Thread: Question after first attempt

Originally Posted by rodb

+1 on the Ralf Aust, I've honed and shave tested a couple of those and they are really nice.

I'm not seeing the picture for some reason

Oops, sorry—I'd posted the picture in a different thread. Here it is:

Beginners have a big mistake, they are not enough to moisturize the face. When the foam dries on your face, then you can not shave. Everything will be fine.

It looks like a 9/16" at the smallest, that should be fine

I had a similar question, I hope this information helps me too. I am getting my straight razor out again after a bit of a hiatus after my international move back to the USA a few years ago.

I wanted to report back now that I've just finished by third shave. I went with Larry's suggestion to use both oxide sides of his balsa refreshing strop, then did a good 60 laps on the leather strop; this was just to make sure it wasn't the edge that was the problem from my first shave. I don't think it was (I guess that's not news to most of you!) since this time the strokes on my cheeks definitely felt better. It seems to be a matter of angle, but also adding the right momentum to the stroke (in the cutting direction I mean, not into my skin obviously). I think I just had different expectations of what the resistance factor would be based on DE shaving.

Since it was going better, even though my left hand is still awkward, I continued onto my neck, chin, and a bit of my upper lip, too. This wasn't awful, but honestly, not great; I was missing spots, gave myself a half dozen nicks in various places, and once again my lather started to dry and crack despite it starting off shiny and slick (I think because I'm taking longer than I realize).

What feels trickiest right now: sight lines (how do I see the blade at the top of my side burn? wow); left hand control and when to use which hand where; and lather drying out as it sits on my face.

But, I will say that my cheeks were the closest they've been from the SR by the time I got to my DE clean-up. That's encouraging! Even though I still feel like a complete oaf with the razor, at least each of these shaves has shown small improvements!

In my first shaves, I was taking 40-45 mins and the lather kept drying out. Someone suggested to instead, only lather up a section at a time, so I tried it, doing 4 areas, and now I no longer have drying lather. I'm getting a little faster, and now I can do about half of my face at a time, so I'll lather one side, shave, lather the other, shave, rinse and repeat for the next pass.

I've also been applying pre shave, before applying lather, and that seems to help. Lastly, I've had times when I apply too much water and the lather wasn't coming out slick.

Some things to try....