Thread: First shave... mother of god

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.

Light pressure and more passes! I shave three times in a session.

I shave very day and sometimes twice in one day.

Welcome!

Others will give you some great advice, from their experience. I'll mention a few things that I've picked up.

1) hindsight would be to get a "shave ready" razor. I'll leave it to others, as I've not tried he honing part yet, other that to fix a ding. The real test is how it feels when it shaves.

2) a couple of things, closely inspect your hair growth in the mirror. It differs for everyone. Face prep is super important. I got much better shaves when my beard was prepped better. While your starting out, go in baby steps... Pick the easiest part - usually the cheek area, go with the grain, and call it a day. Finish up the rest of your face with whatever way you did it before. As you get practice, you can start experimenting with other areas, like the neck, and eventually the chin (often the hardest). You can start doing passes across the grain. Save against the grain for later, it's much harder.

If there's pulling, discomfort, stop, and reassess the blade angle and whether you are going with the grain (and check the blade edge). You might not have a shave ready edge, so that may be making harder for you.

3) what I did was use the same interval I used with a safety razor before. One thing I learned from safety razors is that each pass takes off a little more hair, so the longer it is the tougher it is to do.

Try to set yourself up for success, as much as possible, even if you're only doing a partial shave at first.

There are more things to consider, lathering, technique, stopping,etc. so you'll have a bunch to learn. You'll get great help here though. I did!

Enjoy!

Welcome, Zac and thanks for your service. Pray tell what kindof razzer is it? I am certain we can help. A good shave should last 2 days, no sweat.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Welcome, Zac and thanks for your service. Pray tell what kindof razzer is it? I am certain we can help. A good shave should last 2 days, no sweat.

Not with my whiskers! Dang things are like cacti needles the next day. Wife likes the daily shave.

Hey Zac I am new to this as well but i did purchase a shave ready razor from SRD and it shaves great. I tried honing a cheap razor from pakistan and got it to shave but it probabally felt like your experience from what I read. I would recommend getting a shave ready razor. I started usung a shavette and nicked myself a few more times than i care to remember. Once the new straight razor arrived and i got to shave with it what a difference. The SR actually shaved better than the shavette b/c i got a rounded blade no sharp edge so it is a little more forgiving but to me the SR shavesd better than the shavette. Goodluck in your adventure/hobby.

Hello and welcome to the forum. Definitely need a properly honed razor to begin with. First chance you get you should either purchase a truly shave ready razor from a reputable source, or send yours out to be honed. Next, remember pressure and angle. It will take multiple pass to get a good shave so you do not have to try to get it all on the first pass. Very light pressure and low angle is the key to comfort. Also, until you get much practice, your shaves will not be real close or even near bbs. That will come with time, for now you just need to concentrate on learning the strokes as well as grain direction which it sounds like you already have a handle on. Keep at it and enjoy the experience.

I think that trying to learn to hone whilst trying to learn to shave is going to introduce a lot of variables which will make it hard for you to know where the issues are.

What honing equipment do you have?

There are a lot of threads about weird hair growth patterns particularly on necks, if you use the forum search function and put in neck I would bet you will get more than one or two hits.

Regards ed

Hey and welcome to the forum. Personally I don't think any more bloodletting would be worth it until you have a real shave ready razor in your hands. I agree with ED about the honing bit too, it is best left till after you can get a good shave from a known shave ready razor and have your stropping down pat. I am assuming you have a strop as you did not mention having one in your post.

I don't know what you shaved with before and considering your location you might consider using a DE instead until you get back home. It has the advantage of no blades to strop or hone and you know they are sharp enough right out of the box.

Are you using a good soap/cream and a brush to make lather with or canned goo? A good lather really helps no matter what you are shaving with and canned goo is not really the greatest.

I don't have a heavy beard/tough whiskers and I have to shave every day to pass inspection, my own. I sometimes shave again in the evening if going out. I can't ever remember a shave lasting me two days regardless of what I used to shave with but wish that were so.

There is plenty of info here Straight Razor Place Library - Straight Razor Place Library to answer a lot of your questions.

Bob

Welcome to the forum Zac and thank you for your service their is always plenty of help in here these gurus are good people and like a a lot of things... most of this stuff comes down to ymmv and plenty of well educated opinions but they are always helpful or try to be at least