Ups and downs with straight razor shaving
With the exception of a few weeks of travel where I used my DE, I’ve been using straights for about a year and a half now. I think I am a little past being a “beginner”, but this hobby/obsession is a journey. I know I am still on it, but not sure where. I thought I would share some experiences and thoughts.
During the winter, I work part time at a Colorado ski area. Between daily shaves, the high altitude sun, the wind and the cold dry air, my technique was tested pretty thoroughly. I guess my routine was pretty good since I only occasionally had irritation issues – usually the morning after an epic day where I got a little too much sun :rock:. For a couple weeks this spring, my shaves got rougher and less pleasurable. Since then, they came back. Here is what I (re)learned:
1) Light touch. Light touch. Light touch. This applies to honing, stropping and shaving. I got complacent. I zoned out while stropping and was probably using too much pressure. As a result, it seemed to take a little more pressure to get a close shave. This led to irritation. So, I started to really pay attention to stropping. Eureka! The close smooth shave is back.
2) When you are looking at yourself in the mirror and having a problem getting the last rough spots, think “light touch and watch the angle”. Pushing harder at this point is what leads to irritation.
3) My only exception to this light touch mantra is making lather. To load up my brush with soap, I used to use light swirling strokes on the wet cake. Then, just a little water made a thin foamy lather. Looking for value, I have only Mama Bear and Ogallala Bay Rum soaps. It would have been easy to blame the soap, but when I started pushing the brush into the puck a little harder, it loaded up with globs of thick foam that turned into lather just like the Wiki articles.
4) Patience. In spite of numerous recommendations by SRP experts, I started off honing my own ebay razors. (Their advice is certainly sound. I am just a stubborn do-it-myself guy.) I chose a simple Norton set. The first thing I learned about honing is that shaving sharp razors do not come right away. Pressing harder on the hone DOES NOT make it come sooner. If a razor isn’t getting sharper, put it away for a couple days. For me, the next try (concentrating on light touch and good technique) usually brought them right in. Take the time to get a good bevel before trying to finish the edge. Developing good technique takes time. It took me hundreds of laps on my early attempts. At this point only a couple pretty beat up razors (read: poor purchases) have failed to make my rotation.
5) I have 16 razors in my rotation – all vintage, mostly Genco and Shumate. I have found that a razor that I used to think was great, doesn’t shave quite as well as one I honed more recently. The early ones took hundreds of laps to get sharp enough to shave with. I think my technique is improving. I take those laggards back to the 4K Norton for 5 – 10 laps, then 20 – 30 on the 8K, 5 – 10 on a 8” Swaty barber hone, some stropping and now they are the standard. It has been a constant cycle, but every one in my rotation is very usable and getting better. I shave daily and get BBS shaves every time with only a little sting from the alum.
6) HHT – lots of debate here and clearly YMMV, but for me, if a razor won’t pass HHT with my hair, it won’t shave me comfortably.
7) This is your hobby and if you have the money, your budget is the limit when it comes to acquisition disorders, but you don’t need to spend a lot. With patience, finding a good vintage razor can be fun and rewarding. It was slow getting started and, for many, getting a shave ready razor from the SRP Classifieds would be the way to go, but I have kept all my ebay purchases under $20 and with a Norton hone set and a good vintage strop, almost all have turned into respectable shavers. It took a while, but doing it myself was educational and rewarding.
The bottom line for me is this is a fun hobby with the added benefit of using the acquired tools daily. SRP has been a great resource, but for me, my experience and expertise have come from reading, trying, failing, reading some more, trying again, making some progress, refining my technique, trying again, getting pleasure from success, making some mistakes, learning from the mistakes, making some more progress AND getting progressively better shaves. Stick with it. It only gets better.
