Thread: First Straight Razor Shave

While waiting for SRD to send my new Dovo BQ, I watched a lot of videos on how to use it. The best one, of course, is Lynn's, but there are some other good ones as well. I also read Lynn's tutorial article. Since I already had some experience shaving with a really sharp skinning knife, I presumed that it wouldn't be harder to do than that. I ordered a Merkur 34c as a backup solution in case I needed to work my way into shaving with the straight razor slowly. But...

Today the Dovo showed up, but the Merkur still isn't here. Like any kid with a new toy, it wasn't going to stay in the box for very long. I got everything ready, cleaned the oil off the razor, gave it about 15 strops on the cloth and 40 on the leather. Put a steaming washcloth on my face and lathered up with some Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving Cream. I held the razor using the recommended grip, at the recommended angle and mentally compared how much more agile it felt than the knife that I had been using. Then I started making smooth one or two inch strokes down the right side of my face, just letting the blade do it's thing. I could hear those pesky whiskers snapping off with every stroke all the way down to my jaw line. I looked at the track the razor had made through the lather and didn't see anything but clean hairless skin, there was no pain and no blood spurting across the room, so I was encouraged and braver.

I switched the razor to my left hand, set the angle to somewhere between 20 and 30 degrees and made the same 1 to 2 inch strokes headed for my jaw line. I could hear the razor singing as it worked its way through the whiskers. When I got to my jaw line, again, there was just hairless skin and no apparent damage. "This IS a lot easier than shaving with a knife -- nice," I thought. By this time, I'm thinking this is going to be a breeze. I switched hands again and went for the right cheek -- woohoo!. Next, I did the left cheek without any issue. Now emboldened, I looked at that annoying patch of hair that grows under my lower lip. I pulled my lower lip into my mouth, held the razor over it and stroke, stroke, stroke -- annoying hair gone. The angles for the area under my jaw took some thought, but it ended up devoid of hair as well. Still no blood and no pain. The mustache and goatee are staying, so onto the neck.

Now, this old neck has got a lot of deep wrinkles in it and I wondered if that might be a problem, but since I'd had such good success up to this point, I figured I manage it somehow. So I started pulling hanks of skin here and there flattening out wrinkles like an old bed sheet as I went along. Swish, Swish Swish -- swap hands -- Swish Swish, Swish. Neck done. I washed my face off and inspected my skin, just in case there was damage that I hadn't seen or hadn't felt. No, everything looked good, and virtually hair free.

Feeling around I still felt some places that still had some stubble so I lathered up again and made a 2nd pass, then a third. I'm sitting here now, a couple of hours later, without a scratch, a smooth face, and smelling really good.
In case, you think that everything went perfectly -- well it didn't. I have one warning for new SR shavers that think this is really easy and nothing at all will go wrong. If you rub an alum block over your face, whatever you do, don't get that stuff on you lip, then lick your lip -- that stuff tastes really nasty. Oh, and if you want SR shaving to seem easy, shave with a sharp knife for a while like I did -- it's like a batter swinging two bats while he's in the on deck circle and it will certainly get you over the fear of having sharp blades next to your throat -- don't expect a great shave from the knife though.