Well, last night marked my first attempt at straight shaving. I’ve got a Dovo, 5/8 extra hollow, “singing” razor. Razor was sharpened by Lynn.

Overall, the experience was like few I have had in a long-time, feelings of awe, fear and joy all rolled into one.

A little background…
For the past five years since I started wet-shaving I have been using a Mach 3. I had always felt this gave me a much better shave and felt & looked better than the electric I had been using since I first started shaving. However, the Gillette always left noticeable stubble that, although it couldn’t be felt, it could be seen and the Mach III seemed unable to cut.

I happened upon an Art of Shaving Store (never had heard of the place) and went in. After talking with the store manager I told him of the problem I had and he recommended a two-pass shaving system, one with the grain (WTG), relather and one against the grain (ATG). He also recommended pre-shave oil, a badger shaving brush and shaving cream, stating the Gillette blue foam stuff was not to be used with the brush. When I was in the store I noticed a collection of straight razors on the wall…thought they looked cool as display pieces and thinking who shaves with a straight razor? Went home, tried what the guy said (I usually shaved with one pass and that would be ATG) and the shave was much, much better. Started doing some internet searches on shaving cream and found Straightrazorplace and Classic Shaving and here I am a new straight razor shaver.

The Shave
So, after watching you tube videos on shaving and Lynn’s CD I tried straight shaving for the first time last night. Lynn offered, what I thought at least, to be a great piece of advice (of many) on his CD stating a beginner should shave in short strokes at first. I shaved my right cheek and chin. I hadn’t shaved in two days so the beard was pretty long. Used AOS pre-shave oil, shaving cream and badger brush. It seemed that the beard initially was catching on the razor and the razor felt like it was pulling on the hair rather than cutting it. Eventually I got a better angle and remembered to pull my skin to get it tighter, problem seemed to go away. I was also VERY careful not to use pressure, unlike with the Mach 3 (glad I found this place before I started I otherwise would have figured pressure works good on the Mach 3, so probably works the same with a straight). The initial strokes on my right cheek, first going WTG didn’t cut all the hair. So I relathered and went ATG, relather then XTG (Across The Grain) relather then WTG relather then ATG. Only used the oil once. Got most of the stubble after those passes, no cuts during the whole process. I was trying to get that “glass” effect as shown on Dr. Moss’s straight shaving manual page 35, that looks so nice & smooth. After I was done with the cheek I noticed some little red bumps (gone by morning) and the skin was raw, even after the AOS Aftershave Balm.

On to the chin, more difficult than the cheek, but was able to get it done. Had a hard time figuring out how to stretch the skin for a better shave. Should have had the Dr. Moss guide next to me, oh well next time.

The remainder of the shave I used my Mach III, took me 30 min to do the above cheek and chin, slowly and with many passes. In the morning I noticed that the side done with the Mach III already had a noticeable 5:00 shadow, the straight razor side…nothing, just why I started shaving with the straight, still kind of raw though. I guess the "glass effect" will come with time...I hope.

So…just wanted to share, open to comments about how to improve. I think fewer passes is in order and shaving when there is less hair to cut. Will try again tonight on Mach III side, should be plenty of stubble there within 12 hours or so.
Thanks for your time and attention.