Thread: 4 shaves in--taking a long time

Well, I'm four shaves in and so far have gotten to where I'm shaving the right side of my face and neck WTG/XTG fairly comfortably. The XTG isn't another pass--it's just because I can't hold the blade in a way to go WTG on some parts of my face yet. My hairs grow diagonal/sideways. The good news is that I have had one small nick in my first four shaves, I'm much more comfortable just handling the razor in general (trusting the angle, pressure, etc.), do not feel much pulling and am generally happy with the experience. If I can keep progressing like this, I imagine I'll be using a straight for many years to come.

The bad news is that it is taking me about an hour to prep my face (wash, towel treatment, hair conditioner and shaving oil, then lather), create lather, strop, shave with the straight, finish shaving both WTG and ATG with my cartridge on the other side of my face, re-stropping and oiling the blade when done, and cleaning up.

Is it normal for the process to take this long? It's very enjoyable but with a 3 year old and 7 month old and full time job, it's a lot of time to take. I'd appreciate hearing if this was normal for any of you for a while before gaining confidence and speed.

Happy shaves.

-Stub

I just read my own post and realize it sounds like I'm saying it takes an hour to prep my face but it wasn't supposed to read like that. It takes me an hour to do the whole process, start to finish.

-Stub

Hello Stub...

An hour for the entire process is a long time, but it is not unusual for a newcomer to str8 razor shaving. As you gain in confidence the amount of time will decrease.

You might also give some thought to eliminating a few steps such as hot towel, hair conditioner plus shaving oil, and oiling your blade everyday. You might also consider stropping your razor the night before. That will eliminate another step and reduce the amount of time for your daily shave. The entire ritual you describe might be best for a leisurely weekend shave, but not for a weekday when you have to rush to work.

My own shaving time--with hot shower, beard prep, crafting lather, shaving, cleanup, and blade maintenance is anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes. That's still a long time, but is down from the 60-40 minutes when I began str8 razor shaving last December. I only oil my blade every other day or so. Most times I simply dry it well and strop it again--15-20 fabric and 15-20 leather--before storing it.

I hope that this helps.

Take care--and smooth shaving.

Hey Stubbs,

I'm right there with you on shave 4, minus the little ones. I have two different types of routines that I do. My Weekend and my Weekday routine. On the weekends I like to go all out, so to speak. During the weekdays, I try and keep it quick and simple. Shower, strop, make a simple lather, and a shave of just WTG. Finish with a few more laps on the strop and I'm out in about 30 min.

_Will

HI,
It sounds like your making good progress so far.
+1 with Will on two different routines.
If you do not have much time in the morning do one pass WTG and finish with a cartridge razor or D/E.Would it be possible to shave in the evening?-When i started it took 60 mins for the whole process so i switched to the evening (but i am lucky and don't have a job that requires me to be clean shaven.)
You could get up earlier- of course on weekends you can take your time.
At first you can do without time pressure -and its better that you don't time yourself.Try to organise your shaving so that time is not a consideration-eventually you will cut down the time you take - but in my experience after 100+ shaves ,it still takes 40 mins.
Good luck
Noggs

When I first started the lather was dry on the off side by the time I got done with other side. I had to re-lather and go to that side. I gradually picked up speed. Now it is PDQ. You'll pick up speed and eventually the shaving part won't take any longer than it would if you were using your cartridges.

First, do whatever works for you. And yes, some of my shaves took that long when I was starting out.

Aside from that, here's my advice if you want to speed things up a little:

Step 1
Soak the brush while stropping. As I understand it, boar brushes need to be soaked for a few minutes, at least, since they have hollow bristles, while badger brushes have non-hollow hairs, so you can get away with just dunking them a few times. A minor point, and since I have to strop anyway, both types get soaked.
Time: no more than 5 minutes at most, even if you strop slowly.

Step 2
Face lather, skipping all other prep. Three to four minutes of building and swirling lather around on your face ought to do the trick as far as softening the hair. As opposed to individual prepping steps and then building lather in a bowl, this one is a big time-saver, and the end result is the same (for me, at least).
Time: say 5 minutes, which is on the generous side. Maybe you struggle over picking the right soap or something.

Step 3
Shaving. This also gets *much* quicker over time, but for now, don't rush it.
Time: as much as you need.

Step 4
Apply aftershave, rinse the brush, strop the razor.
Time: maybe 5 minutes at most, again assuming slow stropping.

Even if you do multiple passes, you can probably manage to get the actual bladework itself (step 3) down to a maximum of 15 minutes (again, it will be much faster later). That makes for around 30 minutes, all in, and with no rushing.

After two and a half years at it, I can cut that in half without hurrying too much, and you'll be able to, too. For now, I'd say 30 minutes is a reasonable goal, along with not slicing off your earlobe or dinging the blade on the faucet. Watch out for that faucet--no joke!

Good luck!

A full 3 pass shave with prep takes me maybe 25 minutes or so, so it does get faster with time. Give it six months or so and you'll see the difference in time and results.