Beginners Tips: Oct 2010

So reading through this last month here are some things I noticed coming up on the forums...

Lather:
When I see the "I can't get good lather threads" I smile a bit...
There are really only a few things that can go wrong with lather...

The Soap or Cream: Just make sure it is designed for shaving and use with a brush, and it should work... Yes I know we all make a huge deal over what is "The Greatest Lather" on earth but really most all that you read about on here work, and work pretty darn good...

The Water: Yep hard water is hard water and it makes washing yer clothes, washing your hair, and making lather a bit tuffer :)
I have found that if you up the heat, it does help, but you should still be able to stand it on your skin.. Sorry but you just have to work through getting your water to lather, or use bottled, or rain water...

The Brush: There is no "BAD" brush, there are "Better" brushes but every single one of them will produce lather even those Nylon bristled ones... They just take more work... There are two very important movements to learn with a brush, "the swirl" and "the pump"... Swirling the brush is designed to either pick up product, or to mix things together... Pumping the brush is designed to mix in air and produce lather...

The real trick to lather is the amount of water that you use, that is your real variable everything else is pretty much a constant for you regardless, so the thing that you adjust is the amount of water in relation to the amount of product... Seems Simple Huh???

Always, always, remember it is much easier to add water to your mix then take it out... :D

Stropping:
You have to learn to strop and you have to learn to do it right, the importance of this cannot be over emphazised...
There are a ton of threads in the stropping forum to read and learn from...
The most important thing to learn is Form First, Speed Second you have to do it right or you just mess up an edge faster :)
Honestly that only really good piece of advice I can give you for stropping is to pay attention to the spine, make sure the spine is touching the strop at all times and is moving evenly across the strop, trust me that the edge will do just fine...
Tight does not mean yanking the hook outta the wall either :D taut would be a better description


That is what I have noticed this month, as always feel free to add more perspectives to this especially from the senior members as we all see things slightly differently and it can help the new guys...

I've got 3 new str8s ready to attempt my first shave. Thanks for the tips

great stuff Glen.. I want to echo one point that stood out to me as I hear people ask about cheap ways of getting into shaving.

I have gotten the same end results with every brush I've tried... badger seems to lather quicker for me, but for the last month I've been using a cheap boar brush that never lets me down. I remember reading on some shaving supply websites how you almost needed a badger brush... nonsense. But it is a nice luxury.

Also, the strop.. I have a great Tony Miller top of the line 3" latigo, but quite honestly I've been using the practice strop or an illinois strop almost exclusively since summer. The high dollar strop is nice, and worth it for sure, but the others do fine for me too.

Take it for what it's worth,

hope everyone is having a great day
Dave

Another lovely post G. To basically re-state what Glen has already said. Get good with the basics, take your time to learn those simple steps and you will do just fine. Don't worry about having the best brush, or razor or strop to start off with they aren't going to do you any good if you don't know how to use them. When your proficient with stropping then go for flash and get one of the big name strops but not before. Same with razors and brushes spending hundreds of dolllars on something might seem like a great investment in shaving but it's a waste if you don't know how to use it.

Michael

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

Stropping:
You have to learn to strop and you have to learn to do it right, the importance of this cannot be over emphazised...
There are a ton of threads in the stropping forum to read and learn from...
The most important thing to learn is Form First, Speed Second you have to do it right or you just mess up an edge faster :)

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Just want to QFT, as I think this applies to almost every aspect of shaving, if not life in general.

When you are learning a new body movement, such as stropping, your neurons are developing new connections with your muscles to form what will later become your "muscle memory." You want to make sure you get that memory right the first time, because correcting bad form takes a lot more effort than simply learning the proper form in the first place. Once you have that form, speed naturally develops.