Thread: First shave... mother of god

Zac, just a quick question, are you active duty or contractor?

May have a solution for you.

Welcome to the world of insane sharp objects held near vital body parts I started with DE shaving about 8-9 months ago and just started SR a week ago. A couple of things I have seen stressed in different threads:

Angle - I have to keep my blade ALMOST flat against my face and I get a respectable shave. I bought a new shave ready from SRD.

Blade: This has also been repeated ass nausium. When you buy a truly shave ready razor, don't strop it before use. Go ahead and shave with it straight out of the box. This will help you know what it should feel like.

Prep: Personally, I shower first and wash my face good in the shower with hot water and a good quality soap. When I get out of the shower, I use a little pre-shave oil and let that soak into my face hair and skin while I get my lather worked up. Each pass gets new lather, no "clean" skin shaved

Speed: go slowly and take your time. This is meant to be relaxing, not a speed race. Slow down and watch what you are doing. It will help you find what works best for you and what you can ignore.

Pulling skin tight: I have found that when I take the time to pull my skin tight, I get better results. Again, this point has been well posted here.

Nothing I have written here is original. It is boiled down from many people much smarter who came before me. I am just trying to put some things together in one place for you.

Enjoy and keep asking questions. There are several Libraries of Congress in knowledge here. I have surely benefitted from this knowledge

Originally Posted by Z123

Evenin'

Name's Zac, I'm chillin' out in Afghanistan and decided that with my gratuitous free time, I wanted to learn how to straight razor shave. So, I looked up a couple websites for a beginners razor, bought one, with accoutrements, and headed overseas.

I largely left it by the wayside but a couple days ago decided to hone and strop it and take it for a spin. It was one hell of an unpleasant ride. So I have a few questions regarding things I haven't seen in the forums.

1) I only found out some time after I bought my razor about the unsavory reputation of Vintage Straight Razor - which is where I bought my (very rudimentary) razor. After honing it, with a little help from a couple of youtube videos (One was Lynne's - top notch) I was able to take hair off the arm quite easily, and the fingernail test was satisfactory. How much can practice and (what seems to be) a decent edge offset a low quality blade?

2) I haven't seen anything so far about hair growth patterns. For an idea, my neck and facial hair grows in a down-and-out kind of pattern, straight down my neck at the middle and fanning out further along my face, so that at the back of my jaw area it is parallel to my jawbone. How does one attack that? The hair catches like a sonofabitch, and changing grips every inch or two is a bit daunting in the early innings.

3)For beginners, how often should one shave, and when is too much growth a bad idea to practice? (e.g. daily, every 3 days, etc) I'm not one to have a 9 o'clock shadow at 5pm the day of a shave

I'm still poring over forums for tips and nuggets of wisdom - I'm not wanting to drop two or three hundred on a quality razor while I am downrange, I'd rather get in the practice and lose some (more) blood here while I have nothing but time.

Welcome to the forum. You are a braver man than I am to attempt to learn straight shaving while on active duty.

My initial efforts were a blood bath. but I have always been fascinated by straight shaving when I saw it in a movie or barbershop and determined to master the beast.

The problem for a beginner I that you are necessarily focused on technique and you distract yourself. A couple of months into straight shaving I sliced my thumb down to the tendon switching hands and had to have four stitches.

I watched YouTube videos of people shaving themselves and I think that's the best teacher. Just keep plugging away and eventually you'll get it.

We appreciate your military service.

Zac, I can't say any more than what's already been said about the shaving. It will get easier with time.
I did wan't to welcome you to the forum and offer sincere thanks for your service.

Pete <:-}

Appreciate the feedback, y'all

The razor's brand is - a mystery. Might as well go with ACME, or it's Urdu equivalent. Which is why I spent the money to buy a stone and hone it - got a Norton 4k/8k for the job. I also have a little brush and soap - I didn't bring my Art of Shaving cream and brush overseas with me to lose somewhere.

I am the only person from my unit at my location so I can get away with not shaving for a few days, but it sounds like more frequent practice is required - might explain why it felt like shaving with a hungry shark - I was letting growth accumulate for a few days. Usually, a couple of strokes in it stopped feeling awful and started removing hair. Really appreciate the feedback y'all

Zac: thanks for your service brother. I am retired USAF and well aware to the necessity you having to shave in the field. I have a slight solution as well as the great advice. I would love to send you a slave ready. American made, vintage straight razor. Free of charge. If we could get it to you despite your restrictions. Let me know add it would be a small token of my gratitude for your standing on that wall. Let me know how I can accomplish this. Thanks again.

Welcome Zac! Like others have said, check out the library, tons of good information. And, since I don't a see a picture of your razor, I'm assuming you don't actually have one! just kidding, but pics really do help a ton. Oh, and I loved your title for this post.

Welcome from me as well.

As everybody else said the razor may be problematic, and then learning to hone a razor let alone one of unknown quality at the same time as learning shaving makes your job enormously harder.

A couple of posts above you were offered a shave ready vintage razor - I'd say best course of action is to take it and then start learning to shave with that razor while continuing to play with your current one on the norton. (On the plus side your hone purchase is solid - almost no unknown variables there and a lot of expertise to get help.)

As far as shaving technique, usually starting simple with just the easiest area (typically the cheeks and using your previous shaving method for the rest) and then expanding slowly towards the rest of your face works quite well. It's not instant gratification of shaving your whole face with a straight razor, but proceeding systematically and methodically can be a lot more rewarding.

Typically, you'd also start shaving with the grain of the hair growth and later add across and/or against the grain strokes to achieve even closer shave, however that's not set in stone. If it's easier and more natural to do an XTG stroke say on a part of your jawbone, then do that instead of trying a more uncomfortable stroke just to be WTG.

Learning to shave with a straight razor is mostly about developing the dexterity and muscle memory and as you keep doing it the motions will feel more natural and easy and with the increased confidence you can expand your skills.

Welcome! Where are you in Afghanistan? I can't even imagine trying to straight shave out there. Generally only had a very short time to shave/shower each day. Disposables aren't great, but when you only have 5-10 minutes, it's about your only option.