Thread: Thought this might help other beginners

I started straight shaving after Christmas, and joined this forum shortly after. I read quite a bit to start off, I know a bunch of noobs asking the same questions day in and day out can get old. One thing I saw a lot was people seem to have more issues shaving with their off hand (which makes sense). I saw the suggestions of practicing with a butter knife come up time and again in order to get used to the motion, but so far I haven't needed this and I wondered why. In fact, my off hand is more steady with the razor than my dominant hand. I thought about it, and I think it comes down to dexterity in the hand.

Tying this back to the butter knife, I realized that since I learned how to handle my utensils properly with both hands at an early age between breaking limbs playing sports and parents that enforced etiquette (and wanting to shovel food into my mouth faster), I have a fair amount of dexterity in both hands. My thought for noobs like myself was that you could build dexterity and the small control and stabilizer muscles in your off hand by swapping your knife and your fork 3 times a day. That would give you more time practicing manipulating small instruments, and if you coupled that with the butter knife shaving practice, the slope of the learning curve could be increased.

Just a thought I had on a Saturday night, might be old news but I hadn't seen it mentioned.

I'm right handed, but I've always used my left to hold eating utensils. Maybe that is why I easily learned to shave with both hands.

In addition to the above recomendation of using your non dominant hand to eat with, use it to brush your teeth. Use it to hold your drinking vessel too.

It only took a little adapting for me to use both hands shaving with a straight razor as I was used to using both hands from martial arts training and playing drums in a band.

After breaking my right hand (dominant) twice and being forced to use my off hand sucks! Now using it for shaving has not bothered me but there are other things I did not enjoy doing with my left and I will leave it at that

Interesting to see how others have become capable of using their support hand.
Ej sorry to hear about the brakes

I was raised more by my grandparents and being left handed I was "persuaded " to use my right by them. They always said the left was the wrong hand to use. I am very grateful for them doing it though. As I am very capable to do most things with either hand

This is really good. Never thought about it like this. I am a "noob" and still only shaving the cheek area with a SR, and I finish the rest of my face with a DE. Interesting concept, and I definitely think you're on to something. There needs to be an experiment done on this theory because it seems pretty solid.

I can shave with my left but I'm dominantly right handed. I'm not as fast but it can be done. I play sports left handed. Baseball, golf, hockey, and fishing is done with the left.

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Seems like a perfectly reasonable theory to me. Anyone having trouble using their non dom hand should at least give it a try. Nothing to lose... except maybe an ear!

I started using my left hand on day two straight razor shaving. I just figured it is a brand new skill I might as well go for it straight away. That worked for me and I am equally proficient shaving with either hand now.

I also found that lathering with my left hand helped as the hand is in the same place as it would be with my razor. I would rather get soap in my ear than lose the ear.

I think that the theory is sound though.

For me it was less an issue of dexterity/strength. I'm a mechanic by trade, sometimes you've got to flip hands simply because your left arm will slip into that tiny blindspot and turn the bolt better.

Where my real issue was looking back, was spatial relation because I'm right eye dominant as well. So when I turn right, and I'm looking at my left cheek with my left eye, trying to carefully guide the razor with my left hand and trying to maintain blade angle sometimes it just got trippy. Guiding it to my cheek I would come in too fast, or just lose any and all concept of how close the blade was to touch down. Then I'd spend a few seconds staring at it and trying to figure out who was what when and where.

And then there's wrote training that bit me. When I want a bolt to come off, that's a counter clockwise turn. My hands 'know' this motion regardless of their orientation. My subconscious made connections while shaving with my right hand - lift spine, turn counter clockwise, lower spine, turn clockwise. Flip to my left hand and my brain says 'lift spine' but fingers lower spine instead (still turning clockwise), I'm staring at my fingers trying to figure out why they just did that while simultaneously pondering if I should keep shaving or wipe off the pink lather and find the styptic pencil...

Keep shaving, forgive lefty his trespasses and slowly rebuild trust while keeping a close eye on that SOB.