Thread: Shaving progress

I'm got my second shave done this afternoon.

The shave itself went well. I rewatched Lynn's YouTube video again and paid more careful attention to how to hold the razor in different areas. I managed to do both cheeks today (I found my right hand useless, so I did both sides with my left) and I also used the straight razor to shave the left side of my neck; between my nose and my upper lip, which wasn't as tricky as I thought; and the mostly flat area under my lower lip as well. I did the rest with my cartridge razor. There are definitely areas that I can manage to do without any discomfort, but there are others where I either get razor burn when I do it or I haven't figured out how to hold the blade so I didn't even attempt them.

The lather was better than last time - not as dry. My brush is shedding a lot, though, so I might get a new one soon. Any recommendations for under $50 CDN ($40 USD), if possible, and $75 CDN ($60 USD) at most? (Nothing exotic, just something that's good quality and will last for a long time.)

I managed to do the stropping afterwards without rolling the razor over on the edge or cutting into the strop. Unfortunately, it looks like my strop is not a good one - it's the same brand and has the same problem as the one in this thread, although not to that extent: http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...bad-strop.html I already ordered another one (this time a 3" strop, so I won't have to bother with the X motion). Hopefully it will get here next week. Meanwhile, I'll keep using the one I have. For now the leather is only flaking on one end of the strop, so I can use roughly half of it without touching that area. I guess it will make for a good practice strop, so that by the time the new one arrives, I'll be less likely to damage that one.

I guess I caught the bug, because I also ordered another razor - a 5/8" Thiers-Issard Le Dandy. That means I'm planning to stick with this. I'm going to stop at two, though, hehe!