Shaving progress

My brand new Böker King Cutter arrived earlier today so I tried it out. In my case, there are a lot of things involved in straight razor shaving that are completely new to me. Up until now I've been shaving with a cartridge razor all my life, so I never had to worry about stretching my skin or even looking that carefully at what I was doing with the razor and I've never used a shaving soap before.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience, although I was a little bit nervous. I got a Van Der Hagen Men's Luxury Shave Set, which costs $23.92 on Amazon.com, but on Amazon.ca it costs $83... Ouch! (Even factoring in the weak Canadian dollar at the moment, that's a ridiculous price. I should have paid more attention.) The razor itself came shave ready from Classic Edge, so I didn't have to strop it yet. I think I will only do that after my second or third shave, since I didn't do anywhere near my whole face this time.

Here are some random thoughts after straight razor shave #1:

- The way the razor is held looked a little bit awkward to me based on the YouTube videos I've watched before getting to hold one in my hand for the first time. Once I tried it, I felt completely comfortable holding the razor in my left hand (I'm left-handed), which was encouraging, because the grip was one of the things I was worried about.

- I shaved my left cheek, the left side of my neck and a little bit of the centre of my neck below my chin with the straight razor, all WTG, and then finished up with my Fusion. I tried to have a go at my sideburns on the right side using my right hand, but after a few tentative strokes I gave up. My hand was in the way when I tried to see what I was doing in the mirror and I think it will take some practice before I can get my right hand to do exactly what I ask of it. I'll also have to figure out how to turn my head so that I can see where the blade is without my hand blocking my sight.

- The only obvious mistake I made was that I didn't mix enough water with the soap and the lather was too dry, which made shaving a little bit uncomfortable. I need to work on getting the right mixture of water and soap into the brush. I did like the smell of the soap a lot - very different from the shaving gels I've been using for the past few years.

I'm normally a once-a-week shaver, but I'll try again on Sunday. I'm already looking forward to my second shave and I'll learn faster if I don't wait a full week between shaves. So far I'm liking it. :)

Congrats we all start at our own pace take your time and enjoy the ride there is a long learning curve to using a SR especially versus carts so take your time get comfortable with it and keep up the progress.. I would practice stropping with a dull butterknife to get the flip and muscle memory down before ever putting your razor to it

It is a god approach to go slow. Those of us that went charging in like a bull in a china shop probably lost a lot more blood than those that were cautious. You will know you are holding the razor right when you get a good shave, with good control, and it is comfortable to do it that way. My grip changes with the strokes and the part of my face I am shaving. You will find you zone over time, in the mean time try to follow as close to the traditional way as you can, you will find how it works best for your hand on your face with time and practice.

Congrats on the shave success. Going slow and steady is the best way to proceed and just add to it as you feel comfortable. It will all come together with time and practice and its hard to shave with razor burn and irritation from doing too much to quickly

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gabor2k15

I'm normally a once-a-week shaver, but I'll try again on Sunday. I'm already looking forward to my second shave and I'll learn faster if I don't wait a full week between shaves. So far I'm liking it. :)

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Once bitten, twice shaved

Safe to say you will up that number of shaves per week.

Congratulations and welcome to the forum

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!

....2 he says...... we shall see about that