Thread: First Blood: Part 1

Well, fellas, I can now officially count myself as one of you. My "wapi" arrived in the mail today, and I couldnt wait to give it a test drive. Rather than going through the laundry list of soaps and creams to buy, I rushed out and went with the only brand that I was familiar with from my grandfather's house: Proraso, in the green plastic container.

I won't bore you with the details, given that I imagine most of you have all been through this at one time or another. There were a few nicks here and there, but the jugular is still very much in one piece. The strangest thing about the whole experience was how natural shaving with a single blade was. I really felt, at one point, like I'd done this before. There was nothing frightening or stressful about the experience. I was wise to stop when I did, though. I wouldn't want to get too comfortable too quickly. I did manage to get my whole face (chin included) taken care of.

So, my face is currently, as Lynn once put it, "baby butt smooth" as well as feeling more than a bit singed (I haven't quite nailed down the best aftershave yet). But the feeling of finally getting the chance to really shave was an awesome experience!

Here's to keeping the hairs off my face, and the blood in my body.

Cheers,
Cutty.

Well done Cutty. If you got BBS smooth on attempt one you are far ahead of most.

So i trust your Fendriahn razor was sharp enough for you?

Originally Posted by dyimages

Well done Cutty. If you got BBS smooth on attempt one you are far ahead of most.

So i trust your Fendriahn razor was sharp enough for you?

Must have been sharp enough, or the story would have been about the razor burn instead, hehehe....

Great job mate!!!

great job! you'll see how many terrible first shave threads there are around here. keep it up.

Well I was ultra stressed and frightened as soon as I saw the blade and how sharp is was! But I agree with the point about how natural it feels. As I told everyone at work today in the conference room, I feel so PROUD! People look at you like you're MAD when you say you shave with a straight razor. "Oh", they say, "that's really hard...", as they give you sidelong glances and wonder if you're a mass murderer or are harbouring thoughts of self harm. And it IS hard, harder that dragging a green and white plastic boring thing over your face, anyway...and MUCH cooler...

@dyimages - The blade was plenty sharp! Definitely "shave ready".

@Mjhammer - Unfortunately, the sharpness of the blade didn't protect me against the razor burn. I certainly need many more shaves to find that sweet spot of blade angles before I achieve straight blade nirvana.

Originally Posted by Cutty

@dyimages - The blade was plenty sharp! Definitely "shave ready".

@Mjhammer - Unfortunately, the sharpness of the blade didn't protect me against the razor burn. I certainly need many more shaves to find that sweet spot of blade angles before I achieve straight blade nirvana.

Do not forget pressure. Any time i have gotten razor burn it usually was a result of me pushing to hard trying to force the whiskers off

So I don't want to apply pressure? That's a surprise - I honestly thought that a bit of pressure was necessary. Thanks dyimages! I'll give that a shot today - I've been looking forward to my shave today for the past two days. I've been going over my game plan and coming up with a strategy. I haven't been this fired up since my high school sports days.

I'm new to this game aswell and have shaved about 10 times,I to find that I can't wait to shave and am going over my game plan.
I bought a Dovo Bismarck black that was said to be shave ready but is not,so can't wait to get it shave ready.It should be a lot easier.

Having a good game plan ahead of time is a good idea. It should include having a Styptic pencil, some Crazy Glue and band-aids at the ready.

It's OK to have a detailed game plan, but when you start writing it down, that's when I'd start to worry.