Thread: another newbie needs help

I just made my first real effort at a SR shave about an hour ago. I concentrated on the sideburn to the jawline, and it just didn't shave it very well. There was still a fair amount of stubble on my cheek, though I could see some whiskers on the blade. I went WTG and I think that I was using a pretty small angle. I used Oglalla Bay Rum soap (I am still unsure if my lather is decent though) and I put hair conditioner on my beard while showering beforehand.

After trying both sides with 2 different hands, I went to my Fusion razor to finish. Now the right side of my face burns.

I used a Wester De-Fi 4/8 spike that I bought from a senior member of this forum off the classifieds. The ad said that it was shave ready; perhaps it was not or perhaps I screwed up the blade when I stropped it.

Any advice?

Lay the razor flat on your arm, lift the spine just a slight bit and see if it pops arm hair???? and I mean pops...
If it does then lay it back to flat and lift the edge just a touch and see if it pops arm hair on the fly??? If it does you should be able to shave with the razor...

Please keep in mind this is not a test for how great the edge is, it only tells if there is indeed an edge....

If not then you either need to do some very careful accurate stropping and hope you get the edge back, or it needs to be re-touched....

Congrats on your first shave. You should not expect to get great shaves right off the bat. The info Glen gave you is really good.

To help further we should know what type of straight razor you are using, brand, where you purchased it and how it was sharpened (or by who).

There are a lot of factors that contribute to a straight shave. Beard prep, lather, pressure of the edge on your skin (less is better) stropping and quality of edge.

Providing us with as much of this info will enable us to help you better. Good luck.

+1 Glen and Joed, These Gentlemen gave you great info, let me see if I can add to it.You mentioned you were using a "pretty small angle" How small? This would make a difference. To small, and it's not gonna do nothing, Too steep and your gonna scrape the crap out of your face. Look at the angle of the blades on your fusion razor as an example. Check our WIKI, it's full of great info on how to get that perfect shave. I think it may be your angle. New shaver's are more inclined to be nervous, and conservative when they have their first str8 shave. that's fine. It'll come. Your angles should be about 2x the distance of the razor from your cheek. If that makes sense, again, check the wiki out. it explains a lot better. I have many different razors, some I have to hold a little steeper, or less than others. Depends on the razor, this will come with experience. I'm sure, if you feel it's the razor, one of the guys here would be willing to check it for free. I know I would. Welcome to SRP....

the guys who posted before me know a lot more, but i think there are a few points i can hit.
Were you stretching your skin enough? it is very important to the skin tight.
how much pressure were you using? it should be light but your grip should still be firm enough to control the razor, which comes with time but keep it in mind.
for me the right angle is about 2 spine widths above the skin. the arm or leg hair test is a good one. lets hope its still sharp and you can keep tryin

I wasn't doing any stretching, so that probably played a big part.

As I said in the original post, I am using a Wester De-Fi 4/8 spike. I bought it shave ready from RayG. I assume he sharpened it, but I don't know that.

I did probably 10 or 15 strokes on the strop beforehand. It was my first time stropping, so I might have done it poorly. I read the stuff on the wiki and held the strop good and tight, and I don't think I applied too much pressure on the razor while stropping. Can you screw up a razor really bad by improper stropping?

I'll try the arm hair thing tonight and see what happens.

Thanks for all of the good feedback!

Ray knows sharp, so that helps a lot right there, so now you are down to either you rolled the edge on the strop, which yes you might have, but hopefully not so bad as to need honing, or it is the technique... Which stretching the skin is an important part.... We will know tons from the arm hair test....

The arm hairs pull on the blade before they are cut.

I tried shaving my sideburn-to-jawline again tonight after work, and got very similar results--a not very close shave and a burning face. Maybe I irritated the damage I did this morning, but there is still a fair amount of stubble left behind. I feel disappointed because it's supposed to be this great close shave and that's not the case.

I got a better lather since I watched Lynn's video on shaving on the wiki, so that's good news.

I am really wondering if the razor is not very sharp. I realized that I might screw up the razor when I tried stropping it for the first time, so I tried one swipe without any stropping (I wouldn't call it a real shaving attempt, but it was something) a day or two after taking it out of the box. I was surprised that the whiskers didn't come right off at that time. It seems to have the same performance as my out-of-the-box with no stropping experiment.

I feel like I was pretty careful with my stropping, but I guess anything can happen. Any more advice? I really appreciate the feedback.

Type of strop we are working with and have available?????

the face burn may just be your facial skin not being used to the straight.