Another Another First Timer

Hello All! Hopefully you can endure another post from a newb sharing his experience.

I'm that guy who always appreciated the fact that my barber used a straight to touch up my sideburns and neck after a haircut. For some reason, I never thought about using a straight to shave with though. That is until a few months ago I was surfing a trade message board and one of my co-workers asked who shaved with a straight. One of the guys on that thread posted this article, from that point on I was pretty much hooked. Shaving brushes, soaps and most of all straight razors were things I had never even considered. Of course my poor, one pass, in the shower, using canned goop shaves reflected that.

So after a few months and quite a bit or reading, I ordered a Boker King Cutter wet shaving kit from Straight Razor Designs. As a side note, they provided outstanding service! I ordered Sunday evening and by Monday morning I received an email stating that it was shipped. Thursday afternoon the box was on my doorstep. I opened the box with just a little anticipation to find everything in perfect condition. I was very impressed that the order came in a long box so that the strop didn't have to be bent.

So here is where some of my discouragement comes in. For my first shave, I took the advice I had read somewhere and did a partial shave in order to get used to the blade next to my face. After some beard prep, I shaved from my sideburns down my cheeks and some of my neck. It felt pretty good. I finished up with my mach3. This morning, after a good hot shower, I lathered my face up, stropped my blade and did the right side of my face. It was uncomfortable and felt like it was tugging a bit, but I could bear it. When I got to the more course area around my chin, it just hurt too much to continue. The only thing I could think of is that I ruined the edge of my blade with poor stropping technique. Suddenly the advice I had read somewhere to have two blades so you had something to compare to made more sense.

The only thing I can think of doing at this point is maybe sending my razor back to have it re-honed so that I know that I have a good edge to use and possibly eliminate something else I may be doing wrong.

Anyway, thank you all for this discussion board, I will continue to read and learn. I am determined to become competent enough to make a straight razor my normal way of shaving.

Welcome to SRP. Your experience is similar to mine. I finished my shaves, chin, mustache, and parts of my neck with a DE for the first two to three weeks. IME it takes some practice to develop the technique that a straight razor demands. In the SRP beginner's guide here may be where you read Lynn's suggestions for the first straight razor shave. Give it another read and I think you'll see he recommends easing into it over a period of a week or two. If it was easy anyone could do it. :)

It is possible that you rolled your edge with a miscue while stropping but it is also possible that it is just a matter of learning shave technique. I would suggest you give it some more time practicing on the easier areas with proper skin stretching, blade angle and stroke. If you're still having a problem in those areas send it back to get honed again. Just IMHO. Whatever you do don't get discouraged. We've all gone through it in the beginning. :gl:

Welcome to SRP,

This place has a ton on knowledge. I myself am a beginner, I have been shaving for about a month now. My experience is much the same as yours. Started out with my sides and was happy, but when I did the more course areas I got discouraged.

I also thought that I had dulled the edge of my razor at one point early on. Here is some great advice that helped me out,

Work on stretching your skin tight, I know this will probably sound like it gets beat to death, but I feel it is one of the more important aspects of the shave. With out a nice flat tight surface, the razor just kind of digs in to your skin and skims over the hair.

Blade angle is important as well. When I get to the more corse area I start to get to 0 blade angle. Experiment with it, takes some time. Learn how your hair grows on your face to know if you are going wtg, xtg or atg.

This next part can be the worst if your not careful. Watch your pressure your using. Up till a few shaves ago i would get the worst razor burn and it would last for a few hours to all day some times. It was all because in the courser areas of my face I was putting in more pressure to get a closer shave. Dont use any pressure for the most part, the blade will do all the work.

Hope this helps, Im still fairly green myself but it is what I have picked up so far. Lastly, dont get discouraged, it gets better, there will be a moment where it just clicks, and boy is it awesome.

Later
Brian

After about 11 months I still consider myself a beginner. As sated, your experience is to be expected. There is a learning curve so Hang in there, clean up with your throw away and keep reading and learning. Soon enough you'll find yourself getting a very close, enjoyable shave.

Good Luck!!

Welcome to SRP ;-)

May I give you two pieces of advice?

1) Keep on shaving. The more skill you have, the more you will enjoy your shaves

2) never shave in the shower. or naked. ever thought of what might happen if you slip with a straight razor in your hands? don't even think about it.

Your razor is probably fine. Straight shaving is more reliant on technique than most beginners realize. Read as much as you can of the wiki, watch shaving videos between shaves, and while shaving try to focus on your technique as much as possible. You will find your shave improving very quickly. Make sure your beard is properly prepped (probably best to overdo beard prep in the beginning) and while shaving focus on keeping the skin tight, the pressure light, and your angle right.

Of course, there is the possibility that you damaged your edge while stropping. Did you use much pressure, or just let the weight of the blade do the work?

Based on my interpretation of the events it is also very likely that you simply are not stropping adequately. Something to consider anyway.

I have a rule I follow. It's not really full-proof, but you might as well think about it. I believe that "what happens on the strop, stays on the strop". So, like Vegas, any damage you do on the strop, should be correctable with a strop. You know, "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".

It's not always true, but, like Santa Clause, you have little to lose by believing.

I would try re-stropping and see if you can't correct some of the problem.

If you've done any damage the stropping should sound different than previously, particularly one side sounding different than the other. Otherwise, stropping may solve most of the problem.

Ahhhhhhh, I remember my first straight shave. I knew nothing about this site, did no research what so ever, and did something horrible; bought a cheap razor to have with. It ripped the hair out of my face sooooo good.
:rant:
After a lot of time with the patching up the pores with tp and saying wtf, I decided to do a little more resarch on the topic. Figured out the problem and bought a good razor, strop, and hone and figured it out. I hope you will have better luck over the next few shaves as i did.

Hey, at least you got a semi decent shave in the first time tho right, more than i got.

I also wanted to add that if your razor has just been dulled by improper stroping, it might not so much need re honeing as much as being properly stopped on a pasted strop. While i wouldent recomend using ur nice new strop but mabey you can pick a cheap one up and a tube of paste or some CrOx powder. Good luck