Thread: First shave

Well I began by following Lynn Abrams video on preping the face. Hot towel then lather followed by another hot towel. I used the pricey wool fat soap which did not lather like I thought it would but it worked well enough I guess. I had already stropped the razor before I did the above. O.K. I bring the razor to my face and my hand is shaking I stopped and relaxed for a second until my hand got steady and I made the first pass. It went well I finished the right side then to the left using my left hand I did my neck last. Relathered and tried across the grain. Had to do alot of touch ups in hard to get spots and nicked under my left jaw. I finished off with St.Lucia bay rum which helped me feel every bad stroke I made
Today my face feels somewhat irratated and dry the shave was close but not as close as my fusion. After the shave I went over old posts and saw a video in the wiki and now know my grip could have changed for certain strokes, my angle was to obtuse and could have gotten better lather. Well now I need to wait for my face to heal and some hair to grow before I try again.

Welcome aboard! There are three things you want to pay attention to:
1. Make sure you're familiar with the growth patterns of your beard. What you think is WTG, may be XTG and this has a huge impact on how you shave.
2. Make sure you're stretching the skin sufficientlt
3. Keep a proper angle, about 30 degrees WTG and 15 XTG

As far as your lather goes, there are several threads on how to do this.

This WILL get better!
Welcome to your new obsession

Congrats on your first shave!

First off, you should not expect nice shaves for a little while, and you should not try xtg or atg for awhile either.

You did good beard prep, and if it's Mitchell's Wool Fat you are using, check out this thread for lathering tips. It is a little tricky to get it to lather up nice, but once you can do it boy oh boy do you ever get a great lather!

As far as the shaves go, getting a good shave with a straight is dependent on more than just a sharp razor, but good technique as well. Technique is only developed with time and experience, and right now your time and experience is exactly one shave. Read the wiki, watch videos, and while shaving put all your focus on executing proper technique. I focus on keeping the skin tight, the touch light, and my angles right. Within a dozen shaves you should be getting really nice shaves. If you are getting irritation, the most common culprits for beginners are using too much pressure and too big of an angle (which you caught yourself doing). Another nice way to judge your angle is to use spine widths. 2 spine widths off the face is about 30 degrees. Its often easier to use this method than trying to judge angles in the mirror.

Your face need time to adjust to straights as well, which is why its recommended that beginners only do wtg for awhile. In addition, as you go from wtg to xtg to atg, technique becomes more and more important, so even if you are getting decent wtg shaves, you may not have developed your technique enough to get nice xtg or atg shaves.

Good luck with your future shaves! I look forward to hearing your progress.

"Better than most!" is how the PGA announcers would described your shave and your results. Good job! It never seems very good at the start, but it gets better exponentially.

Thank you all for the great responses I got more great tips to keep in mind for the next time. Just rubbing on my face now with my thumb I see what you mean about the grain pattern something I never thought about before. Can't wait for my hair to grow back so I can try again

The initial shaves are really about learning to hold the razor and learning the strokes and angle and pressure as well as proper prep and acclimating your skin to a straight. If you get anything resembling a good shave that's just icing on the cake. From what I see you got a lot of icing.

Just keep practicing.

Ah the learning curve Congrats on your first shave...it'll get better. You've allready been given some great advice here. Gotta love the bay rum...lets you know in a big hurry how the shave went..lol.

Chris,

Congratulations on your first straight razor shave chief! As the previous posts have already noted, your shaves will only get better as you gain experience.

I'm gratified to hear that you watched Lynn's dvd. That's how I started straight razor shaving a little over a year ago. There's a lot of useful advice there.

BTW...With respect to your MWF shaving soap...Try putting some hot water on the soap and let it sit while you are in the shower. That may soften the soap enough for you to get a better lather with your brush next time. Then gently swirl your brush over the top of the soap for approx. 10-15 seconds.

Chris, your post reminded me of my first shave. Here is my initial post on this site...relating to that experience:

Throw in the towell, SR and the strop that hasnt even arrived yet?
Oh yeah, I was going to do this right! I bought the $58 Wap honed by Ken, looked at every video on this site, ordered Lynn's video, Miller strop....
Unlike my usual rush into a new venture, I decided to take it slow...mostly out of fear.
But, this morning, instead of picking up the slant, that I'm only now getting used to, I, gasp, took the shiny handled cheek slicer.
Why?
I put the spine against a sideburn (dominant hand side, of course). Angled the blade.....stroke. My god, no blood, no whiskers. Again. Again. Now move closer to the crease lines near my nose. Jackass! Why did you move down when it was evident the toe was pressing in, the heel out? Slice...blood. Hard to stop blood. Stopped. Evidence apparent. Wife's "sympathetic wrath" (folks, I once (true story) was bitten by a shark! en route to the hospital in the ambulance she kept calling me an asshole for doing this to her!!! Ok she was pregnant and about to pop due to the excitement).
So, sell the strop the moment it arrives?
Keep getting those nice de shaves that I've been getting for years?
Be satisfied with looks of my brushes and scuttle neatly arranged on the counter?
In need of support. Am I really going to slice myself each time I try?

Jim


Well, I got support and I got better and still love this place and SR shaving, honing, storpping, obcessing etc

You are doing better than I. And Welcome, by the way.