YAFSS: Yet another first straight shave

Okay, first let me introduce myself by way of a bit of my shaving history. I used an electric for many years because cartridges were very irritating to my skin. My shaves weren't that close, but I didn't know what worlds awaited me!

About a year ago I found B&B and got all hyped for a DE shave. I learned all about prep, got myself a Merkur HD, bought some TOBS shave cream, and eventually worked up to determining that Feather DE blades were the ones for me. My shaves got much better, the irritation went away, and I really began to enjoy shaving!

Fast forward a year. I was reading forums on B&B and ran across a reference to SRP. Omigosh! Here I go again! I began reading all your helpful posts (thanks to you one and all, BTW - even the newbies here ask the most helpful questions :bow). I found Lynn's Straight Razor Designs site and started with some Castle Forbes cream (absolute heaven) and his CD. Based on the SRP recommendtations of Lynn and his work, I felt I could trust his products and advice. I ordered my starting gear. Today was the big day!

I got a Dovo Prima Klang carbon steel razor and a Tony Miller strop. I stropped the razor, showered, prepped, and shaved. Well.... I lost very little blood. The shave was lousy, but only one nick (and I almost saw it coming -- when I dropped my concentration). I'm not unhappy with my shave, as it was a first, but I need a little help in improving.

1. I certainly felt more pull than glide. I have course and thick, but not dense, hair, and I'm pretty sure my beard was as soft as it is when I have done a DE shave. Am I left with inadequate stropping technique? I do think that in the beginning that I was too timid with my stroke. About halfway through the shave I used a little more pressure and was able to shave off more with no ill effects. But about this gliding thing; can anyone be more specific? Is stropping the key?

2. On Lynn's video, and one other I think I saw on YouTube, the shaver switched hands for opposite sides of the face. I realize this might be a much opined topic, but feel free to opine in my general direction. :D Is this something that would be worth my time to practice and learn?

3. My shave today was two pass (I didn't want to push my luck). In spots, it was at least as good as my DE shaves with three or four passes. My WTG is really angled from NE to SW and NW to SE, if you will, like from my nose to the lower corner of my jawbone. The videos I've seen show shavers doing a nice N to S motion for WTG. Tell me there's someone else out there that has a weird beard direction. Better yet, if your direction matches mine, what tips do you have about stretching the skin and shaving in general?

Thanks in advance for your help. It's great to have a place to ask all these things. I can't imagine how many fewer people would even try straight razor shaving without a group like this to support them. I know I never would have started.

Ray

Well, first let me welcome you to SRP! There are a lot of great folks here and naturally lots of info specific to str8 shaving.
Congrats on being able to shave as well as you have in your first shaves.
You have hit on a key. Everyone has the potential to have a different beard growth pattern. One of the keys to getting less irritation is to know which direction your beard grows so that you can actually make your first pass WTG and the next couple XTG.
You may want to try a little Cromium Oxide to finely polish the edge. It can smooth out your shave a bit.

Welcome to SRP, Ray

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hermeticpiper

1. I certainly felt more pull than glide. I have course and thick, but not dense, hair, and I'm pretty sure my beard was as soft as it is when I have done a DE shave. Am I left with inadequate stropping technique? I do think that in the beginning that I was too timid with my stroke. About halfway through the shave I used a little more pressure and was able to shave off more with no ill effects. But about this gliding thing; can anyone be more specific? Is stropping the key?

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It will improve. You don't need pressure, you need momentum, i.e. the razor be moving, gets better with practice. Stropping is important of course, but I believe Lynn sends out the blades stropped.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hermeticpiper

2. On Lynn's video, and one other I think I saw on YouTube, the shaver switched hands for opposite sides of the face. I realize this might be a much opined topic, but feel free to opine in my general direction. :D Is this something that would be worth my time to practice and learn?

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Some people use one hand only, some people do both. Building up the muscle memory on your nondominant hand isn't much harder than on your dominant one. I'd say go for it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hermeticpiper

3. My shave today was two pass (I didn't want to push my luck). In spots, it was at least as good as my DE shaves with three or four passes. My WTG is really angled from NE to SW and NW to SE, if you will, like from my nose to the lower corner of my jawbone. The videos I've seen show shavers doing a nice N to S motion for WTG. Tell me there's someone else out there that has a weird beard direction. Better yet, if your direction matches mine, what tips do you have about stretching the skin and shaving in general?

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Yes there are such people, I don't think I'm one of them though :)

Enjoy

I've been terrified to use my non-dominant hand. Perhaps I'll try to muster the gumption. I don't really stretch my skin at all YMMV.

Well, today was another day, another shave, and more frustration. I have to think my stropping is no good. Maybe I ruined the edge on my first strop. I'm going to find a way to get back to the right starting point and try again from there.

Thanks to Steve, gugi, and Ditch Doc for your responses. I did try my personal WTG today, and I did work on momentum. But it was pulling so bad I gave up at the half-way point and finished with my DE.

Should I expect a good straight razor blade to feel like a DE blade on my face? It sure didn't.

I'm not giving up, just regrouping.

Steve, I like your tagline, BTW. I'm 01 of the 10 types of people who understand binary.

herm...

I'm not sure in what direction my beard grows. I suppose I could try to figure it out or try to remember what I looked like during my bigfoot days, but instead have settled on a two directions shave which seems to work for me. I do an end of sideburn to corner of jaw right hand on right side and chin to adam's apple right hand on right side, this is followed by a left-on left. I do the upper lip or coup d'maitre with dominant/right hand only from under nose to top of lip. This can get a bit unnerving as you have to start the stroke with the blade under your nose, perpendicular to your lip and rotate it as you bring the razor to the vaunted 30 degree pitch to your lip. This is done on each side of the prithim or little dip between the sections of upper lip and then the dip itself, or however you mix it up. I then do the corners of my mouth and chin - again all with my dominant/right hand.

Second strokes are followed by a re-lather and done right on right and left on left, this time from prithim and approximately center of chin to ear. This is followed by a "back handed" stroke from adam's apple to chin done right/dominant hand with the handle opened in a straight line with the blade. Any missed lather is cleaned up with whatever hand/stroke seems most comfortable for the situation.

This is my approach to shaving my face. It may not work for you, but it is something I developed for myself with remarkably little loss of blood.

The stretching of skin thing becomes more important the slacker your skin becomes. If you're youthful, eh, it may not be such a big issue,but when you find yourself in your "golden" years as I find myself, it becomes a greater issue. You can straighten out curves and dips by pulling some loose skin, puffing some breath into a cheek, or sticking your tongue behind a dip in your lip-or wherever. The goal here is to give yourself either a relatively flat or stable convex curve where the razor can't push a ripple of skin. I've found the best appproach for me is to take several small strokes, tipping the angle of the blade a bit differently for each stroke. Try to imagine trying to shave the bumps off a basketball with one of your kitchen knives. You'll never get all the bumps in one stroke - so this is how I envision my face and my razor for the morning's shave.

Don't slide the razor sideways and always keep it moving. Never stop to admire the stroke with the blade in contact with your skin or start the stroke with the blade resting on your skin. That's an invitation for the blood gusher gods to step in to vent some red.

I've tried soaps and creams and find the most effortless shaves for me come from cream generated lather. Soap work too, but seems to require paying more attention to how the lather is created, which in the morning just after having gotten up is not among the challenges I greet with the greatest affection.

Strop your razor with the strop taut, but you don't have to get nuts about tension. Try to keep it so that the dip in the strop isn't greater than about half an inch when the blade is in the middle of the stroke. Make sure you keep both the edge and spine in contact with the strop at all times during the stroke and rotate the edge up while still stroking as this will prevent nicks in the strop. I've started using both linen and leather - about 30 on each - linen first. Some use more strokes, some don't use the linen; some use the linen, then coarse/rough leather, then finish/smooth leather. If you keep the blade flat on the strop and move the blade always spine leading and don't drive the blade into the strop like you're trying to mash potatos, things should be just fine.

If you think you have troubles with the razor, get in touch with Lynn or Don. I believe that if you bought it from SRD, the razor is sold shave ready and I think you can get a touch up if there are difficulties by only paying for shipping.

good luck, good shaving,

When I first got my razor from Lynn, never having used a straight, I questioned its shave readiness. After several shaves, I am finding that it shaves better and better, or, I am just becoming a little more adept. Confidence plays a huge role in the shave quality I am finding. I strop 20 linen, 20 leather and am finding that sufficient for now. I probably have 10-12 shaves in since receiving the razor from SRD. I shave down from the side burns, relather, then back up ATG. I shave diagonally along the ridge of my mandible, always have some stubble left, and am very very slowly figuring out how to go ATG there. I shave N-S, then S-N on my neck, but have trouble going S-N. I think it is blade angle more than anything. I think it's hard to wrap your mind around having trouble shaving after many years of doing it mindlessly, and that is the biggest obstacle.

Thanks for the detailed analysis, Bruce. My cheek whiskers sound like they are rotated 90 degrees from yours! I wonder what gene that is? I like your explanation of the upper lip, as I have suffered much fear and trepidation when doing that stroke. I like the idea of using the dominant hand on both sides of the upper lip. Cheeks are one thing with non-dominant hand, upper lips are another!

Cheers,
Ray

Ditch Doc, I'm watching your progress with interest as like me, you've just started, you shopped with Lynn, and you post your progress without reservatioin. If not my inspiration, you at least cause me to think, if he can do it, I can do it! That's inspiration enough!

I can see how confidence would play a big role. I have very little (though it was higher today than yesterday -- I got through the first day and realized I hadn't slit my throat). When I switched to my DE half way through today to get a decent shave, I must admit my confidence was much higher. But I can remember a time when I started DE shaving that I was very tentative. But only a few weeks into that, it was feeling much more natural. I guess I owe it to myself, my straight razor investment, and all the helpful people here to keep at it.

Thanks,
Ray

Hi Ray,

Sounds like you're off to a good start. Don't expect things to be perfect over night. So much of straight razor shaving depends on getting a feel for it, and that just takes time. I don't know if this helps, but in my case, I shave with a straight with a different pattern than I do from the DE. What I do with the DE works best for it, what I do with the straight works best for it.

Here's my straight routine:

1) Shave straight down from top to bottom. One cheek first, then the other.

2) Shave neck, one side first, then the other, finishing up in the middle. Here I do something different. I start at the bottom, shaving with down strokes, working my way up.

3) Shave under the nose, then the chin. I use very short strokes here, esp. on the chin. The chin is round but the blade is straight. Don't try to take too much at a time.

4) Wet my face, and do a final pass from the bottom up. It took me a long time to get comfortable with this. DON'T try it unless you're really comfortable with handling your razor. Anyway, I start at the neck, taking up strokes all the way up the cheek. I use NO pressure, and yoiu'd think you weren't doing anything, but that's where I get my super-smooth shaves.

5) Final clean up: I run my wet hand around my face to pinpoint any stragglers. I have three spots I always have to hit again, but I always end up with a two-day shave (don't need to shave again for two days) and no irritation.

A NOTE ABOUT PRESSURE: I use hardly any pressure at all when I shave. I don't know if that's just me, or if my blades are sharpened just right. When I get to the point where I have to apply pressure to shave, I take the razors to the hone. They don't get a super heavy honing, just a few swipes on the 4000 side (I use a Norton 4000/8000) until I feel the blade pull smoothly, then a few on the 8000 side, and a good stropping. That gets things back into shape pretty quick.

Honing and Stropping are also very important. The guys in the group all give good advice on this so i won't re-hash it, but eventually you'll get a feel for that too, and that's when you get the best results.

Best wishes,
Mike

Thanks for your ideas, Mike. It seems like several people around here get the shave done in 2 passes, perhaps with the cleanup you mention. My DE shaves took 3 or 4 passes to get close, so I'm interested to explore this further.

In the pressure department, I think I needed to apply too much to get the job done. I'm going to do the sensible thing and send the razor back to Lynn and Don for a touch-up. It delays some of my progress, but I have to know what the right feel is. I probably screwed that up out of the gate, but that's one mistake that is easy to fix.

Undaunted,
Ray