After much review of this and other online sites, I bought my first straight razor from the classifieds here about a month ago. Joe was as helpful as anyone I have ever come accross on the internet and even happened to have an extra strop he was willing to sell me as well. I rounded out the set with an Art of Shaving set I had already purchased at Nordstrom with the brush, soap, oil, and after shave. The blade is a Blyde & Co. Sheffield and came ready to go, very sharp, and completely as advertised.

I have been very cautious with this whole procees since cuts and so forth will not work with my clients. Following the advice of SRP and Whipped Dog I did the first four or so shaves just doing my cheeks. Other than minor burn, no cuts, no nicks and a reasonable shave. Then I would get every where else with the Mach multiblade (which I despise).

With the confidence of these first attempts, this past weekend I went for a little more. Although my shave angles were conservative, and I did not get that great of a shave, I was able to venture down to the neck areas so I was feeling really good. Then I came across my chin and doh! Full on cut over an inch long. Bleeding ensued. Luckily, it was very clean and I applied the styptic pencil with haste all over the cut. As advertised, the bleeding stopped almost immediately.

Shaken, but not stirred, I ended the whole shave and decided to wait until the next morning to clean up the mess that was my partially shaven face. I could not help feeling like an idiot for even getting into the straight razor thing, and I was also concerned that I had now permanently scarred my otherwise perfect facial skin.

Today is Friday, five days after the incident. I looked in the mirror and to my amazement and delight, the cut is completely healed with no scar. I am super excited to get the straight out and try again tonight. I keep reading about others who have perfect shaves the first or second time through, and I am hoping there are at least some folks out there who have endured similar issues and are feeling good about the decision to continue on the learning curve despite a few hiccups.