Thread: First Shave, OUCH, any advice?

I would take a good look at your lather. Lather is a very important part of your shave. Also make sure you are doing good prep. Shower or hot towels.

You also need to strop before every shave.

Coming from an electric remember this,

No pressure.. the blade should just glide
Angle, Do not get too aggressive with the angle of the razor, no more than 30 degrees

Only go WTG until you are comfortable, then add XTG. No ATG passes until you are extremely comfortable with those 2 passes.

What Soap/Cream are you using and what is your pre-shave prep?

I have been straight shaving for two weeks - but DE shaving for a year.

A god, slick lather will help a lot - I have had y best results from JM Fraser's (Shaving Essential s in the US)

very low blade angle and NO pressure!

try and watch the shaving videos from Jockeys (in the general section) they are good.

keep it up - I just had one of the best shaves so far this am.... it gets better

Barry

get a bottle of Glycerin and add 5 drops to you lather.
Strop your razor 10-20 laps before your shave.
Try using a Hot Towel wrap, works great too.
Go slow and take your time.
Might also try stropping between passes.
Other then that, it's just going to take Time to get it down.. I'm still learning and I have has some very nice BBS shaves.

Hy Stephen,

Welcome to the straight path! The jump from electric to straight is huge so take your time and dont dispair .no pressure, good angle, stropping a razor, good beardprep thos are all skills you will need to aqcuire.

You did good by buying a good, prehoned razor.
Just dont try to shave your whole face the first time.. the chin and upperlip can be really difficult to get smooth.. that just takes practice...


Enjoy the experience and have fun!

Maarten

This is where I screwed up, the lather wasn't right. It dried very fast every time then when I reapplied it was to thin.

The most underutilized section of this forum by newbies are the SOTD posts...
Yes it really is there because we love to show off razor porn, but if you actually read some of the posts a lot of the senior most members on the forum not only post pics, but we list exactly what, and how we used it that day....

There are tons of threads with info, in the Wiki section, on every aspect of shavedom, which make for great reading and watching, but if you want an up to the day report of what people are using, check out the SOTD threads too....

Listen to all these guys. One of the suggestions I got was to only shave your cheeks the first couple of shaves, until you get comfortable with the correct angle, speed, lather and so on. There are alot of aspects to str8 shaving that you can not learn in one day. Or even a couple of months. I've only been using a straight razor for 2 months now and I'm just learning how "NOT" to put to much pressure on the blade while I shave. That, and I like to try to rush every now and then when I do shave. That just gets me a nick here and there. If I take my time and enjoy the shave, I get much better results! Don't give up man, you get the best shave of your life with a str8 and when it all comes together, it will be FANTASTIC! Congratulations and Welcome! God Bless!