Thread: Celebrating SR shave number 100 today

About 4 months ago I saw a video on Youtube where the guy said to become proficient with using a straight razor, figure on at least 100 shaves. So I committed to try at least 100 and see how it goes. I kept a simple tally and today was number 100! (I guess that means I’m proficient now)

From my vantage point, I can see that this was very good advice. For beginners, I think 100 shaves or so is a very realistic "evaluation period". Anything short of this you may not get to the point where you can consistently get good shaves. Although some around here seem to pick this up rather quickly, in my case I hit several plateaus where I didn’t see much improvement for a while. On several occasions I considered reverting back to some other method. But then I would have a breakthrough and things would improve. Some of the improvements happened not even because of anything I was doing consciously - just more practice. The moral of this little story is: Don’t give up, just keep shaving.

At this point, there is no stopping me now. I think what is most addicting for me is the constant pursuit of the better shave. There is infinite variability (combinations of different prep, razor, cream, aftershave, stropping, angle, pressure, sharpness) and perpetual room for improvement. That’s one thing that elevates this daily chore to a daily experience. (I mean really, how many different ways can you shave your face with an electric?)

Thanks for the motivation

I did pretty much the same thing here. It's very true about the plateaus. I had more in the 6-9 month time frame. One day I realized I was getting BBS any time I wanted, but it took several hundred shaves. I've also gone from 35 mins to 15-20 mins in the process of learning.

that's great.congrats.. i am about 10 shaves away from my 100th... and loving every minute of it.

a couple of shaves ago, i realized i wasn't where I wanted to be with my WTG first pass and I've been working on that and the improvement has been tremendous..

I think though once you hit 100 you kind of know if you enjoy shaving with a straight...

Congrats! I guess you're officially a vet

You are a better than man than me in keeping that tally going. Congrats on your 100th shave.

Pabster

Congratulations on your first hundred shaves!

I'm still nodding and thinking to myself: he... counted... all... his... shaves...

Man, that's commitment right there. Seriously.

At first I thought, "Wow, 100 shaves... I wonder how long that took"; then, I thought about it and realized that I'm coming up on that number too (I started at Christmas). It really is surprising how much has changed in my technique, how much I've bought , but what an improvement I've made. I am no where near getting a BBS shave in all areas but I get a satisfactory shave every day now and I bleed a lot less. This learning process will continue and I will continue to watch more videos and buy more stuff - very willingly!

Thanks for posting this.


Haakon

Originally Posted by Snake

I'm still nodding and thinking to myself: he... counted... all... his... shaves...

Ha..Ha... I'm can get a little bit obsessive like that. But how hard is it to make a tally mark after your done shaving?

You've inspired me , I've started a little counter on my phone so I can celebrate 100 shaves too.