Thread: A couple questions - first shaves with a straight

Hi everyone. I'm a 21 who's venturing into straight razor shaving. I dropped disposables as I have a tough beard they just won't manage to cut, and multiple blades tend to give me some serious burns and ingrown hair. I bought a Sanguine shavette which feels quite nice, Wilkinson blades, a boar brush, Prep (an Italian brand similar to Proraso) shaving soap, and I'm planning to practice shaving with this stuff until I can choose and get some serious shaving gear.

I had two shaves so far. No cuts, just a couple scratches and some burn. I can imagine it takes practice, but I'm already satisfied with the shave I managed to get, much closer than the ones I was used to. And I realized I have a very skinny face : I can't manage to stretch the neck enough to get a smooth cut under the jawline, and my chin is giving me some trouble too, it's too fleshy to get stretched enough for a smooth shave. My beard tends to grow sideways and this makes it even more troublesome.
Any tips about this?

And how do I dry the brush? I flicked it a couple times, then patted the bristles on a towel and managed to hang it downwards. Is that ok?

Thanks a lot guys. Long live to the old way of doing things.

Congrats on the shaves.

If you are enjoying the shavette you'd probably really like a standard straight razor even more. The marketplace here often has some very affordable, quality razors all sharpened up and ready to go.

My neck hair on the sides grows sideways so I just cut it across the grain (XTG) and it gets close enough. Try stretching the skin under your jawline up above the jawline; you'll soon find a direction that'll work. The chin is iffy for most at first. I get best results by shaving it from left to right (mostly).

The more you do it, the better it'll get.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try them out. It looks so easy in videos I watched on YT, but it's quite difficult to figure out where and how to stretch the skin to get into position. I also skimmed the rest of the section and I noticed that lots of people have trouble with the chin, so I'll just practice more until I get that right.

Oh, and is there a possibility that learning to shave with a shavette gets me into any "bad habits" ? I'm quite determined about buying a cut-throat (and I've seen some fabulous ones in the classifieds section, can't wait to get one of those!).

I got a leather strop (11 $ w/shipping) on eBay too. Selective brand. Waste of money?

Oh and by the way. Honing stones are quite costy. Maybe I won't get one immediately - there's a knife shop near home which sells shaving gear too, would it be safe if I asked there for the occasional honing? I'm quite afraid of buying a 70€ razor and ruining its edge by bad honing.
There's even a good razor on sale, next time I'll write a bit about it and you'll tell me if it's worth its (high) price.

I'm sorry for the double post.
So, I stopped by that knife shop and asked them for razors. One of 'em was a lovely Dovo Solingen, brown handle, brand new. Priced 55€. I don't know if that was exactly a deal but I prefer a brand new razor from a local store than taking any risks on ebay/used razors. It's a long-lasting buy after all.
They gave me strop paste too (should I use it?)
The guy told me it's shave ready and that he can hone the blade when necessary. I'll check it out as soon as I get the strop.

Yeah, I'm in a bit of a rush :P

Edit : I've been taking a look at it. Here are a few photos.

Ok, I tried to post just now but the net died on me and I lost it.
Regarding shavette to straight -
Ask lots of questions when you change as you might find you expect the wrong things from the straight. I imagined that it was possible to have a straight perform the same as a shavette and because I didn't ask enough questions I spent 3 months honing thinking that it would eventually get as sharp as the shavette....it won't. You need to substitute technique for the difference in the blade. You will see when you try it. I learnt that I needed a point leading stroke instead of a perpendicular stroke with the shavette - that took the longest to learn(don't try it with a shavette - it might take a piece of your face)

Regarding the neck area - I have diagonal hairs on my neck and I use 2 or 3 passes depending on time and comfort. Excuse the terrible photos. They make me look quite strange! Excuse the stubble and razor bumps - I am growing out a bad shave from a few days ago(Couldn't get the rolls razor sharp enough)
My first is straight down(a diagonal pass WTG)



For the second pass I use two strokes, one for each side of my neck. The second is a wrist stretcher, but it maintains the right angle for me.
It is a diagonally up stroke(roughly across the grain if I get it right!)



And finally a straight up pass( roughly diagonally agaisnt the grain)


For each stroke I stretch the skin like this and push my chin forward to allow the skin to be tighter.


This is just one way I do it. It avoids going directly against the grain, which irritates my skin and allows a good XTG pass(albeit with a twisted wrist)
Hope it is a little help. Sorry again for the poor photos - I just had some acrobatics trying to take photos and get the razor in the correct place!

Nice old blade you've got there. poisonoustea.

I have a similar issue with the direction of my beard below the jawline. I employ a unique grip shown below which, combined with a scything or slight turning motion helps me get those hairs which grow sideways. At the end of the shave I also pull the skin taut upwards from the far side of my face and with a horizontal blade draw it under my chin from ear to throat ... but I don't have a pic of that. I'd have to upload a video of my shave .... hmmmm.

X

Wow! Thanks a lot for such a great deal of information!
Both methods look interesting -- I think it's time to have a shave :P

Download and study Dr. Moss's "The Art of the Straight Razor Shave", lots of inormation and pictures

http://www.shavemyface.com/downloads...azor-Shave.pdf

Looks like you have a great razor!
I would strongly suggest mapping your beard so that you know what direction it grows on what part of your face. The easiest way to do this is with a credit card or something similar. You will easily recognize the WTG direction as where the CC slides smoothly/slickly across your face. You can verify by checking the ATG direction as being the direction that has the greatest resistance. Now you have a strategy for making your WTG, XTG and ATG passes.
Just as a qualifier, I usually do not use an ATG pass since I find WTG and XTG passes to be sufficient.

I just can't wait for that strop to get shipped. It's my fourth shave with the Sanguine shavette - I just realized it's poor quality as it tends to get clogged. I'd love to switch to the Dovo straight but I'm learning a lot and I'm not afraid of ruining any blade this way.

I've been practicing a bit with techniques, I copied a lot of single-handed techs from xman's videos - I know it's common sense to shave with both hands, but even if I'm ambidexterous my left hand tends to shake a bit and I don't wanna entrust a razor to her.

Thanks a lot xman! For the first time in my LIFE I could get a close shave on my neck AND jaw, I just couldn't believe it. The chin still gave me trouble but I'm getting to know it.

Just a couple questions. How about corrections? Can you just pluck those few remaining hairs out after the shave or do you need to re-lather and re-rinse?

I slightly nicked myself in a few spots (like under the jaw, neck, sides of the chin... ) but what's truly uncomfortable is razor burn. I must admit I did three passes on most of my face and I tried out a lot of different positions, but I think my skin is quite sensible to ATG passes. Can I solve this problem somehow? Trumper's skin food?