Thread: 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 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? )

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? )

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

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.