Thread: first shave review: am I a natural?

Or just plain lucky?
Whatever the case, I just had an awesome first shave, YEAH!!!!

After a week of happy anticipation (and some more months knowing I was going to go for a straight razor) I received my first straight razor by mail, a Dovo 5/8 full hollow ground silversteel, satin finish, with ebony scales.

The package came with dovo strop, a small thiers issard badger brush (so I can get a taste of Thiers Issard before buying a razor from them) and proraso soap. They added a manual too, as if I needed it after browsing this forum for a week

I loved it all, how cool is it to hold your first own razor... very cool!! It felt more solid than I expected and the way it opened was with a good kind of friction. I didn't want to go for the celluloid handles because I thought those might feel too light or not solid enough. Whether they are or not, the one I got was a good choice.

I was excited like a puppy and treated myself to a beer to celebrate, but just one, I was going to shave later and wanted to keep my face

In the light of the setting sun, I set it all up, put hot water in the sink, soaked a towel in it and put it in my neck to begin the preshaving treat. After it felt nice and warm I was in the mood for some good stuff.


My heart was pumping to the drum of a mix of nervousness and joy as I dipped my brush in the water, dabbled in the soap and started soaping my beard. I enjoyed the feel of a really good brush, what a difference to having used a cheapo brush for my canned foam and gilette razors...

Now, the time had come to prove I could do it, or bleed out while trying...
The first cut... careful, nothing happened. Again, little more pressure, watch your angle (at least I know those, being a knife guy who likes to sharpen).. go for 20, 30 degrees..now down.. and don't go through when you feel resistence and then... all of a sudden I saw a clear spot about half an inch wide and an inch long. woohaaa, It seems I might actually succeed Hair and lather on the blade, hairless skin on my cheek, yup, this is how it should be!

Happily I carried on, going right hand only, a quick try on the other side with my left hand was clearly a bridge too far. Then I had to take on the neck, right side first. I decided to go against the grain, which for me is down and the easiest move to make with the razor with my motor skills. And amazingly, it turned out to be scary, but not painfull and I pulled it of without a nick.

The sound of the razor is a great sound, the feel of the razor when doing a longer stroke then the previous one is great, the way it glides over your skin is like riding a wave, awesome..

Now here comes the much anticipated first nick: I went for the moustache before the chin and a little northeast of the corner of my mouth was the first nick. Not so bad. I decided to fully go for it with all kinds of cuts, WTG, XTG, ATG, but taking it slowly and careful: right under the nose (nick)moustache and upper lip (ok), chin (nick), left cheeck (ok), adam's apple (ok), left jaw line (nick), birthmark on northwest corner of mouth (nick). In the meantime I was reapplying lather or water where necessary al the time. I'm now already probably taking 45 minutes to do it.

Obviously, you're enjoying the heck out of your first shave, but you're also putting off doing that final spot, of which you know it will give you major trouble hehe

just left and a little up from my adam's apple was the spot I could not reach with my right hand AND it was also the most difficult part grain wise. I had no choice but to do it with my left hand, but even though this was the part where I actually failed the most, I was still rather proud I had pulled it off.

So now it's time for the septic stick (? not sure) after I cleaned my face with a wipe of a towel and some after shave lotion. Wow!!! that was it, what a great experience!!!

So I'm running down the stairs with a wide grin on my face telling my girlfriend the good news. She loved it, she told me it was way smoother than a gilette shave

So, after blabbering about the shave for a couple of minutes, I can see in her eyes she'd rather watch the end of sex in the city and I decide to make a couple of pics for you guys and to write a little (well not so little turns out) thread about my experience.

I don't say this often, but it was even better than I expected and I had high expectations, YEAH BABY!!!!

I'm happy, cleanly shaven, face intact and only some minor nicks. A great experience for me!!

So here are 2 pictures with evidence.

thanks for reading

cheers!

Hooray for you! Congratulations. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

BTW...The next time you take photos of your shave--and I hope you do--you may want to place your razor away from the edge of your sink. If it falls onto the floor of your bathroom it could result in broken scales or a chipped blade.

Bummer...

Good Lord Man! That is some yarn you spin! And one hell of a small area under your dominant hand sideburn as well.

Seriously though, that is really great that you went all the way with the shave. What kind of lotion did you use? I am bragging about Nivea Replenishing Balm in my posts right now. Really great stuff.

I have wood, horn and synthetic scales on my razors. I don't notice a really big difference in heft. Others may.

Again - that is really great and a great post. You won't go back.

David

Nice!... So far when yo take it nice and slow.. things come out great.

Congrats on your fist shave

Yep-that looks familiar -blood and whiskars on a towel!-reminds me of my first shave.
Congrats on your first good shave-may you have many more!
Make sure you give your skin time to heal from those nicks.Using a good aftershave balm really helps.
Btw-instead of using a towel to wipe the blade as you shave,try using a large natural sponge as its easier to rinse.(I got this idea from other SRP members.)
regards

Noggs

Originally Posted by jhenry

Hooray for you! Congratulations. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

BTW...The next time you take photos of your shave--and I hope you do--you may want to place your razor away from the edge of your sink. If it falls onto the floor of your bathroom it could result in broken scales or a chipped blade.

Bummer...

I'll be sure to do that. I'm used to knives, they can handle a lot more. thanks for the tip. Also, I like pictures, so yes, whenever I can, there will be pics

Originally Posted by Alembic

Good Lord Man! That is some yarn you spin! And one hell of a small area under your dominant hand sideburn as well.

Seriously though, that is really great that you went all the way with the shave. What kind of lotion did you use? I am bragging about Nivea Replenishing Balm in my posts right now. Really great stuff.

I have wood, horn and synthetic scales on my razors. I don't notice a really big difference in heft. Others may.

Again - that is really great and a great post. You won't go back.

David

thanks. I use nivea (it's in the picture), but just picked it up in the supermarket when I went to get some stuff for dinner. Didn't use lotion before so it was an impulse buy, but now, couple of hours later, it still feels good.

Originally Posted by noggs247

Yep-that looks familiar -blood and whiskars on a towel!-reminds me of my first shave.
Congrats on your first good shave-may you have many more!
Make sure you give your skin time to heal from those nicks.Using a good aftershave balm really helps.
Btw-instead of using a towel to wipe the blade as you shave,try using a large natural sponge as its easier to rinse.(I got this idea from other SRP members.)
regards

Noggs

thanks, that's a good tip on the sponge

Congratulations!

Hello, Jojingo:

A story well told. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Regards,
Obie

proficiat!
is it the set from koordenwinkel?
great razor!

grts
Stijn

Great story. Have you used a DE prior? If so, how would you describe the difference?