Cancel the appointment with the Plastic Surgeon

I got my first straight razor in the mail today, purchased from the forums. Lucky timing in that the wife is out of town leaving me 3 days to heal without any additional mockery prior to returning to work on Monday.

I think the :y emoticon describes the shave better than I can.

I did a full shave (minus the goatee); no nicks, cuts, or even redness. Even less irritation than the Mach 3 usually leaves on the neck (the neck is usually in a constant state of razor burn). Cheeks are on par with the disposables while the neck isn't quite as close. The razor tugged a little more on the hair than I expected. The razor was purchased shave ready and the seller stropped it for me so I didn't screw up the edge on the first shave. I suspect a lot of the tugging is due to a lack of confidence and technique with the razor and from my barbed wire like facial hair.

Thanks for the wealth of information provided here and for all the answers to my questions.

good job sir! you seem to have made out better then most noobs do (me included ;)).

so how many passes did you do? i don't always do an ATG pass, more like a XTG but because of the angle of my beard growth it is kind of in between ATG and XTG.

sounds like you are on track though, good luck!

I did 2 passes on the cheeks. The WTG pass was from goatee to the sideburns, then XTG from sideburns to the jawline. The neck was 1 pass XTG from jawline down (the hair on my neck grows sideways from the Adam's apple out). After that I went back and tried to clean up any spots I missed on the neck. I decided that it's never too early to quit and called it good before attempting to shave the neck from the bottom up.

I'm still trying to decide if I can squeeze the razor in to get a WTG pass of part of the neckline towards the base of my neck where the skin is the most sensitive.

Hmm, after re-reading the above sentence, I suspect squeezing a razor into anyplace is probably cause for a Darwin award. Thoughts?

I'd say don't do it. Now maybe if you get one of those razors that has a big smiling edge or a sway back then it might fit in the curve of your neck for a WTG pass... By the way, going from goatee to sideburn would usually be XTG and maybe a bit ATG for most of us. (were you born in a wind tunnel? :))

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Originally Posted by Quick

I'd say don't do it. Now maybe if you get one of those razors that has a big smiling edge or a sway back then it might fit in the curve of your neck for a WTG pass... By the way, going from goatee to sideburn would usually be XTG and maybe a bit ATG for most of us. (were you born in a wind tunnel? :))

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I was born and raised in Wyoming, so yes I was born in a wind tunnel and almost a barn for that matter. :roflmao

I think that you will need to work on your stropping a little bit more than you have. The pulling that you described indicates this.

maybe not. He said it was pre-stropped for him just for that reason. I'd guess more like blade angle. Next time try holding the razor almost flat against your face. Just lift the spine a little bit. It is possible to get too little angle but much more common to use too much angle.

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Originally Posted by jbcohen

I think that you will need to work on your stropping a little bit more than you have. The pulling that you described indicates this.

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The razor was pre-stropped for me by the seller so I would have 1 less thing to worry about for the first shave. I'll definitely keep that in mind though for future shaves.

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Originally Posted by Quick

maybe not. He said it was pre-stropped for him just for that reason. I'd guess more like blade angle. Next time try holding the razor almost flat against your face. Just lift the spine a little bit. It is possible to get too little angle but much more common to use too much angle.

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I think that may have been my problem. I was trying for 1-2 spine widths as suggested in other threads. I went back and rechecked the blade angle by laying the razor flat on my face and then rotating it out and I was probably 3-4 spine widths away from my face when I shaved earlier.

Tuff beard needs tuff prep. Hot towels & good lather essential.
Sounds like you pressure is good seeing you're irritation free.
Always drop your angle if you feel resistance rather than pushing thru.
Remember the aim is to cut hair not scrape skin. :)

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I think the :y emoticon describes the shave better than I can.

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Glad the razor is working well for you so far. :tu

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

Tuff beard needs tuff prep. Hot towels & good lather essential.

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As someone with a tough beard; definitely can never spend too much time on prep.

More stropping might also help. I stropped the blade before it left, but I posit that during shipping the edge could shift a bit because of temperature changes. (it's below freezing up here in the north). It might not have been 100% when it arrived.

I received my TM Strop in the mail today; absolutely gorgeous. I stropped the razor about 30 times on the cloth and 75 times on the leather. The stropping combined with lowering the angle helped with the pulling quite a bit.

The shave today wasn't quite as good as yesterday but I kept all of my blood on the inside which is my primary goal for the first few weeks. I should have probably waited until morning to let my face recover a bit more but it needs to learn sooner or later. The neck has a nice red hue to it about on par with a bad cartridge day.

LordKappa, should I keep the razor in the freezer so it feels more like home? I fear the 60 deg F (15.5 C) weather today may make the razor homesick ";". No one should ever have to shave with a homesick razor. :rofl2:

sounds like a great first shave :D it sounds like your blade angle may have been to steep and it was pulling the hair try experimenting with different blade angles and make sure your beard prep is good if the hair on your face has not been softened it will be harder to cut and last but not least make sure you pull your skin tight :gl: