Hi,

I've been shaving with safety razors for quite a while, and I've always wanted to try straight razor shaving. However, having recently bought a Merkur Vision I was having a hard time justifying the cost of purchasing everything, especially with the RAD that is sure to follow .....

However, last week I finally took the plunge and decided to give straight razors a try. I bought a Pre-Honed Divo "Silver Steel" 5/8 from ClassicShaving, together with a hanging strop, a 4 sided paddle strop and some 0.25/0.5/1 micron diamond pastes. After paying a very hefty customs fee (it was still cheaper that buying everything in the UK), I received my package today. The strop needed breaking in, so I placed a few heavy books on it .

So, today I had my first straight razor shave. The cheeks went very smoothly. However, I have learned that my chin has very thick hair, and therefore my chin wasn't smooth at all - the blade kept "jumping". The neck wasn't that much better. I didn't even try the upper lip area.

All in all, I have to say that the shave went as I expected - not BBS, but not a complete disaster either :-). I have confidence that it will improve with pratice.

I find shaving the left side of my face to be much harder - I've seen several different techniques, but none of them really work for me (I'm right-handed). I guess I will just switch to my left hand when going to the left side, and hope that with practice it will improve .......

I believe that the the razor was pre-honed - however, my hair is very thick and coarse, the blade passes the HHT only a third of the time. Maybe after a few shaves, I should do a touch up on a 0.5 micron pasted strop, followed by a 0.25? I'm also thinking of getting a norton 4000/8000 for general razor maintenance.

So, what do you think? Any recommendations?