Thread: Introduction

Advice: Don't listen to Son House or Blind Willile Johnson while you shave until you have a little expierence.

Welcome - Fantastic group of people here.

Originally Posted by d. m. ellington

Advice: Don't listen to Son House or Blind Willile Johnson while you shave until you have a little expierence.

Welcome - Fantastic group of people here.

or Charlie Patton doing Mississippi Boll Weevil Blues either.

Haha, that sounds like pretty good advice...don't want to get too carried away while I'm trying to concentrate.

I purchased a straight razor and strop off the classifieds here at SRP and I expect it to arrive within a day or two. Looking forward to it!

Josh

Sounds good Josh, I'll bet you're anxious to get started. This tutorial on the first straight razor shave by SRP founder Lynn Abrams is a good way to begin.

The last couple of pages of this barber manual excerpt have some really good tips for learning proper stropping.

This guide is what got me hooked...

http://www.shavemyface.com/downloads...azor-Shave.pdf

The wikis on this site are awesome for more specific information.

-Chief

The razor showed up in the mail today, right on time. I had purchased a Beau Brummel 11/16 and it came with a vintage strop, dull razor, and a tub of shaving cream. I was really pleased with the look of it.

I spent at least twenty minutes sitting at my desk figuring out the different grips and getting accustomed to it, then read the links that Chief and Jimmy sent me. They were great--a very helpful introduction!

I decided to take a hot shower beforehand, then wiped off the blade and lathered up. I took Lynn's advice in the guide and decided to only shave from my sideburn to my jawline the first time. I decided not to strop the blade beforehand because I wanted to see what sort of difference it would make when I did.

It started off a little awkwardly...I was clumsy and accidentally nicked myself with the point of the razor as soon as I tried to align it with my skin. Fortunately, I quickly figured out how to keep it flush and to mind the tip. After that it went great, I kept it as close to 30 degrees as I could and used small downstrokes. No nicks except for the very first!

I followed Lynn's advice and finished off the rest of my face with my Gillette Fusion. Ironically, I had just put on a new cartridge and for some reason I got two really nasty nicks on my neck from it. I've been laughing about that one for a while, I think it's just more motivation to keep practicing with the straight.

I compared the side that I had shaved with my cartridge razor and the side that I did with the straight razor afterward and I was really surprised. Even though this was my absolute first time with the straight razor, it still gave me an incredibly smooth shave, which was noticeably better than my cartridge razor. It took some willpower to set down the straight razor though instead of trying to go after the whole face. My skin was a little red but not nearly as much as I'd expected.

I'll be practicing with my dull razor on the strop tomorrow and then I believe I'll take a swipe at my whole cheek. Thanks for the help everyone!

Josh

Nice update Josh.
You can't go wrong taking it slowly as lynn recommends. I'm thinking you can try wiping off lather with the dull razor to see how the grip would work.
And with a sharp razor light touch is the key to no irritation.

have fun

You did well Josh. I finished up with a DE for the first couple of weeks and haven't touched one since. I also started with razors that were less than shave ready and when I finally got one that had been professionally honed the difference was night and day. You might think about sending that one out to be honed and perhaps picking up one that is shave ready in the meantime. BTW, Beau Brummel is an excellent brand.

Thanks for the advice Jimmy. I am glad that the Brummel was a good choice. I should have clarified in my post that the Brummel came shave-ready and was prepared by gugi on the forum here, and he included a dull razor along with it to practice stropping with.