First (and Second) Shave Attempts

Greetings All, long-time reader, first-time caller, yadda yadda... and I thought I'd share my first two experiences using a straight razor.

After attempting to shave with the SR I got from my wife on Valentine's Day (keeper that one) I realized it was good only for cutting styrofoam and cheese and after some research came to SRP to see what the problem might be and turns out it's a cheap Chinese job unfit for shaving. But, I persevered, purchased a Dovo Special with honing service via Lynn and during my wait collected shaving creams and shaving soaps in anticipation and practiced lathering and using them with my standard M3s (which, if nothing else came out of this the wet shaving process improved my shaving experience a huge amount). So, I returned from a business trip on Friday, a day after the Dovo arrived, impressed my kids with the HHT and these are my observations:

- Wait until the kids are out of the house, screaming kids or risking them running the bathroom door into you are not conducive to the concentration this requires
- Remember to pull the skin, this is my current bad habit to break as I'm constantly forgetting this and getting 'pull' from the razor
- Do not shave on a wet floor or with socks on
- Do not shave with a wall perpendicular to the mirror only 3 inches away from your elbow (nearly took a nose off turning to my right as my head moved and the razor didn't when my elbow hit the wall - I've since changed bathrooms to shave in)
- 'Painting' versus 'swirling' if using a boar bristle brush does make a difference
- I actually have had better results with my off-hand
- After a first irritating and only slightly-better-than-expected results from my first shave I found myself wanting to 'reward myself' with something after a hard day's work and, lo and behold and to my surprise, another shave came to mind
- I actually became more nervous about damaging the razor in the sink then I did cutting my face after a short while
- Stropping is really therapeutic and best taken slow at first (it felt after a bit like it was slightly sucked to the leather after a pass, is that good?)
- Going for BBS on your first few shaves is a fool's errand

I know most of these have been covered in this forum but I wanted to share and thank you all and this forum for all the help and guidance you and it's provided. Now I can't wait for my Wapi from Mike to test drive.

And on another note, this is one of the few ways I can think of that a man can 'pamper' himself and it be masculine. I realized women spend a lot of time doing maintenance stuff like this and it's actually relaxing. I'm looking forward to retiring my M3s once and for all over the next few weeks.

Cheers,
-Gabriel

Gratz on your good second shave! Just keep at it. They only get better with time.