Thread: a couple more questions

I am three shaves in after receiving my Straight Razor Designs kit. My first one was a little scary with poor results, i expected that. My second one was a little scary with slightly less poor results. and my third was scary with a little better results.

I am pretty comfortable doing the with the grain pass on most parts of my face, then I finish up with my old disposable atg.

My questions: How many people switch hands to do their non dominant side of the face? I've seen video of people doing it in their dominant hand with the opposite side of the razor or switching hands and using their other hand. Both of these are pretty challenging at this point. What do you do?

Is storing my leather strop hanging in my bathroom a bad idea? It get's pretty steamy in there at times, will the moisture damage the leather? And what is the fabric side of the strop for? It looks like nylon webbing.

Anyway, things are coming along nicely. I think one of the major things I have to work on is lathering. It's hard to tell when it's ready for applying, and because of how slow I am it seems like certain parts dry out before I can get to that area and have to re apply.

This is exciting, haven't cut myself yet, wish me luck!

I can't help you with the strop or lather issues. I use a paddle strop so it doesn't get in the bathroom. I use Cade soap, and good lather seems very easy to get with it.

Early on (and I'm still early on) I made an attempt to use my left hand on the left side of my face, actually on my second shave. I thought it would be a nightmare because I'm lousy with my left hand. It worked quite well, actually, and has continued to improve. It is certainly worth trying.

You use the fabric side before the leather every time your strop.

I switch hands, but not often. I can do 90% of my face with my dominant hand.

For lather, don't worry if it's drying out on you. Just reapply. You might want to try out Kiss My Face. It's really easy to lather, and it won't dry out on you. It works really well too

Also I can't really help you out about the strop. I know moisture is supposed to be bad for leather, but a lot of people keep their strops in their bathrooms and it seems to work out fine for them.

Originally Posted by Boreas

I am three shaves in after receiving my Straight Razor Designs kit. My first one was a little scary with poor results, i expected that. My second one was a little scary with slightly less poor results. and my third was scary with a little better results.

I am pretty comfortable doing the with the grain pass on most parts of my face, then I finish up with my old disposable atg.

My questions: How many people switch hands to do their non dominant side of the face? I've seen video of people doing it in their dominant hand with the opposite side of the razor or switching hands and using their other hand. Both of these are pretty challenging at this point. What do you do?

Is storing my leather strop hanging in my bathroom a bad idea? It get's pretty steamy in there at times, will the moisture damage the leather? And what is the fabric side of the strop for? It looks like nylon webbing.

Anyway, things are coming along nicely. I think one of the major things I have to work on is lathering. It's hard to tell when it's ready for applying, and because of how slow I am it seems like certain parts dry out before I can get to that area and have to re apply.

This is exciting, haven't cut myself yet, wish me luck!

I tried an ATG pass when I was a couple of weeks in, it didnt go so well so I abandoned it until well into my second year of shaving with a straight. I found that one or two XTG passes work just about as good and irritates a lot less. ATG is not really neccesary at all, in fact most barbers manuals in the wiki say not to ever do it.

I switched hands from the get go, figured I would have to learn it eventually so I just went for it. It definitely will take some time to get good at it, but I didnt ever cut myself with my off hand like I did with the dominant hand, I probably paid more attention to that hand as it wasnt as comfortable. Some people have reccomended to just use your off hand for things throughout the day so you get used to using it, others have suggested to put tape over your edge and then practice with your off hand while watching tv or even using a butter knife. Anything you can do to practice will speed up your progress.

I live in a very dry climate and I did store my strop in my bathroom for the first bit, but I had it hanging on the doorknob and it kept getting caught in the door by others, now I hang it in the linen closet till i need it. If you have a bathroom that gets really humid, it will hurt your strop, its better to just be safe and store it outside of the danger zone. The nylon is for using before your leather, I have linen instead. I do 25 passes on it then move to the leather for 50 to 60 laps.

Making lather just takes practice like everything else. It usually comes down to too much or too little water added. I had troubles with my lather drying at first as well, so I would lather only a side of my face at a time, once your get more proficient you will be able to lather it all and complete a shave before it dries.

Be sure to spend time reading through the wiki here, it has so much information that everytime I go check it out I find something I missed before. It has info on building lather, caring for your kit, and everything else you need to know for success. Good luck and enjoy.

Some catch on faster than others so the following advice is still up to the individual on what they feel comfortable with. Also, this is mostly based on the way I started which worked well for me.

For the first couple of months, I only shaved in a downward direction (WTG). The XTG & ATG passes can be a little tricky and I felt it was better left alone until I got very comfortable with the str8. Everytime you shave, pay attention to those trouble areas that don't come out so smooth. Instead of jumping into XTG & ATG in these areas, practice on skin stretching & blade angle. You might find that's the reason it's not coming out very smooth. Now that I've been at it for some time, I've come to do 2 passes. Once in a mostly downward direction (WTG). Then a second on my cheeks starting at my mouth and going straight across toward my ears (XTG). The second pass on my neck is mostly in an upward direction right up to the edge of my chin (is mostly XTG with some ATG). Just remember, if you are going ATG, you will want to lay the blade almost flat to your skin. If you try to shave with the same angle as in a WTG pass, the blade will want to hang up and you run the risk of cutting yourself. All I can say is give yourself some time and as you get more comfortable, try some different things.

I leave my strop hanging in the bathroom and do not have any problems with it but, my bathroom doesn't get all that steamy. The fabric is used first when stropping then switch over to and finish with the leather. Do at least 30 fabric then 30 leather. I strop 20/20 right after shaving to help dry the blade, then 15/30 right before shaving.

You are giving me flashbacks of lathering when I first started out. One thing you will want to get your hands on is a decent brush. I started out with a Wal-Mart special boars hair brush that wouldn't make a lather worth anything. Once I got a badger hair brush, I saw a huge difference. When I first started, I had to keep lathering 3 or 4 times just for one pass. Just give yourself some time and it will get better. When I start shaving, I still lather a second time on my mustache, chin & center throat on the first pass. Why rush such a good thing?

Good luck and keep us posted. We are always glad to hear success stories.

agree with whats been said....

I started switching. It took a month but I am very comfortable switching and it allows me angles I can't get with one hand.

Stay WTG/XTG until you learn stretching and blade angle.....light touch, good stretchign will give you a DFS with two passes....

I use ATG sometimes....not every day as my skin is sensitive. But my two pass shave is 15 minutes and every bit as close as a Mach-billion (isn't that how many blades they are up to?)

I forgot to address your question about shaving ambidextrous. I waited until about the third month before switching hands. Give yourself some time then give it a shot. If you find it's not for you, there's nothing wrong with shaving cross handed if that's what you are comfortable with. For me, I find by switching hands, it gives me a better view of what Im doing.

Hi, As far as switching hands, I don't. If you feel comfortable, go for it. I use my right hand for both sides of my face. If I was inclined to use my left hand, I think I would practice doing other things first, maybe brushing my teeth leftie, just to get used to it.

You may want to move your strop out of the bathroom. I don't think the daily humidity is good for it in the long run, maybe leave it in your bedroom.

As far as lathering goes, You may want to check out Youtube. There's a guy called
Mantic59

He has good videos on lather building and shaving. Depending on what your using, Scuttle, bowl, face lathering etc...Like you said, If it dries out on your face before you get to it, just re apply...

Enjoy..

I use my right hand for both sides. Some complain about not being able to see everything. I think you have to go more by feel than sight. Plenty of blind guys that wet shave, not sure about blind straight razor users though.... heh.

Just remember if it is causing pain, and loss of blood, fer Gods sake stop what you are doing and re-asses your technique...

Enjoy.

Thanks for the replies guys,

I have found that going across my face with my right hand means I don't see what I'm doing as well as the other side. I'll try using my left hand of these days and see how that feels.

I'm hanging my strop in my bedroom and moving it to the bathroom when I need it.

Another issue I forgot to mention... My brush, which I upgraded with my SRD kit is a SRD silver tip badger brush #2. It's a short brush with some stiffness to it as I planned on using soaps. I think it needs some conditioning to soften it, but more importantly, the thing smells like wet dog when I start using it.

Some people recommend shampooing and conditioning your brush when you first get it... I happen to have a full bottle of "natural" pet shampoo (It was left behind when I moved into the house). If I had a pet badger, this shampoo would work. Should I give it a try? And maybe I'll use some of my girlfriends conditioner after wards.