Thread: Straight Razor Shaves Everything But The Face. Too Thick, Too Coarse.

I found learning to shave with a straight razor quite difficult. There is so much to get right (blade sharpness, stropping proficiency, angle, technique, preparation, etc. etc.) and a misstep in any of those areas makes for a lousy shave. If you get more than one of those factors wrong, then shaving well is just about impossible. Nobody gets it right immediately. In my case, the first 10 shaves were lousy, the next 10 were less bloody but still bad, and it wasn't until about the 50th shave that I had any proficiency at all. At about the 100th shave I started to get results comparable to what I could obtain with a DE. I didn't feel really proficient until about the 150th shave. It took me about half a year of it to get to the point where I felt it was starting to get easy and fun. Before that it was all work.

My recommendation is to get a properly honed blade and not to strop it before you shave. That will probably teach you that your stropping technique was bad. Everyone's stropping is lousy at first. It all takes time. You'll also learn that your shaving technique is lousy. Nothing personal here, but how could it possibly be good right off?

They talk about a learning curve here. It is long and it is steep at first. Believe it or not (and I questioned this many times), it is worth it to persist and keep at it. It took me a long time to get where I am now, but it was an interesting journey, and I'm glad I kept at it. I can now get a quick, good shave with a straight razor, and I have a great time doing it. Like anything else that requires proper tools and skill, it can't be done without lots of practice and work. Get a proper blade, learn to strop slowly and carefully, and the results will come. If it was easy to pull all this off, I doubt anyone would even bother with it. If you are persistent, you will be rewarded with good shaves, in time, and you will have acquired a skill that only the patient and persistent can employ. It is a difficult learning experience, but if you want to know whether it is worth it, the answer is definitely YES. You'll find plenty of help and encouragement here, and you will probably need it. Without this forum and the help it provides, I'd probably have a beard.