New guy, looking for help

I am fed up with safety razors and one of my coworkers suggested this site and a straight blade. I have practically no experience with shaving with a straight razor. I would some input on a good blade to start with and technique, I have watched a few YouTibe videos and they make sense but would like a little more information. One big concern is even with a safety razor, due to the size of my Adam's apple, I cannot get a close shave in the "pockets" that it creates with the rest of my neck. I am not overweight so, these areas are pretty prominent. Normally, I either leave a Brillo pad in these areas or end up having to shave 3 different ways and often times nick myself there. My concern with a straight blade is how to manage these areas without looking like I had a run in with a Guillotine.

Thanks,
Trajanus

One of the first things you should do is go to the membership page, click on advanced search, put Georgia in the location slot. You will then see a list of all members that list Georgia as their location. You can also use your location + Georgia to find those closer to you. In any case, scroll down the list and look for those that have posted within the last 5 - 6 months. That shows there are current. Contacting one or more of them could get you a face to face session or two that will cut a few months off the learning curve. Or, on the main page, to the left, click on local help and scroll down to Georgia. There should be a listing of any members that are dedicated to helping the new shaver.

Other than that, read in the Library all you can and watch the videos associated with the library. Any video by Lynn or gssixgun will be authentic information.

Plus, asking on the forum directly will garner you a plethora or responses from interested members.

Good learning.

Thank you.

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Originally Posted by Razorfeld

One of the first things you should do is go to the membership page, click on advanced search, put Georgia in the location slot. You will then see a list of all members that list Georgia as their location. You can also use your location + Georgia to find those closer to you. In any case, scroll down the list and look for those that have posted within the last 5 - 6 months. That shows there are current. Contacting one or more of them could get you a face to face session or two that will cut a few months off the learning curve. Or, on the main page, to the left, click on local help and scroll down to Georgia. There should be a listing of any members that are dedicated to helping the new shaver.

Other than that, read in the Library all you can and watch the videos associated with the library. Any video by Lynn or gssixgun will be authentic information.

Plus, asking on the forum directly will garner you a plethora or responses from interested members.

Good learning.

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I am not as angular as I once was. However the use of skin stretching is quite important both in terms of holding the skin taught so it does not move in front of the blade and for taking things around the corner, so to speak. It will also flatten hollows somewhat and make for a closer more comfortable shave.

Skin stretching, a smiling blade, some practice and some perseverance.

Welcome, btw.

Skin stretching, practice and learning the grain patterns in those hard to get areas. It probably took me five months of practice and trial and error at different methods before I could really get a super smooth finish on my neck when checked from all directions. I'm rather thin and getting old so hollows with some sagging skin added to the mix, don't get old and you'll be fine.

Thanks to you all. I will look for some videos about stretching to get that area lined up. Also, I am looking at which razor to get. Debating between a Dovo "best-quality" 5/8 and a Thiers-Issard 5/8" Spartacus. Any thoughts?

If you are looking at new razors there are far more that do not hand hone than do. Make sure your razor is hand honed and stropped, truly shave ready. Other than that make sure it is not a large nor a small blade. 5/8 or 6/8 are fine. The other thing is to make sure you think it is the coolest of them all. It will help you through tough spots in the learning curve, if you find any. Some people have just picked it up and gone with it. No hiccups or difficultly. Not me, bit there are those people out there.

Ok, I'm going to try to explain how I shave my adam's apple area. It's not easy to explain, so bear with me...

I shave my neck down to the apple, then sort of 'half swallow' so my adam's apple moves up to where I've shaved. I then sort of 'hold' the swallow and shave the area left unshaved. It may take some practice to get right, but it works for me. YMMV! Lots of skin stretching too.

Does any of that make sense?

Something to also keep in mind, unless people are constantly touching your neck, the appearance of a smooth shave is all you need.

Initially, a straight razor seems like a gigantic blade. However, most of the time, you are shaving with a small part of the blade except on very flat areas. Also, the rounded heel of the blade can fit nicely into hollows, unlike a perfectly squared off safety razor.

But as said before, stretching the skin one way, then the other, into more shaveable areas of your face will help tremendously.

I'd also check out Ralph Aust blades, you can get one in combo with a strop from Straight Razor Designs, and the strop is deeply discounted. Get a 3" strop to lessen the stropping learning curve.

I agree with the previous post that a smiling blade will work well in nooks and crannies, and also that skin stretching will be a useful technique.

If you turn your head to the right and pull the skin on the left side of your neck diagonally left from roughly the junction of your neck and chest this should help ( and vice versa for the other side).
The same goes for jaw lines, try pulling the skin up diagonally towards your ear from jawbone level and just outside of a line parallel to your eye whilst opening your mouth (to push your lower jaw down).

Stretching in the right direction and then making a pass in the right direction will give good results. You will need to experiment with these till you find the best combo. Different strokes like scythe and guillotine will help as well. Good luck finding what works for you

As everyone here has stated stretching is the key. So though it may sound stupid go stand in front of your mirror and begin stretching and contorting your face with your non dominate hand to find ways of pulling the hollows more flush with skin around it. Then make a mental map of your face.

Also you don't have to wait for a straight to start doing this while you shave.

While doing this you can feel how the grain of your hair grows. Going with the natural grain will help.


A couple questions though in you post you said your tired of safety razors are you talking about your Mach 5 modern razors or DE's?

Are you using a brush and shave soap or quality shave cream or canned shave gel/cream that you put on with your hands?

As to buying a straight any of the major brands dovo, thiers, aust and hart will serve you well. But they need to be shave ready. Typically none of the razors come shave ready from the factory. Hart being the only exception and that depends on who you ask. So it's the vendors you need to see about making sure your razor is ready to shave. There are a lot of them that offer this service sometimes with an extra fee and sometimes not. Just make sure you get it done.

Another option for a razor is the classifieds here. You can get nice razors at a good price. Also any razor listed as shave ready you can be sure is shave ready or someone will make good on that.