facial hair so much different than arm hair? Then you already have experience with a DE.

It could be helpful to draw parallels between DE and straight razor.

So, may be take a DE blade and see how it cuts arm hair - do you see similarities, big differences?
Next consider that the difference between a DE and a straight razor shaving isn't a big one - you draw a blade across your skin and it cuts the hairs. With a DE you have a special holder, but that's still only a holder. May be try the armhair again - shave a small patch with your DE carefully paying attention to how the blade is angled with respect to your skin, how much pressure is exerted, then take the straight razor and try shaving a small patch right next to the first one angling the razor the same way the DE blade was angled, moving it the same way, it should have similar pressure against the skin. If that works on your arm it may be easier to replicate the same thing on your face (use a flat part below a sideburn).

You could also look for somebody in your area who could help you in person.

I think there may be other members near you. My geography is even worse than my spelling. A one on one with a senior member or a mentor might be able to get to the bottom of things.

The important thing to remember is that you will NOT be a pro shaver straight out of the gate even with your DE experience. SR shaving is one of many experiences that has a huge learning curve that takes time to overcome, do not be discouraged. Finding a mentor in your area will do wonders for reducing that curve and send you on the right path to successful shaving bliss.

Thanks to all of you for excellent suggestions. I also wrote to Larry and he gave me some great tips to try as well. So for now I think it's back to the drawing board to sort it out and hopefully get the hang of the technique. Thanks for everything.

Much of this will be redundant for a DE shaver but you might see something that helps you in here..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93zQP7CToWQ

OK it's been awhile since my post asking for help. I tried whatever I could reasonably try and I was not able to get the first razor to shave. So I took a gamble and ordered a shave ready Gold Dollar for $23 from a user on another forum site just to be sure. My thought was if the new razor wouldn't shave I'd know it was me. However, I'm happy to report that I had my first successful shave with a straight razor (cheeks only) today. It was much easier than I thought. There was obviously something wrong with my first razor. I don't want to blame Larry as it's probably something that I did. I'm sure the first time I tried it I couldn't make it work because of technique, then I'm guessing I somehow ruined the edge by improper stropping. I also noticed that the Gold Dollar is very heavy with a lot of metal and weight to the blade while the "sight unseen" razor from Larry was very very light, small and thin. Maybe I just need a little more mass to plow through my beard.

In any case, I thank you all again for your suggestions. I'm on my way now and I hope to continue to get better and enjoy this new aspect of my hobby.

Good luck with the razor that you bought from the bad list. Maybe you,ll be one of the few with an adequate one