Thread: first of many

last night was my first time to shave with a straight,
i used a dovo black star which i purchased from the invisible edge,
it came shave ready so i jumped in with both feet, i was a bit apprehensive at first because of various stories i read about the do's & don'ts and the pitfalls of using a straight,
the shave was only ok, a few nicks becasuse blade angle and pressure, (god bless the styptic pen) half way through the shave i was tempted to grab my merkur DE to finish the job but i carried on, my main problem i guess was trying to see my mush in the mirror at certain angles, trying to tilt my head this way & that,but at the end of the day i thought it was an ok effort for my first shave.
thanks to everybody on the site for all the info i obtained
( now wheres that cat gone )

A hearty welcome to SRP, Cool.

Sounds like you are starting in the right direction. If I could make one suggestion. Start with just the area between the sideburn and jawline, and WTG only. Get the feeling of the blade against your face and how it feels manipulating it. Then finish your have with you other razor. Do this for a few days until you are comfortable. Then branch out to other areas, as well as adding XG and AGT. It won't take long...

If you shaved all of your face in your first shave, just continue what you are doing. As long as you don't cut yourself or get burnt it can't be too bad.

You'll always remember that first shave; those first shaky, nervous strokes when you felt that the tiniest mistake with blade angle or pressure would take half your face off.

Good job on your first one! You've still got both your ears!

+1 with what flyboy said, you'll never learn to shave your whole face if you always avoid the tricky spots.

Good luck, and Happy shaving!

congrats on your first shave it only gets better from here

Welcome to SRP and I hope you found the cat. I finished up with a DE my first few weeks of straight razor shaving. It is a learning process and it gets better and better.

Straight razor shaving is like going to the clothing optional beach. The first few days are the hardest. It gets easier quickly, between relaxing and getting some motor skills in your hands. Actually, you may still be in for another round of cuts and boo-boo’s. This happens when you think you got it wired and get a little kocky. You’ll push a little too hard, move a little too fast, and start seeing red on your face for a while. This too will pass as you settle into comfortable respect for that blade. This happened to me, and I am pretty sure it is a fairly common progression amongst the members here. See it as a sign of definite progression.

LOL. Clothing optional beach. AWESOME analogy. I love how there always something new and informative, and occaisionally something hilarious, every time I get on here!

hehe, here kitty kitty.

X

Originally Posted by cooltide

last night was my first time to shave with a straight,
i used a dovo black star which i purchased from the invisible edge,
it came shave ready so i jumped in with both feet, i was a bit apprehensive at first because of various stories i read about the do's & don'ts and the pitfalls of using a straight,
the shave was only ok, *snip*

Greetings and great to hear that you have a good time with that dovo. I have ordered one Wade&Butcher from Steve, Invisible edge and it was indeed shave ready and very sharp.
Great service overall and nicely polished blades.
Keep on going and have fun.