Sorry for all the new posts, but since each happens to be on a somewhat different topic I thought that was the way to go. Anyway I finally gave the straight razor shave a try tonight, is there supposed to be this much bloodshed? Actually it wasn't all that bad, I got several good nicks and learned a ton. First off I watch a bunch of Youtube videos of people shaving with straights. This didn't really help a great deal, I kind of figured out how best to hold it as I went along. I read the Wikapedia article on straights and found that my particuler razor is a spike razor and not really recommended for a newbie, after shaving with it I now know why, I would say that 100% of my cuts where caused by that nasty little point. I actually shaved about 75% of my face until I let the blade down wrong to start a cut and left a nasty long cut on the side of my neck, then I decided to finish off with a electric razor. Something I learned was that my razor wasn't nearly sharp enough, and that likely caused me problems, I could feel it grabbing slightly sometimes. Also I think the cheap soap I bought isn't good (however the cheap brush I bought rocks). The soap seems to lather up really thinly, I think it needs to be alot thicker so that the blade has some lubrication, most of the time it felt like I was dry shaving. Also is it true that you shouldn't let your razor get wet with water? I just wiped the lather/blood/hair off on a clean cloth and when I was done I wiped the razor good and coated it in mineral oil. I got a lot of nicks around my chin and my ears, that was my two trouble spots. Interestly under my nose seemed really easy. So that is how it went, I must say that I will for sure keep trying this, it's p$ssed me off so much that I got all the nicks that I'm determined to master this now. Makes you appreciate how difficult it would have been for a teenager around 1900 just learning to shave. Also I was pretty nervous with this being my first try, so my hands weren't what I would call steady either. Any tips that you guys could give me would be awesome and hopefully help me out here. Thanks..