Thread: The new guy

Hello, My name is Kevin (ENUF2) and today is my 8th day with a straight razor. June 3rd was my first use of a straight and I must say even though I was cautious it still was a great experience. At this point I must thank my Father-in-law (2Sharp) for setting me up with the necessities and his insight and instruction was the reason for the positive experience. It's amazing the difference I already feel. Goodbye Mach 3. After 5 Shaves I've done pretty well with 2 passes but I am still struggeling with the 3rd. Also, I need some hints on getting a better line on my gotee and with getting a closer shave on my neck. I have already decided that I want to restore old razors and brushes vs. buying new ones and as well 2Sharp's knoweledge led us to find my first project razor and brush. I'm not quite ready to begin them yet but it won't take long. I am a 40+ year old (married with children) electronics technician who lives in Knoxville TN wondering if there are others in this area that are more exprerienced at the art of shaving. I love to learn and all info is helpful. I'd like to thank those behind this site from what I've seen so far it's fantistic.

Welcome on board Kevin! let us know if we can be of any help.

Welcome aboard...It must be great to have someone so close to you the help get you involved in this. You couldn't ask for better support.

Welcome to SRP!!
It's good to hear from another Knoxvillian on here!
I live in South Knoxville. Been using a straight for about 6 months now. These are a great bunch of guys (and gals) on here. All have been very helpful, & if I can help in any way drop me a line.

hi,
i live in middle tenn in the manchester area. if i can be of any help let me know. i have only been at this about 3 months but i have got great help from the members here.
i have a dovo perlex 6/8, latigo 3" strop and the norton 4000/8000 waterstone and i also have a chinese 1000/6000. i have picked up some good deals on ebay that i have been learning to hone on and so far am doing great.
most of all enjoy the experience and ask all the questions you like, someone here will have or will get the answer

Hello Kevin and welcome!

Originally Posted by ENUF2

Also, I need some hints on getting a better line on my gotee and with getting a closer shave on my neck.

Hi,
Welcome to SRP! I also have a goatee-- took me a while to figure out which strokes to use.

When I do my initial WTH strokes down my cheek, as I get closer to the goatee line I concentrate on using the heel of the razor-- but I'll clean up the line later, so I don't worry about getting too close.

When I do XTG passes on my cheek (with toe up, heel down), I start near my ear, and stroke towards the goatee, letting the goatee stop the blade.

After I'm done shaving my entire face, I come back to the goatee to clean it up. I put the edge of the razor on the goatee line, and shave *away*. For the upper lip, I hold the razor tangs on the sides, blade up, and shave up and away. As I move along the goatee line, I change my grip so I'm holding the tang top and bottom, toe up, heel down, with the edge of the razor on the goatee line, and shave away, stroking towards my ear. Same idea for under the chin.

As for the neck, there are two critical things-- first, you need to figure out which way your hair grows, second, you need to stretch the skin correctly. For me, my neck hair grows in two different directions. The hair on the top half of my neck grows generally down, and the hair on the bottom half of my neck generally grows up. I do two passes, in 4 parts. For the first pass, I start with the upper neck, shaving down to the point where my hair changes direction (about halfway down). For the lower neck, I shave up, stopping at the same point. For the second pass, I do the opposite. Since my hair does not grow *exactly* up and down, this ends up being two XTG passes, but from opposite directions (I don't to do a third ATG pass on my neck).

When shaving, you should stretch the skin in the opposite direction to how the hair grows. So on my upper neck, I put my fingers on my chin and lift up. For my lower neck, I put my fingers on my lower neck and pull the skin down.

When I'm done, I use a dose of Nivia Balm for Sensitive Skin.

Good luck!
-Chief

Hey Kevin, I'm glad you're off to a good start with
straights and that you came on over to SRP! There
is just a ton of knowledge floating around this place...

- Scott

Thanks Chief, I found a spot in the wiki explaining basic direction of hair growth it helped, some. I believe skin streching will help too, I'm still experimenting with that. Thanks for the info about the gotee I'll be working on that with my next shave. I'm still reminding myself learning to straight shave is a work in progress.