Thread: Newbies first attempts

Greetings all,

I just wanted to say what a great forum this is and how much I've learned by reading the posts here. I've been wanting to try straight razor shaving for awhile and only recently took the plunge now that I finally have a bit of extra money to buy my first supplies with. I bought a shave ready T.J. Collins "President" razor off of Ebay last week.

It seems like a good razor to me, but then again what do I know! I have nothing to compare it to. My first shave was a disaster. Razor burn and nicks, you name it! I've shaved with it 3 more time since then and I'm happy to say its getting better but still not stellar. I'm not getting razor burn and cuts, but the quality of my shave is quite poor. I still have to finish off with my Mach III. I know I've got a large learning curve ahead of me. I'm terrified of stropping and accidentally ruining the razor's edge and I can't seem to build a lather like I see in the you-tube videos to save my life!

Yesterday I decided to take the advice I've seen on this board and stop over at SRD to buy a pre-honed Dovo Black Star to use as a bench mark, since I'm not quite convinced that a random e-bay bought razor is as sharp as it should be. I realize that the Best Quality probably would of served me equally as well, but the Black Star really called out to me and I don't mind spending a bit extra to get the razor that really suits me and that I will enjoy using in the long-haul. I also bought the world of straight shaving DVD to try to learn and correct some of my poor-newb techniques.

All in all it's a slow start but I'm determined to get it right and think I will really love shaving with a straight razor once I get the hang of it. I can also see how RAD could become an obsession in the future, but I'm fighting it at the moment!

Best wishes,

Nomad