Thread: The Frustrations of a new Straight shaver

Happy Monday Everyone.

Today was the first shave ever of my new dovo 5/8" best from SRD. Unfortunately, the shave was far from anything spectacular. A few nicks here and there, as well as some high aggression on my skin, resulted in a poor shave. I missed some spots completely (lower neck on the far right and left, nearly unreachable with the hard-to-maneuver straight blade). Any suggestions on how to hit these tough spots, as well as how to decrease the aggressiveness?

Since you got it from SRD we can assume it's honed.

The three biggest things now are stropping, beard prep., and technique.

The wiki that is linked to at the top of the page in an amazing source for everything you will need to know.

But to save you a little time I will throw this out there. Take a hot shower before shaving, if not at least use a hot towel, this helps to soften the hair. You'll also want a quality cream/soap that provides enough glide and cushion.

Next keep the pressure low and keep an eye on the blade angle. I'm betting the issue is a combination of pressure and technique.

As far as hitting those tough spots.....Practice.....Everyone has certain areas that are tough to get at for one reason or another. With each shave you will get better at hitting all areas. Just remember that the entire blade is sharp, don't be afraid to use the toe or the heel if needed to get into tight spots.

Although it has been said hundreds of times hardly anyone tries it that way from the beginning...

For your first Straight Razor shaving adventure one should try just the side-burn area and perhaps the flats of the cheeks... Finish up with your old shaving methods on the rest of the face, until you grow proficient in the angles and dangles of a straight razor, slowly progressing outward over time to the rest of your face....

All that being said most people jump right in the deep end ... let yer face heal then start again slowly...

Welcome to SRP birdman. Lots of advice and help here. The first piece of advice I am going to give you is to start with just the area between your sideburn and jaw line, and WTG only. Get use to the feeling of the blade in your hand and against your skin. Practice on your angles and pressures until you are comfortable. You can finish your shave with your regular razor. Once you get this area down you can add other techniques (XG and ATG) and areas of your face. Take your time. It's not a race to the BBS. You will get there...

Great minds think alike Glenn. We were doing our inputs at the same time, and said the same thing...

Cheers guys I'll definitely try that. I've been wetshaving for a few months now so I've got the safety razor stuff down. Hopefully this will get easier, my face definitely needs some recovery time after today.

First shaves are rough more often than not. The
most important thing is to be patient -- start off
slowly with small parts of the face and focus on
light pressure, consistent angle.

It will come -- it always does



- Scott

rbirds , Im fairly new as well. My first shave was terrible and my second and third were not to much better. At one point I said to myself why am I getting into this, this kind of shaving sucks. Anyway I have to tell you this kind of shaving is great, so much so that I look foward to shaving, and went from shaving once a week to now 3 times a week. It definitly gets better, Take your time and get comfortable with the easy parts first, Like others are going to say face prep is most important, a Shave ready razor is a must, but most important is take your time . Use a light touch and dont force anything. You could actually do this without cutting yourself up if you are carefull. I decided from the first day that I didnt want to get all cut up doing this so I focus on what Im doing, I pay attention to my angles, I use short strokes, I clean my blade off and do another small section. Im now 3 months into this and Im getting BBS shaves and I have yet to even nick myself.... Well I take that back I did nick myself when I tried to shave drunk, small nick on the chin .

Scott I need to take some writing lessons from you, I read your 4 line post and I basically said the same thing only it took me about 200 word paragraph, lol

welcome to srp. give it some time. the more you shave the better you will get. it takes a lot of experimenting to get a good shave. you have to re-learn your face and the direction of your hair growth. for starters use a shallower blade angle und slowly increase it to reach the point where it is cutting and not pulling your whiskers out

Yeah, definitely. I think my blade angle was very shallow in some spots. I felt a very strong pull instead of a pleasant slicing that happened during the second attempt at a first pass. Although... I do think I was a bit aggressive the second time around, but much more confident. I'll get it eventually I think