Thread: Making progress

I'm about 8 straight shaves in and had the best shave yet today with a new Dovo special 6/8 honed up by Lynn.

I can do the WTG pass pretty well now but I find I have to double back alot. I'm not getting many nicks or irritation anymore which is a good sign.

I can go ATG on the sideburns and cheeks and get totally BBS now but the rest is a different story. On the moustache and chin I try to go across or against the grain and the blade just feels like it skips and doesn't go through the stubble and I end up reaching for my Vision to clean up the rest. I guess I have alot more practice ahead of me.

The real shocker though came post shave today. I did my customary generous splash of Aqua Velva and braced for the burn but......there wasn't any??? It was as if I just splashed on cold water alone. But I suppose that's a sign that the shaves are improving!

Your technique will improve with time and that seems to be the only problem here. Great to hear that things are going well!

Certainly sounds like things are going in the right direction for you.

It's just going to be practice, practice and more practice for you, like many of us relative noobs.

Don't worry about results, concentrate on learning how to handle the razor, learn how to use both hands and different hand positions. The rest will come with practice.
Good luck!

For now I'm just enjoying the process and keeping faith that some day smooth comfortable shaves will happen. I didn't have great results with a DE right away.

Just curious, for the pros out there, how long did it take you to get straight shaves on par or better than a DE shave?

I have 2 months under my belt and I'm still very careful with the area under my lower lip, but I'm getting better every day.
My shaves vary depending on which razor I use, some are sharper than others, I'm also learning how to hone and keep them shave-ready.

I had the best shave yet today with a TI that Mike Ratliff honed for me. I recommend his services btw, looks like he did a great job and went out of his way to get the razors back to me quickly. He fixed my dinged dovo up that I thought was a goner.

Anyway, I did a 3 pass today, WTG, XTG and ATG where I felt like I could. I had very little to clean up with the DE, just a spot on the neck and the chin, otherwise smooth all around! I don't know if I'll ever be able to go against the grain on the chin but it seems I can get reasonably close going across.

Had a couple nicks that disappeared with cold water and no sting with the alcohol splash again.

Congratulations on you successes.

I'm thinking many of us use the after-shave splash as an indicator of how well the shave went...