1st Shave with Dovo 5/8 Stainless

I recently purchased a premium shave set for LLC, I decided to go with stainless as it would stay sharp longer. I was set on a straight razor as my grandfather having used one all his life. He was one of those people who always was set on that newer technology stuff was just for convenience and never for the actual work done. Boy was he right, the day I got it i spent about a half an hour just opening it and getting the feel for the razor in my hand. I was fortunate to have a late uncle show be a bit of stropping technique that i feel is priceless now. He always told me to let the strop set the pace not your brain, speed will come naturally. I spent about 10 min or so slowly stropping the blade and getting a feel for a comfortable pace. Then came to the soap, which I had no idea of what I was doing. I always seen a shaving mug with some soap on the counter that my father had used years ago before going to electric because of blood thinning issues. He showed me how to get a nice lather and how to massage it into your skin with your bristles. I then proceeded to lather up the right side of my face being right handed I thought this would be the best starting point. I put the razor in my hand and took a few short strokes on the side of my beard and WOW!!! This felt awesome and was so incredibly smooth. I then finished that side and the and neck area. I like to have a goatee so i left the mustache and chin area be. Overall I felt very relaxed while shaving and seemed to have done a great job with it. I felt so great afterwards because of thinking how proud my grandfather would be to see me shaving and how much better it felt without the burn and dry feeling that the disposables gave me. I just thought I would share my experience and how I got started into shaving.

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on discovering the best way to shave. Being able to shave more quickly comes naturally with practice, keep up the great work.

What a nice story! Thank you for sharing the information about your Dad and your Grandfather and welcome into the arena of Str8 razor shaving. I have learned much from the members of this site and I encourage you to listen and read their observations. Your Grandfather must be very proud to see you using a straight razor and while he may not be actually with you, somehow I think he knows. Be well!!! Have fun!!!

Congratulations on a good start with many more to come.

Welcome and congratulations! What a great story and a great start. Let us know how your journey progresses.

What a great post! Thanks for sharing. I think a lot of us find an attraction to straight razors due to that nostalgic feeling that brings us back to a time when our fathers and grandfathers were in their prime!

I look forward to reading how the rest of your shave goes! If you plan to keep the goatee, then the hardest part will probably be your neck. I too had a goatee for years, and I purposely didn't shave it on my first few attempts (see video here). But after a couple weeks of shaving, I was like an ADDICT and needed MORE to shave!!! So on page 6 of that thread, I filmed my first attempt to shave the goatee (with a nice nick under the nose to boot!)

Keep it up, and you will see that this journey only gets better and better!

Thanks everyone for the feedback!!! I recently picked up a swaty barbers hone hone from ebay from a guy near my location. I picked it up for a hair over $20, it was in great shape for that price in my opinion. There seemed to be a build up of some sort that made it look kind of poor condidtion. I ended up taking an old file that I had flattened down to smooth metal knowing that it was carbon steel and ran it over the hone a coupple dozen time on each side and this thing looks gorgeous. It does have a few small nicks on the front lettering side but the back is flawless. Im sure I will not need it for some time but its always better to be prepared. I would like sometime in the near future to do a minor restore on a razor something not to big.