Thread: First straight on the way, any advice?

Its mostly about taking your time and learning as you go watch plenty of vids Lynns is line of the best I've seen for first shaves take your time and enjoy

If it's a quality razor, chances are, you can go straight for it. Strop it after your finished and lave the razor cracked open from the scales til it dries. Oil and store.
Good luck

I have found Lynn's videos and they are super informative, I'll have to re watch them in the coming days. As for oiling the blade, is this a necessary step if the razor is going to be used regularly? And if so, is mineral oil applied with some toilet paper or cotton ball ok to use?

if used daily and dried well after each use , shouldn't need anything ,, I only oil the ones I don't use regularly . as for applying. I just get a drop or 2 on my finger and rub it on then ad drop in the pivot

As already mentioned read everything in the library, twice! Everything you ever need to know in there. Good stropping is paramount to maintaining a good edge so using a butter knife to practice is sound advice. The stropping video by AFDavis in the library is an excellent video to see proper technique.

Good luck.

Use both hands right at the start. Easer than having to relearn. Stretch your skin while shaving was a big key for me. Take your time slow and easy wins the race.

Originally Posted by outback

Agree w/ pensacola tiger. You may also want some witchazel, and alum block, if you cant find alum block, go to local drug store and look in the deoderant isle for ( crystal deoderant) its the same thing. And maybe some glycerin.

All the basics have been covered but as well as practicing stropping with a butter knife you can also practice shaving and passes just to get a feel for it. For the crystal deodorant stick you only want one that os 100% potassium alum.

The emphasis on stropping in the replies tells you something... Learning to properly strop is as important as learning to properly shave.

That's the one thing you can actually practice before the razor arrives so give it a go as mentioned. When you strop your new razor, take your time. Strop light and pay attention to allowing the edge to glide on the strop perfectly flat.

Lots of newbies, myself included, rolled their edges on their first razors which only costs money (for rehoning) and interrupts the learning process.

Great advice here. I'll throw out a couple more random points that I noticed when I made the transition from DE to straights last winter.

For me, one of the hardest things was re-training my subconscious muscle actions while shaving. With a DE, you usually keep a fairly gentle grip on the razor, and let it glide over your face partly on its own. Of course, that's a recipe for disaster with a straight, and so while shaving you need to initially keep focused on maintaining a firm and precise grip on the blade. Practice keeping a firm finger on the tang, and using that to help control the angle of the blade as it moves down your face.

The other subconscious motion I needed to change was at the beginning of the shave stroke. I was used to just resting the DE on my face and then starting to pull ... and doing that with a straight can result in a very dramatic landing cut. (Trust me, I know!)

Finally, remember that it's a longer learning process than making the DE transition ... so don't get discouraged. It took me a few weeks to get to the point where I felt really confident with the straight, but now it's second nature to me, and I'll never go back.

One thing that I found helpful in figuring out the optimal angle of the blade to your face is to start on the cheek with the blade flat to your face and make short strokes; with each stroke slightly move the spine away from your face until you feel the blade cut your beard smoothly (with a hollow grind you can really hear it). Common advice is about two spine widths away from your face but I find it hard to see that. Light pressure is important.
Cuts and nicks are common (well they were for me), they always teach us something.
I also am a big believer in going all in. Take your time, lather sections of your face at a time so the soap doesn't dry out, and shave the entire face with the straight. Clean up with your DE. Good advice is to just do a couple of strokes and call it good; I could no more do that than take just one bite of pie.
Have fun!