Thread: First Shave

Had my first shave with a str8 last night. My wet shave set was on the porch when I arrived home from work. I bought 6/8 Dovo, 3'' latigo strop, mug, soap. I shaved the right side of my face and it went very well so I switched hands and went to the left side. I spite of the fact that I couldn't see the blade part of the time, my right eye is blind, it went even better than the right side. I then went XTG on both sides no problems. Nice and smooth!

I'm going to have to experiment with my grip or maybe use my right hand on the left sideburn area to compensate for the vision problem. I'm really pleased otherwise. I think I'll stick to shaving the cheeks for a few days before I go to the neck and the chin.

BTW, the whiskers simply flew off! Thanks for the great hone work Lynn!

Now I'll see if I can strop without ruining the edge.

Robert

Glad to hear you had a great first shave!

Lots of people switch hands while shaving, me included. I find it a lot easier to reach certain areas, as well as not blocking me from seeing where the razor is

Good luck with the stropping! rub your hand back and forth over the leather 30 or so times before stropping. This will help I have found from personal experience. Also a light touch is key. When I first started using a strop I messed up my edge, but I fixed it, and was very careful not to put pressure while stropping as well as not letting the razor edge hit the strop hard when flipping it over. Since then, I've gotten some KILLER edges on that blade, and all my others as well.

Welcome to the addiction

Glad to hear your first shave went well. Don't worry too much about using both hands or special techniques etc, etc. I started off using only my dominant right hand and it went pretty well for me. I use both now and am comfortable with it but since you have an issue with sight on your non dominant side do what's most comfortable for you. Just take your time and it'll all fall into place.

Good luck

enjoy the experience, robert!

rsteve,

Glad to hear that all went well with your first str8 razor shave.

One small pice of advice...Go slow when you first begin stropping. That will lower the possibility of nicking your strop.