First shave (such as it is)

Lots of woulda/shoulda/coulda on this one, but it is what it is and I lived to tell the tale.

Comments/Observations:
1) I'm a total noob and don't know what I'm doing nor what I'm talking about, and it's a poor craftsman who blames his tools, but I question the shave-readiness of the DD Special I got in the classifieds here.
2) I'm aslo an over-excited nitwit and didn't wait until my strop arrived. It should be here *tomorrow*.:gaah:
3) Porasso pre-shave + porasso cream and you may as well be shaving with epoxy. Or at least marshmallow fluff. :td I need some real soap.
4) Holy crap is it awkward to swing that blade around and know which part is going to hit your face first and where. And I'm supposed to learn to do this with both hands??? :thinking: The downside fo the whole experience was when I just kissed my nostril with the toe of the blade. It grew a nice red blossom instantly! It's fine now, of course.
5) In the shoulda category: I probably should have stuck to the flat bits, but I pushed on and at least gave a shot to all of it (minus the goatee I'm sporting, which saves a lot of difficult areas). The neck is going to take some learnin'.

Lessons learned? Maybe one or two... I did mention that I'm a nitwit sometimes, right?

I'm not discouraged, though. I'll have a strop in mere hours. I ordered a kickass blade from Max. I've figured out that soap probably really is a good thing. And most importantly, even with my unstropped, possibly under-honed blade, skittering hands do to my giddy excitement, ****-poor technique, Fluffernutter shaving cream and everything else, I SHAVED STUBBLE OFF MY FACE WITH A STRAIGHT RAZOR. :y

Now I just have to get much, much better at it.
Thanks for listening, gang. I love this place.

Welcome aboard!!! Just stick with it the comfortability whipping the blade around will come with time. Someone else with come in and give you the usual A) cheeks first few times B) watch the angle of blade C) as light on the pressure as possible.

The key is to just keep trying you have to break a few eggs to make a omelette.

Jake

You need to lay off the double shots of expresso before your next shave :eek:

Just take your time dont try to do your whole face untill you get a little more comfortable.

welcome to srp

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jakoblah

Comments/Observations:
1) if the person who honed it has been at it for a while chances are very very slim it was the razor, there is of course the if.

2) very good.

3) thegentlemensquarter.com is good real soap, at least works really well for me.

4) it's only awkward until you get used to it.

5) i won't be arguing on that one.

I'm not discouraged, though. I'll have a strop in mere hours. I ordered a kickass blade from Max.
now that was just one smart decision.

unstropped,
that makes a big difference, most people who know what they're doing strop a razor before calling it 'shave-ready' and letting it out the door.

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have fun

Thanks guys. I'm going to try to slow down a bit.
Or y'know, just keep being a nitwit until a learn better... :rofl2:

I wouldn't be too concerned you didn't strop it, the advice I used - and I'm glad I did - was NOT to strop it for your first shave to give you an idea of what a shave ready razor should feel like. Give you a baseline if you like.

Lots of people use two hands, the best bet if you're finding it awkward is to get on you tube and watch a few videos, see peoples grips and how they do their passes.

Good luck.

Welcome, I'm a newbi myself. I'm learning on my Grandfathers old blade aand his gear didn't include a strop. I've got my eye on one @Classic Shaving.com but you can struggle through with out one. I'm sure once this has been added to the routine the experence will only get better.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lowrideriggi

Welcome, I'm a newbi myself. I'm learning on my Grandfathers old blade aand his gear didn't include a strop. I've got my eye on one @Classic Shaving.com but you can struggle through with out one. I'm sure once this has been added to the routine the experence will only get better.

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Newspaper works apparently

Tried my second shave today with an exquisitely sharp blade from Max and actually did much better.
At least until I dug in for a nice crease on the left cheek.

I still gave a go at my neck and did *alright* there, but there's lots of work to do on technique, obviously.

The sharper blade definitely made a difference, so the first DD I tried was less than "shave-ready", I think.

Thanks for all the support, gang. :rock:
I'll work it out eventually. Hopefully without significant scarring. ;)

No blood, but not a full shave (and I'm ok with that).

Switching hands actually makes things *less* awkward. Nice.
Practicing with a butterknife razor I got to learn honing with helped a lot, too.

The beard on my neck swirls and is going to take a while to figure out, I think...

In the end, I can report continued progress! :rock:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jakoblah

In the end, I can report continued progress! :rock:

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That's the name of the game.

Dude....great posts! I'm a newbie and a knucklehead all rolled into one. I read your post and thought, "I would totally do that". In the anticipation of getting a blade, strope and all the rest I can see myself trying to do something when I should probably wait.

So who's Max?

Thanks again for the great post!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lowrideriggi

his gear didn't include a strop. but you can struggle through with out one.

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I think struggle is the right word. It might be advisable to wait until you can get one. The bare minimum is a shave ready blade,decent soap and a servicable strop.

travec -

Glad to see I'm not the only one. ;)

Max is SRP member Maximilian - He does top notch restores and customs.

Brilliant. Thanks for the info!

- travec

I know many think I'm a heretic shaving without strop but it has brought a certain delicay to my honing skills. I'm having too much fun to quit now and wait for conditions to be perfect.
Shaving with a straight razor is like life, you go with what you got!;)

Swirlies are a pain in the neck! :roflmao My beard grows in swirls along my right jawline from my earlobe almost to my chin. My beard is normal except for the swirlies, which are very tough and coarse. I take care of the majority of the swirls with an ATG scything stroke. I shave the two small patches that remain by stretching the skin from four directions. I stretch the skin up and shave the swirl, then stretch down and shave the swirl, then stretch right and shave the patch, and, finally, stretch left and shave the patch. Each direction is ATG for some part of my swirlie patches.

It's very easy to cut yourself with the scything stroke. Use no pressure. It took me at least 2 or 3 months to gain the confidence and coordination for the scything stroke.

Make sure your razor is off your face when you shift your stretch or you will cut yourself.

I appreciate the advice, dave!

Not to turn this thread into a total shave diary, but I figure it's worth it to document the start for other n00bs....

Shave #4 this morning was with the DD Special No. 1 I got from the classifieds here and that I used for shave #1. This time I stropped it, though! ;) I still think it needs some real honing, but it wasn't horrible.

I felt pretty comfortable and did a fairly decent job of it - even on the neck swirlies.
More importantly I may have found that a grip with the scales straight out from the blade (rather than perpendicular) is best for me when working the neck.

Always learning! :tu

Shave #5 was good.
I tried the scything motion a bit and it seemed to make sense.
I still have some areas that feel awkward, but I managed to do the whole shave (minus the goatee, still).
Nowhere near BBS, but I'd call it 3 o'clock shadow or better.
:tu

Just some advice for those looking for a strop. THere are Jemico Solingen Strops on eBay for like $25 shipping included. I use two that are only 18" but they work great. Just be patient, I can now shave about as fast with a straight as I could with the Mach 3 because I have most of my razors cleaning the face in one swipe.
Patience must be your virtue learning this procedure.
Keep On Truckin!

So skipping ahead a few shaves, I just had the best one yet.

Call it 70% BBS - The hollows of my neck are still tricky.

Just posting this for the other newbies out there, so they can see that something that feels comically awkward and borderline dangerous the first try actually gets much better incredibly quickly.

Do I still expect to do stupid things like cut the inside of my ear? Yep.
But at least I know I'm capable of a *really* nice shave on the other days. :nj

One more note: I'm really liking Colleen's soap. SWMBO loves the Bay Rum scent and I like the lather. I think I need to get one of Jockeys' "redneck scuttles", though - my lather gets cold!

Speaking of really nice shaves, I had one today.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3376/...a19e399a31.jpg

There were a couple incidents on the neck where I stretched after blade contact :gaah: but it's all good.

Jake , very nice job man, ya look good .