Thread: What is the first thing you did?

So here is the story, I pulled the trigger a few weeks ago to buy a new razor, now after many weeks (thank you customs) it has finally showed up at the local post office. My wife will be picking it up for me as I won’t be home till late tonight. So here is the question: what was the first thing you did when you got your first shaving setup?

I’ve been reading the forms like mad, buying guides, beginner guides, shaving guides, soap guides, strop guides so my theory is solid. Putting it to practice will be a completely different story and I’m afraid, I’ll get all the stuff and go $%^& what do I do now?

I’m hoping to get some good discussion out of this thread to help kill the rest of the day till I can at the very minimum hold the razor in my hand and fret about slicing my ear off.

Hoping you bought a shave ready razor to start with. I hadn't read Lynn's suggestions for the first straight razor shaves here in the SRP Wiki beginner's guide when I started but I basically did what he said anyhow.

I took it slow, getting used to manipulating the razor around my face. I used my DE for the difficult areas for the first two or three weeks. If you have a Beauty Supply near you spending a few bucks on a replaceable blade straight is helpful.

Don't use it with a blade. Just take it empty and practice moving it on your face, as if you were shaving, while watching TV or whatever. That is how I learned to shave with my non dominant left hand. Makes the muscle memory develop a lot faster than if you only practice it in the relatively short time that it takes to shave.

The first thing you should do is take a nice, hot, relaxing shower to clear your mind and soften your beard.

Follow the WIKI and the advise of the senior members here and you'll be successful. If not, the second thing you will do is bleed.

Good Luck, Enjoy the Journey.

The first thing I did (and needed to do) was calm myself down. I was absolutely ecstatic about my first shave, and if I would have went into it with the excitement I had leading up to it, I would have been in pretty rough shape. As such, it was still one of the worst shaves of my life (not during, just after...used too much pressure and did too many passes), but they have only gotten better from that point on.

The first shave is awkward to say the least. You have no muscle memory for straight shaving yet.

Watch the videos can help.

Go light and slow is the best advise.

You'll get a couple nicks, so have a styptic ready.

Once you get the knack, it'll be the best wet shave you can get. There is a learning curve, so stick with it and go slow.

Well this thread is doing what I wanted, kill some time and get some insight. However we have missed my main question, what did YOU do when you got all your bright and shiny stuff. There has to be some good stories out there.

Just saying, this form has not been around for ever so some people probably jumped right in and learned via the school of hard knocks.

I WAS SCARED TO DEATH!!! I WAS CONVINCED THAT THE BLADE WAS THREE FEET LONG. WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD DO THIS?

I did watch Lynn's DVD and I did read the suggestions for newcomers, and I followed those suggestions. First shave was only on the left side of my face (I'm a lefty) and I only cut myself twice, hand was shaking. But I did just a little more and with time got the hang of it.

Have fun

I restrained myself and started with the easy bits--the cheeks and maybe the sides of my neck. Chin and adam's apple were just too scary, dangerous, and protruberant. That is, easy to cut off. I wasn't ashamed to keep using my disposable on the difficult spots for a while.

After I looked at the razor (a 6/8s TI) a long time then I built up the courage to use it and then just shaved thinking it would be easy and straightforward (boy was I wrong). This was before this site existed so I had to do it all by my lonesome.