First straight razor shave

[lcroxton]

Today was my first straight razor shave. It was fairly awesome! I first questioned my choice of razor. I got an very nice razor from the classifieds section. It was important to me to get a used razor. I got a really nice Case Brothers razor. Very happy with it. However, I didn't realize how much trouble that spike point was going to be! Wow, that professionally-honed blade is SHARP! I started off reading about stropping. I used my new strop without any trouble.

I set about getting my lather worked up. I thought it was too thin, but I used it anyway. No one ever accused me of having a lot of patience. I Did what has been suggested, going down the right side of my face from the sideburn to the jaw. Then I did the left side of my face. I had two cuts on the right side from the spike point. I went over the sides of the face fairly well without any problems. Then I decided to stop and complete the shave later in the day with my DE safety razor.

A few hours later, I picked up a couple articles/ sources I had downloaded from SRP and printed. I thought I figured out what I was doing wrong with my angle, the lather and the spike point. The bleeding had finally stopped, too.....

So I went back into the bathroom and reshaved with the straight razor. Shaved with the grain and against the grain, with only a very minor cut. I was very proud of myself for completing the shave! And it is such a nice, close shave to boot!!

Kudos to this site and all those who have contributed to it! It has enable me to do something I have wanted to do for quite some time. I hope that the shaves get better each time!!