I've had all my equipment & products ready to go foe several weeks, but today was the first opportunity I had to do the first straight razor shave.

I came down with H1N1 and was out of town for a bit, so today was finally the day.

I took the wise advice of doing only under the sideburns to start with. Since I am ambidextrous on most things, though, I went ahead and did both sides -- the right side with the right hand and the left side with the left hand.

Things went fine. I had some pretty lengthy stubble -- about four days' worth -- so the razor did catch a bit at first 'til I figured out I would have to put just a bit of downward pressure to cut through the stubble (does that sound right?).

In the end, I had just one minor nick on the right side. Not bad. Next time, I'll try the entirety of both cheeks and see how that goes.

But, I'm on my way!

~ Ryan