Thread: New to straight razors. Looking for advice.

Anyone advertising honing services in the Classifieds is a good choice.

Originally Posted by Damienqwerty

Hi all,

My name is Damien and I am from the Mississippi gulf coast. I have just wet shaved for the first time with my new razor.
.....
Shave was taken after a hot shower. Stropped the blade the best I know how to. I tried to whip up and lather on some soap with the blades grim smolder but it seemed too watery. It took multiple shaves to get the results maybe 5-10 times a area and it still wasn't cutting the best. most of the trouble came around my jaw line and neck but to be honest the whole shave was trouble.

Any advice, comments, questions, or concerns for a better and more thorough shave would be greatly appreciated.

My favorite topic is "latherin".
It is key to a quality shave even when using the inexpensive yellow handled BiC disposable razors for sensitive skin.

The brush need not be expensive: Omega 10098 Professional Boar shaving Brush is a bargain at $15.
The shave cream need not be expensive: Proraso Shaving Cream is a good choice for beginners.
A shave soap should not be expensive. A pea sized touch of Proraso will allow even Williams to lather for beginners.
Van Der Hagen Shave Soap works for some. The VDH package set of brush+soap+bowl has gone up in
price but works for many and can be found at Walmart.

So along the line of "Any Advice":
Keep on wet shaving...
BiC Yellow handled razor for sensitive skin are your reference and safety net.
Work on lathering each day, make at least two batches of lather just to practice.
Keep after your gold dollar. They are difficult to hone well but some can be sharpened.
Pull the GD out once or twice a week and practice. We all have tried a GD and results are very mixed. Sometime
we translate GD to a vindictive, cuss words and occasionally to a razor brand.
I am lucky and have a GD razor.

A glance at your pictures, your razor is dull.
Try a yellow handle BiC the blade is calm and not crazy sharp.
The single blade in the BiC will condition your face for other razors.
The largish window rinses well and handles many days of whiskers better
and is kinder to skin than the multiple blade things.

Hi and Welcome,
My best tips would be to really spend time on softening the whiskers, two or three hot towels, and then lather up and rub the lather into your beard with your fingers, then put a hot towel over the lather and then re lather and shave. The softer you can get your whiskers the easier it will be. Finish off with an Alum block rubbed over your face, it will sting but it's a good indication of where you got to close, and it also helps, in my opinion, with mitigating razor rash. Leave it on for a minute or so then wash it off and put whatever balm you like on. I use pure Aloe Vera and it seems to help settle your skin down. I've only been at straight shaving for three months, shaving everyday, and it really does get a lot better as you become more familiar with your razor and your face, but go slooooow.
Good luck.

I'm a newbie too. though using a feather ss shavette currently. All I can add is use very light pressure, and short strokes. take your time. there are so many good youtube videos on straight shaving as well. stay at it!

another fellow newb here! I just finished my first atempt and it turned out better than expected. I got two nicks but no bleeders (I've had much worse and more DE shaving). It did take me at least three rimes as long as when I DE shave and of course never got as good of results BUT it was a good first attempt. I think the keys are light pressure (lighter than you imagine originally), short strokes, reapplying lather if it dries out (I took so much time I had to reapply a bunch, and switching hands are key. I'm right handed but found it much easier to do my left side with my left hand. I never got a perfect shave but I quit while I was aahead (no slices in order to gain confidence). I see most videos and write ups say to do just one cheek and stop but I like to jump in head first in most things I do so I tried the whole shave (minus adams apple and chin curve)

here are three videos i found informative

https://youtu.be/rUsE9TIUMl0 (10 tips)

https://youtu.be/mVjU1f0lye0 (stropping)

https://youtu.be/

I got a whipped dog "sight unseen" straight (whippeddog.com) and I'm more than happy with it. He sells them shave ready and he does offer honing service so I'm gonna plug him as it was the second order I did with him and he's a top notch guy in service and communication.

I had these issues in the beginning as well, turns out the problem was 3 fold, firstly my skin wasn't used to it, so it's natural to have some irritation. Secondly, I wasn't using the right angle, I was more so dragging it down my jaw, which wasn't cutting my hair but rather scraping the surface of my skin off. Lastly, I was stropping wrong and rolling the edge.

Good news is: all of these are beginner's learnings. You'll get it in due time!

Keep shaving!!

Another place to find a good razor is an Antique shop!. I have 3 that I've bought and shave with 2 of them. they are usually $15.00 to $30.00 some may need a little work done to them but its better than buying a $200.00 razor and then messing it up by improper stropping or honing. I have a cheap AZCO razor that I'm practicing stropping with. BTW, I'm new here also, finished my 2nd shave this morning.