Beggining with my first Straight Razor

So for Christmas I got my first straight razor set-up! Includes: Professionally honed 6/8 full-hollow Dovo straight razor, badger hair brush, mug and shaving soap, and a beginner’s strop. For my first shave I just tried WTG and that turned out fine, only a pin prick size cut for when I was sizing up my neck. Today went through and tried a across and against the grain and got about two nicks and a tiny slash, haha.

Any tips for holding the razor? Do you switch hands or do you stay with one. What are good ways to make sure you get a close shave, I had a bit of a hard time along my jaw line and close to my ears?

Any other tips would be appreciated!

Best suggestions I could give you is go slow and use very light pressure. Also do not worry about BBS shaves at this time. Here is a good thread read the PDF in the first post lots of good advice in here .

Check out the wiki. There is a ton of info on stropping, beard prep, and of course how to actually use a straight razor.

The 3 most important things to focus on in the beginning is keeping the pressure really light, keeping the angle at 30 degrees or lower, and getting good skin stretching.

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Any tips for holding the razor?

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See here.

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Do you switch hands or do you stay with one.

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I switch, some use only the dominant hand. Being able to use the off hand gives you a lot of extra options, so I'd recommend training it up. It will be awkward at first, but if you start doing other things throughout the day with your off hand, it helps train its coordination. But like I said, plenty of others only use their dominant hand and can get along fine.

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What are good ways to make sure you get a close shave, I had a bit of a hard time along my jaw line and close to my ears?

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Some guys can get a BBS with one pass. That takes a lot of experience and a very sharp razor. For me, its about the 3 things I mentioned above. Keeping the skin tight, pressure light, and the angle right. Practice goes a long way as well. You will notice dramatic improvement in the first dozen shaves, and after that progress is not as noticeable, but still happens.

The jaw and chin are some of the hardest parts to shave. Using small buffing strokes and frequent repositioning of the skin stretching hand help. Most of all, you just have to be patient and accept that parts of the shave will be sub par until your technique develops.

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Any other tips would be appreciated!

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Be patient, getting a good shave with a straight relies on good technique, not just a sharp razor. You won't be getting the best shaves for awhile, but when your technique starts to develop, you will be getting the closest shave a man can get.

Practice, practice, and more practice.

My ears are sculpted by the best of Soligen and Geneva :)

One member had issues with vision, and I supported him to touch down w/ the blade 1/2-1" from the ear. Short, light buffing strokes as you proceed closer to the ear. At this point, seeing the point may or may not be possible, so I suggested switching attention from the visual to the tactile (feel). The short, buffing strokes with no pressure will allow you to feel the point get closer to the ear contours. When you feel the point running into the rise in the skin that's adjacent the ear, you'll know you're there & not to go further. The short light stroke there can keep you from some carnage.

I'm no expert, but I clear the area next to the ear first - no unlike someone painting a room where you 'cut in' - by doing the fine detail with a brush, and when that's taken care of, the bold strokes of a roller can finish the wall with confidence.

I, too, am new here, having only been around about 6 weeks. I'm doing my entire shave with my dominant hand as I'd rather get my technique down before I train my other hand. Something I found useful was to let my beard grow for a few days, that way, I could get a really good idea of the growth patterns. You'll be surprised at the odd angles your beard grows. What you think is WTG may actually be XTG, and so on. In any event, welcome aboard!

Thanks everyone I am sure it will help. I think I will start working on my left hand to see if I can get it better!

I'm new to straights as well and having issues with grip and dominant hand use. I'm not sure whether to perfect my technique with the dominant hand BEFORE trying to train the non-dominant hand - or go slowly and steadily in a way that will give better results in the long run.

It's too funny that two of you posted in the same day asking questions about gripping the razor.

+1 to not worrying to BBS shaves to start with. Also, don't worry about using both hands or ATG at first. I'm right handed and it took me a couple of months before I tried with my left hand or ATG. Take it slow and give yourself some time to get use to the str8.

For future reference, below, are some pics of the grip I use for both WTG & ATG. Please note that both pics may show what appears to be a tight grip on the razor. This is only because I'm taking the pic myself. You should only hold the razor with just enough grip to give yourself control of it. Too much grip will cause you to snag on tough whiskers, pimples or bumps to where wind up with a nick or cut.

Welcome to SRP and we wish you good luck and hope you stick with it. Don't let yourself get discouraged and I assure you will find a renewed enjoyment in shaving.