Thread: first shave nightmare

Originally Posted by Utopian

Please read THIS recent thread. While it won't help you with your technique, and it doesn't answer the question of whether or not your razor actually is adequately honed, it WILL give you a sense of what you are dealing with.

The fact that you bought another razor after this trouble indicates your willingness to keep trying. Odds are that you will have the same problem with the SRD razor initially, but it should get better. Not everyone sticks with it long enough to get the hang of it but I suspect you will.

Regarding the professional honing of the razor that you already have, you should contact the seller. Most of them deal with this all the time, unfortunately, and most of them seem to have the patience to offer to re-hone the razor even if they are confident that the razor already is shave ready.

Keep trying!

Oh, I will definetly continue with this until I can shave my entire face and head without blemish, I am just naive and n00b enough to have been fooled by all of the 'skilled' people shaving on YouTube that make it look like wiping butter off your face.

I will stick with this until I get it, no doubt about it. Thank you much.

Bodach

Originally Posted by deighaingeal

Try a spine width away.

Deighaingeal,

I think you just nailed it, my technique is absolutly the issue. I kept watching all of these videos that said to put your first two fingers inside the tang, the next two fingers outside of it.

Well, I put my first two fingers inside the tang and up to the crack that seperates the first pads of the finger from the second of three sections to a finger, then put my thumb below it...again up to about 1/2 the thumb pad.

If you can picture this, the first 'pad' of your index and 2nd finger, at least for me, is nearly an inch, so I bet my angle was way too high to have a decent shave.

Next time I'll try to hold the razor by the very tips of my fingers and, like you said, try to keep it at just about a spine width away. Wow, thinking about it now, a single spine width away from my skin would be impossible in how I was holding the blade.

Thank you so much. No matter how much I read, I still didn't get it all the first time through. Cheers man, thanks a bunch to you and this great forum. I can't wait for my new blade to show up and shallow my angle.

Regards,

Bodach

Originally Posted by rostfrei

As the others have said, it is more likely technique as opposed to razor sharpness. Also, as was noted, the skin takes time to get used to shaving WTG (with the grain) as opposed to ATG as disposables recommend. Lastly there is the issue of stretching the skin taut. Did you mention whether or not you did this?

That said, it took me near a month to get comfortable using a str8 and a week or two for my skin to get used to str8 razor shaving WTG.

Anyways, good to see that you are willing to perservere. Theres nothing like confidently weilding a str8 as opposed to the plastic disposable stuff sold in big box stores.

I tried to, but I found it very difficult to stretch my right side side-burn with my left hand while finding a way to even out the razor level. I'm sure this will come with time, but for the most part no, I just tried to get a single cut down my sideburn on one side and failed miserably; however, you guys have give me a lot of great information to try again.

Regards,

Bodach

It sounds like you are getting a better idea of this now so I'm going to pile on more advice...

Use the lightest touch of the blade that you possibly can. When the blade doesn't cut there is a sense that you have to push against your skin harder. The opposite is true. It should feel like the blade is barely touching your skin. It should be skimming just over, not dragging on, your skin.

Originally Posted by Utopian

It sounds like you are getting a better idea of this now so I'm going to pile on more advice...

Use the lightest touch of the blade that you possibly can. When the blade doesn't cut there is a sense that you have to push against your skin harder. The opposite is true. It should feel like the blade is barely touching your skin. It should be skimming just over, not dragging on, your skin.

See, this is what I've ready over and over on all of the different help sites. It's almost magical the way the beard just falls off with a properly sharpened and correctly used straight. This is why I was so frustrated with my first shave, but as I've come to learn from you guys it is almost certainly "me" and, from my previous post, a way way too steep angle.

I cannot wait to get my new blade from Lynn and basically keep it close to the skin--as someone said a spine away from the skin. I will master this.

Thanks guys, this forum rocks.

Bodach

To stretch the skin in the sideburn area, say we work on the left side first, with your right hand reach over the top of your head and place your fingers just above where the edge of the blade will start from. Pretend like you're trying to rip your own head off and pull the skin up. Bring the razor up with the left hand, toe of the razor closest to your ear and start the first pass WTG. Swap over for the other side when you come to it. Doing this will mean you have to become proficient with using the razor in both hands though.


Mick

Bodach

I didn't really read all the replies, so I don't know if what I'm going to tell you has already been told by somebody else.

Anyway, here we go:


At the beginning, expect the worst.
Don't shave in the morning. Don't. You read me? Don't.
Be patient. really. if you're *truly* interested in straight razor shaving and i may assume you are if you bought serious equipment from SRD, you will learn quickly enough.

Then again, I'm a noob myself and I have nothing to back up my arguments with. Except for my puny experience.

Maybe the only valid argument I can provide: I've been doing this for 2 months and it's become a real pleasure within very short amount of time.

But I did expect the worst. I kept my interest in it. I took my time. etc. bla bla.

So, don't give up, once you're even just slightly accustomed to straight razor shaving you're gonna love it ;-)

another thing that comes to mind:

watch as many youtube vids as possible. yes, obvious advice is obvious.

let me explain why i think it helps:

it helped me obtaining different inputs. every man shaves differently. what works for John, doesn't work for you. except maybe that one 'thing' he's doing. then there's Luigi doing some really neat stuff, but also stuff that does not work for you.

get the picture? there are so many techniques, or may i call them 'tactics', around, that by simply knowing about them and figuring out the ones that work for you and those that don't, you're going to improve your shaving experience very quickly.

sorry for double post.

Originally Posted by shiznix

BDon't shave in the morning. Don't. You read me? Don't.

Why not? I always shower and shave in the morning. I am curious why you don't recommend shaving in the morning.

I'll reinforce what all have said about technique. Not knowing who honed the first razor, if the dealer was reputable, I'd consider it shave-ready unless your stropping was way off.

I can tell you this as one with now about 6 months of straight shaving, give or take, behind me. At first, i couldn't cut hair with anything. I seemed able to cut plenty of skin, but not much hair! But I stayed patient, watched the videos, read the wikis, groaned and moaned on this site and got lots and lots of help.

Now it seems I can shave with almost anything. I have honed a bunch of eBay razors myself, and even they shave nicely! Technique, especially angle and lightness of touch, are vital and hard to assess at first.

Be patient, it will come with time.