Thread: First really decent straight razor shave .....

As I got home from work yesterday I needed to shave. I had somewhere near 36hours of growth on my ugly mug.
For me, this is straight shave #7



Here's the setup:

1890-1900 Full Hollow Ground 4/8" Wilkinson of Pall Mall, London
Ogallala Bay Rum, Sage and Cedar Soap
Vulfix 404 'Grosvenor' Badger/Boar Mix (first time out)
The Real Shaving Co. Balm
Pinaud Virgin Island Bay Rum AS (also first time out)


I took in a good wash first off with my usual Wright's Traditional Coal Tar Soap. So my face was nice and clean but more importantly wet.

I did two WTG passes with the Wilkinson, lathering up in-between and did a final XTG pass. I managed this quite comfortably with no nicks and even managed to do my moustache area.
After I rinsed I checked and I had a Close Comfortable Shave. There was still a small amount stubble to be felt ATG but otherwise, I was very happy with this and can honestly say that this is first shave with a straight where I felt I could have gone out and not be worried about looking unshaven.


I popped downstairs to see SWMBO and she had a feel and agreed it looked ok. She was surprised at the lack of cuts etc



I went back upstairs and finished off my shave with a 1957 (C1) Gillette RedTip SuperSpeed w/Astra SP blade. This was my first time with this one and I was impressed at the heft and the overall build of this razor. My thanks to Doug (Nemo) for this one

I finished off with the RSC Balm and the Pinaud Bay Rum. Wow! I love the smell of this one. Very rummy! Sadly, my SWMBO is not a fan of Bay Rum as I am.

TO start really getting good results with a straight I had to put away the DE razors and just pretend I didn't own any for a while. This really helped me get the awesome smooth results from my straights. I think of a DE as training wheels, eventually they have to come off. Nice job!

Congrats on a good shave. They keep getting better with time. Took me better part of 5 months to get a really good shave and really enjoy the experience.