Originally Posted by
Cobo
So, I posted in one of my own threads a little while back about my first shave, but the thread was largely a dead one so I thought I'd throw in a little about my first two shaves with my Harrison Brothers and Howson blade along with my first two with my new Double Arrow, which came shave ready.
My first two straight razor shaves were a little bit an issue. I had the razor fairly sharp, but not quite sharp enough. It would pop hair off my arm with only minimal resistance (as my nearly bald left arm will attest) but without a finer stone I just couldn't get it to pass the HHT. I shaved with it despite that, which was a grabby, draggy affair, leaving a goodly amount of stubble behind but a shave none teh less. What can I say, I was excited. :P
I couldn't do under my chin, however, as my hair is coarses there and it just grabbed like crazy.
So, yesterday, when my shave ready, thanks to Ken, razor showed up, I got pretty excited. I was on my way to cut firewood for next winter, so while I was out I picked myself up some Proraso soap (green dish) to replace my Williams I use with the DE and a styptic pencil, just in case. So when I got the razor up to the camp, I quickly opened it up and gave it the old HHT... which was a bit of a disappointment when it failed. Recalling, however, that it had been through just over two weeks in transit, no doubt through all sorts of different temperatures I started to run it over the strop. After a short while, it began to pass the HHT. After a little while longer, it was passing the HHT with flying colours and shaving my arm like a dream... So in I stepped in to the shower, and I'll tell you, it's the most excited I've ever been to shower.
The minute I was done, I got dressend and dried my hands and set about whipping up a lather in the Proraso. After a moment or two, I got a little surprised... I've never had a soap make my face tingle like that. It took me a minute to check the ingredients to see what the heck was in there and spot the menthol. :P
So I started to carve away, the shave didn't go bad, other than my lather being so thick it made my razor want to suction flat to my face. At one point, I had to take a minute to calm down and take a few deep breaths. Holding the razor to my throat rattled me a bit and my hand started to shake, so I let that pass before I started going at my throat.
It was a definate learning process, and will remain to be so. My left hand isn't trustworthy enough to put a razor in it, so working out how to get proper angles on forehand and backhand strokes is a little tough. When I was done, however, I had a complete shave! It wasn't that close, it hadn't been that comfortable at times, but it was a shave!
Tonight I did a little better on the closeness, though it did get awfully draggish in places. A combination of the soap starting to dry and poor angle for under my nose and the curve of my chin, I think. In truth, the only way I could do right under my nose was to bring the blade in on a 90 degree angle and scrape across the hair as opposed to the usual cutting in to it... But I'm sure I'll learn eventually.
I drew a little blood with this shave, just a couple nicks on my chin, nothing worse than a DE would give me. I'm pretty stoked though, that I didn't have to touch the DE at any point... Though if I had to work tommorow I may have. I'm not comfortable enough yet for a against the grain stroke with the straight, so for now, the DE would actually get me a closer shave... though that too, will change in time I'm sure. ;)
Anyways, bottom line, I'm very excited and also very, very eager and appreciative of any further suggestions or advice anyone may have. :) I think I'm hooked. :P
