First Shave/Big Problems

I got my razors back on Friday from being "professionally honed" by a SRP member. Being that I am brand new at straight razor shaving, I am uncertain if my Razor(s) were nor sharpened properly or that I am doing something very wrong. After making an attempt I eventually gave up on my first straight razor shave. I will out line the process I used and the problems I was/am having.

I took a hot shower during which time my later mug was filled with hot water and my brush was soaking in it. In the shower I use a NIVEA Pre-Shave Face Wash.

After the shower, prior to my shave I made my lather using Bigelow shave cream, then re-wet my face with hot water and applied the first lathering to my face. I stropped my razor, then reapplied more lather to my face.

I stretched my skin as instructed by my forum reading and began my first straight razor shave. Neither razor seemed to be cutting right, it was very difficult to make even one pass without it being hung up and it did not seem to be doing a great job at removing a couple days of facial hair growth. Even after a few passes at different angles my face did not seem smooth and patches on my face were red irritated and bleeding. I am also having trouble figuring out the best way to hold the razor for chin and neck shaving as I have a goatee and it is very difficult to find a good angle to work with. Needless to say I gave up and used a disposable to finish:banghead:.

How can I tell if my razors were honed well or if they are not?
Why am I finding it so difficult to find a good position to hold my razor?
What am I doing wrong?

Any help, advice and guidance is welcome. Thank you in advance for the forums support.

Usually when a razor comes back from being honed, the honemeister will instruct you to not strop the razor before your first shave. You did not indicate this was the case. If so, improper stropping will dull an edge as fast as anything else.

Otherwise, you problem could be as simple as technique and lack of time under the blade. When I started, I only shaved the area under my sideburns and slooowly progressed over the course of several days, maybe even weeks until I was shaving my entire face. I still had a few moments of dispair, but the good men in this group gave me the strength to carry on. I did, and my str8 razor shaves are now something I relish and look forward to. I still get a sense of accomplishment after a good shave that leaves me refreshed and invigorated and ready to seize the day. Don't give up! Take it slow, star with baby steps, and build upon that. You will not be sorry. There is nothing you are going through now that all of us haven't felt at one time or another. Keep the faith.

I did strop it prior and was not told not to. I thought I was stropping correctly.

By the way, I forgot to mention. Rest assured, if you got the razors honed by any of our SRP honers, it was shave ready when you got it back. Also, you mentioned you have several days of growth, and that can be a challenge for even an experienced shaver.

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Originally Posted by ATattooedJew

I did strop it prior and was not told not to. I thought I was stropping correctly.

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Usually if the honemeister knows you are a new shaver, they will instruct you not to strop it before the first shave because they know that an inexperienced stropper can dull a perfectly fine edge in an instant. It is possible you have done just that. On the other hand, if you are sure that your stropping technique was correct, all of your symptoms could be explained by too much pressure and incorrect angle or technique in general. I hate to say it, but your best bet might be to have the razors checked out and possibly re-honed and start again, this time NOT stropping before the first shave so you have a reference point as to what a sharp razor is.

9 times out of 10 your razor is Shave Ready if you used a reputable Honemeister, like some on this site.

From the sounds of it you may have been using pressure during your shave. You only need to Lay the razor touch your face with no real pressure and slide down to cut the hair. Very light pressure, since you were getting redness and bleeding I think the first thing to look at is pressure.

The other possibility is angle. It is good to use about a 30 degree angle for WTG shaves. This angle sounds easier to get than it is. If you are not use to doing this I would recommend starting out with the razor flat against your face and slowly raising the spine to get the angle that works for you.

Stropping will take time to get use to. I thought at first I was stropping pretty good and then once I really started looking at some videos and the way I was stropping I figured out I was actually using too much pressure. It takes time but it clicks.

Do not despair. Your story is not unlike that of many new straight razor users. Learning to use a straight razor takes a little time and dedication, but it will come. You are still not sure how to hold your razor, that indicates you are still in the very early days. Take a moment to check out the SRP wiki on how to hold your razor, then browse through the SRP wiki beginner's guide . There are also many videos on youtube showing how to shave, many from our members here. Many enjoy Jockey's vids, he has several out and you could watch them all and learn a fair bit. I'll link one, search for the others if you like. Hang in there, go slow and don't feel discouraged if you can't do your whole face the first time - small steps is the safe route to proficiency. Best of luck, and let us know how it goes :)



Jockeys' Straight Shaving Demonstration Part 1

I think the first few times I shaved with a straight pressure was an issue as well as a bit of angle. It's all a learning precess that takes a few tries to get down. You also have to relax a bit the first few times, you would be surprised how tense people get when they put that blade to their face the first time :p Personally I'm more spooked by double edge razors than straights but to each their own :p

I did strop the razor and did follow the instruction on a few videos I watched, I guess I may not be doing it correct. On a side note though I tried the hanging hair test when my razors were returned prior to any stropping and it did not work, but I'm not sure if that means for certain my razors were not honed properly.

I normally think stropping a razor after you get it is a good thing, especially when it has been coated in oil. I think the problem lies in your statement of why is it so difficult to find a good position to hold the razor. This is actually very key as you need to hold the razor in a comfortable manner and maintain a less than 30 degree angle. Our wrists have a tendency to bend back with a razor in them and that causes the angle to increase dramatically. When this happens, you get get pulling and scraping and it is usually not comfortable.

I would recommend just holding the razor a few times to get comfortable with it. Then I would only shave from the dominant side sideburn to jaw with short little strokes and longer clean up strokes making certain your razor is almost vertical in your hand. As you get good with this area, move over to the cheek and then to the other side. This is a learned process. In addition, at this stage, you should not be judging anything using a HHT. Go by what the shave tells you.

Take your time and don't put pressure on yourself for instant great results.

Have fun,

Lynn

That seems to be a favourite slogan here in Ontario Canada right now. It's posted all over the place.

And it applies here too. Start small. Lynn mentions above to start on your dominant side, and go from sideburn to jaw. This is sound, sound, advice. Stop after that, and finish with your DE or multiblade. The next day, do the same thing again. It will take some time to become comfortable with your razor, and the angle on your skin, and how it looks to your eyes in the mirror.

My first week, I had razor burn so bad I thought I was going to cry. I looked like I had 500 mini mosquito bites on my neck. It gets much better. Perfect practice makes perfect. Take it slow, no blade pressure, and you'll be just fine......everyone on this site had a first week of straight shaving.

Have fun.

I am the "professional" honer who honed the razors. I shave tested both razors and they shaved just fine. The Engels razor had a severe frown that I had to remove and I confess that is did not shave as well as other Engels razors I have honed. For that reason, I re-honed it three times trying to get more out of it. It did shave just fine, but it did not shave as well as I had expected for an Engels razor.

I can assure you that both razors left me shave ready. That term is misused on eBay and can have different connotations even here. For that reason, all I can tell you is that both razors easily shaved me comfortably and with none of the irritation that you experienced. There is virtually no chance that the HHT would have passed in your hands however, because both razor were oiled.

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I am the "professional" honer who honed the razors.

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No one hear is questioning the Hone job so No Worries :). There is a lot more that can be looked at before the Honing is taken into consideration. I still say look at the angle and pressure first, that is a hard thing to overcome in the beginning.

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Originally Posted by TSasser

No one hear is questioning the Hone job so No Worries :). There is a lot more that can be looked at before the Honing is taken into consideration. I still say look at the angle and pressure first, that is a hard thing to overcome in the beginning.

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The OP is questioning the honing job and I don't blame him at all. For a couple of decades I worked in research labs and when something went wrong all possibilities had to be considered. Some took offense when their work was questioned but others appreciated that ALL possibilities had to be considered. No offense should be taken and none was taken on my part in this case. This is a common experience for people new to straight shaving. One example of that is here.

To the OP... visualize the angle of the blade against your skin when using your disposable razor and recreate that angle with your straight razor. That was the "ah ha" moment for me.

:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Utopian

The OP is questioning the honing job and I don't blame him at all. For a couple of decades I worked in research labs and when something went wrong all possibilities had to be considered. Some took offense when their work was questioned but others appreciated that ALL possibilities had to be considered. No offense should be taken and none was taken on my part in this case. This is a common experience for people new to straight shaving. One example of that is here.

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Had to re-read the OP over again to see the questioning of the honing. I am always happy to be proven wrong, as long as it is in a nice way :)

Thank you.

On shaving around a goatee:

. . . That's why I'm using a double-edge razor to "clean-up" my neck. And before that,
. . . a cartidge razor.

There are some places a large blade (straight razor) just wasn't designed to go.

Charles

PS -- "A tattooed Jew" ? There's got to be a story behind that . . . <g>

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.

As others have said, shaving with a straight is much more reliant on technique than other ways of shaving, and holding and using a straight razor is so foreign to most people's muscle memory that even with all one's attention focused on doing it right, you won't be.

So, just be patient. If Utopian says they are shave ready, you should trust him on that. Just keep trying to better your technique, and it won't be long before you will be singing the praises of the straight razor shave.

Your main points have been fully answered I think, so I will just address the shaving with goatee issue. For the first few weeks or so, just stay a safe distance away from the edges of your goatee and shave around that area with your usual weapon.
As you get more proficient with the Cutthroat you can lessen the size of that no mans land.
When you have got as close as you dare, my technique is to lay the blade fairly flat to the skin, and shave towards the goatee all the way around. Do this slowly and carefully to begin with, and don't put any pressure on the blade. If it stops, so do you. Forcing things will result in blood. Like the shave itself, it will take a little time and practise, but you will get there. I have a small gap in the centre of my Mo' that has only a few stray hairs. I get them with the CT too. I am also able to get the few strays the grow in both sides of the meridian strip of my goatee. So as you can see, working a CT around small areas is quite possible. Just be patiant. You'll get there.


Mick

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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.

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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

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Originally Posted by Pabster

Welcome to Straight Shaving and everyone here is helpful.

Pabster

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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. :boohoo: