Help! First you shave, and...
... not good.
Today i received my Whipped Dog Sight Unseen with extra strop. My normal prep, shower, rinse, 2 min wet lather soak. I did make sure to make a more moist, but not runny lather. Had shaved the day before so it was short. It was very uncomfortable. I didn't expect it to go flawless, but i did stretch as much as i could and i played with a lot of angles, from very shallow (skippy) to very steep (draggy, grippy). The very shallow seemed most comfortable, but had a tendency to skip and didn't cut much hair. The steep one was very uncomfortable, it felt like it grabbed the skin, not smooth at all. I was wondering if i maybe hadn't close the razor well, causing the edge to collide with one side of the scales. I only attempted my cheeks and even that wasn't completely finished. Finished with a 5 day old DE blade which just cruised right through everything. Even though the attempt was very unpleasant i think i knew when to stop, so no nicks and no burn.
Now, after i was finished i checked the blade on my arm, dry. Guess what? With very light movement i could remove a patch of hair. However, it failed the hanging hair test. Miserably. It did bend every hair. Even if i made a cutting motion, pushing the blade against the hair while also making a horizontal movement, pulling the blade towards me it did not cut anything.
So... What now? I was instructed not to strop it right away and i haven't. I have another razor coming but that was meant to be a razor to use when i am comfortable with the basics. I want to save that edge.
Should i try to carefully strop it on the balsa wood? Should i give it another go tomorrow? Of course, i will ask Larry himself as well.
Any help is appreciated!
*i now see i made a error in my title, should've been "first shave in"