Thread: First Shave/Big Problems

Originally Posted by ATattooedJew

Thank you all for your input on the matter. Just for clarification I never said that the honing was not done properly, I am just to new at this to know if they were or weren't and needed to ask to learn.

Utopian did a fine job and helped me out tremendously, thank you for your kindness and generosity.

I am pretty certain that the combination of not properly honing and holding the razor correctly attributed to my problems.

I think what threw everybody is when you put the quotes around professionally honed - like this "professionally honed". When you write like that, it leads people to think that you were referring to the honer's skills in a dubious fashion - kind of like you might have gotten taken.

Everyone here has covered what to look for, so there isn't a technique I can add.
But what I can contribute is that I was where you were 3 months ago. I had professionally honed razors that left me sore and not very clean shaven. I am now getting DFS without irritation. Nothing has changed except my level of expereience. It's the Indian, not the arrow. Incidentally, I am still learning new ways to hold my razor to get the passes I need to get a DFS. Keep plugging away. I would say go slow, but that is not my style, I was going full face from the start, which probably is the reason I had issues, instead of listening to the Mentors here who tell you to go in increments.
Best of luck, keep learning.

Ok, I _may_ have a new angle combined with another theory in this thread. A lot of good advice from others allready, so I´ll concentrate on what I _think_ has happened.

If you had several days worth of stubble and used a full hollow blade it prob. would have been a rather harsh shave ( a near wedge tends to cut through hard stubble easier, I think). Try and shave with only a days worth of stubble and see if that´s easier for you. Start with the areas that´s easiest for you to shave and get used to that before moving on to the harder areas. I takes time, but it´s great to shave with cut throats .

Good luck!

The WTG pass, with long whiskers to wack down, is the hardest part of shaving with a straight razor for many newbies. It sounds like that is the case with you. An alternate approach is to shave to stubble length with a safety razor, then complete the shave with the straight razor. Use the safety razor a few times, each time, leaving more whisker length for the straight razor.

Using a safety razor allows you to back slowly into the part of shaving you are having difficulty with.

I know after my first time doing a full face shave with my straight I looked like I was attack by freddy Krueger It take time and alot of practice it took me about a month and a half before I was fully confident in my razor handling skills and still to this day I get a bad shave But I have to just remember to slow daown and remember the basics

Whoa, this brings back memories of starting out. The wiki advises wisely.

Try small starting sections as advised and building upon success, use repeating strokes with say 70% of the last stroke being repeated but going 30% further than the last stroke. Less than a 30% angle for the pitch of the razor.

I wasn't very graceful in the beginning, but I kept working on building upon my successful areas, then using my M3 to clean up the rest. My M3 was getting used less and less and then one day, I didn't need it anymore and it couldn't improve upon what I did with my straight razor. If I remember, that was about my 18th - 25th shave with a straight razor.

Welcome to Straight Shaving and everyone here is helpful.

Pabster

Originally Posted by Pabster

Welcome to Straight Shaving and everyone here is helpful.

Pabster

except for me, i'm just a mean, cynical idiot olololoollololol....

Naw, seriously though, Shalom to you, my fellow jewish man.

I'm new to all this as well and I *think* I caught on pretty fast...

My success story? Expect the worst. Take your time. Don't shave every day. More is more, not less, when it comes to beard prep.

keep telling yourself that you're one of the cool guys now. straight razor shaving = cool. mach3 shaving = for whuzzes.

it helped for me, maybe it'll help you too.

i wish you best of luck for your further endeavors.

Be patient with yourself. Get ahold of Lynn's DVD and watch him show you how to do this. I am also a newcomer, and I cut myself often as I practiced. But I stuck with it and now can pretty well get that BBS that all the guys here talk about. I did mess up my first razor by improperly stropping. Slow down, and have fun with this new adventure.