Thread: First shave, and what a doozy.

Intro:
First of all, hello. My name is mick, i live in GA and came here/to the idea of straight shaving, (bear with me) while watching Sweeny Todd for the 10th time. As awesome and fun as the movie is as a movie, i was ACTUALLY paying attention to the shaving aspect in the beginning of the movie, and on a bit of a whim i just decided to spend a few hours doing research. I enjoy taking on older more manual ways of doing things in general and thought it could be a fun thing to try, after researching a bit i KNEW it would be a fun thing to try and possibly make a usual practice. and even a permanent solution to shaving.

Prep:
So i went on amazon, grabbed me a general set (soap, bowl, strope, hone) and a cheap knife that looked nice, it got here, and was dull as a butter knife and it turns out is really not honeable, but it looks nice and i dont mind spending the money for a cool play thing/convwrsation peice. I also baught a cheap refillable blade that takes half razor blades. So apon finding out my main blade was useless i sent off for a new blade from whippeddog.com, this one i spent money on and hopefully it will be worth it. but in the mean time, i used the other razor (with the half razors)

First Use:
one night i just thought to see what it was all about, so after reading a bit more on shaving, i took to shaving one of my hands bare. it went alright, but i cut my self quite a few times toward the end of my strokes. This was partly due to it being the first time, and partly because of a thick lather (i feel confident about my lather NOW). despite the cuts, i felt successful, and my hand was very very smooth.

Second Use:
The next night i was feeling good enough to go to my face. I lathered once side of my face, shaved down, lathered again, shaved up, repeated on the oposite. no cuts no fowl, but i left it alone, i did not want to get ahead of myself.

Tonight:
I went for it, I shaved my whole face. First the sideburns, which went flawlessly. Then I worked on my mustash area, which went relatively well, there was blood on the razor a few times, but nothing to bad. i went to under my neck, and i really slowed down to try and not nick my jugular.. i have heard this is bad. the first motion, somehow without noticing i cut the end of my jawbone (left side) pretty bad... i was disappointed, but i just putt down the razor. used styptic, and came back, re lathered and continued after that on my chin and neck there were many nicks and cuts and after a while i decided whether it was a good shave or not, to stop. the tip of my chin needed styptic, and there is pain all over. only time will tell what damage i did, but ultimately i will call this one a win, but one i will be limping away from.

QUESTIONS:
My new razor should be arriving tomorrow, but just out of curiosity, should i strop the single use razors blades?
While shaving i ended up using 3 razor blades during today's shave, after a while they just seemed to be pulling instead of cutting, is this normal or was i doing something to cause them to not work well after a few strokes?
Are there any tips from others on the chin area? My chin hair seems to lay more sideways than the grain going south. not sure if this is normal or not, but i just could not find a shaving angle that seemed to work too well.
Would the cheap lather i bought make it harder to shave (be too sticky) or is that entirely my lathering technique?

Hopefully this is not too in depth or long, i saw some other people do it here so i thought i would give it a try, especially because of how many ways i found NOT to shave with a razor.

Firstly welcome!

Secondly: I have never found a shavette that felt half as good as a true straight. Its a very thin blade, and I find them uncomfortable even when I can make the perform properly.

Ok so here's what I have learned in my shaving life. Face prep is (this includes building proper lather) #1 strecthing the skin properly is #2 and blade angle is a close #3. Slow down stretch your skin and don't go past 30 degrees angle of the blade.

Map out your beards growth pattern, it will help you plan your whisker attack.

Hope it helps!
Adam

Sent from my BlackBerry 9700 using Tapatalk

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome, and the advice, when i heal up and are ready to attempt again( this time with an actual straight razor) i will work on following the advice.

FWIW I would add that pressure is your enemy if you want a close comfortable shave.
I, for many years, used multi blade cartridge razors and found that to get a closer shave I needed more pressure - the opposite is true when using a cut-throat - barely enough pressure to keep the blade in contact with the stretched skin is all that is needed (provided that you have a shave ready razor that is).
Welcome to SRP as well - hang on and enjoy the ride

Its also interesting that you mentioned comfort, besides the cuts, fillets, and holes dug by the shaveette, i realize a lack of uncomfortable symptoms i hAve delt with for a while, razor bumps? None.. everywhere is smooth, also general irritation is down. Which was a big problem for me with other razors.
The only other issue i have is that while i was shaving today, sometimes i would try to swipe down, and the blade would either grab, or stick to, or get stuck in the lather so much so that it would stretch the skin its self, anyone know the cause of this?

I find that my Shavette resulted in quite a bit of blood and was not a very comfortable shave at all, I have the whippeddog special too and it's a good deal

to answer your question, no you do not strop single use blades


But aside from what the above posters mentioned which is GREAT advice (Angle and ZERO pressure etc) one thing to watch out for is that you MAY be accidentally doing more of a sawing motion then a straight up/down motion, ANY forward/backward motion of the blade will slice you open pretty damn quick so be careful, take it SLOWLY and enjoy the shave

Don't get too discouraged with the shavette. With good blades and proper technique, it will provide an excellent shave. But, it requires a very light touch, even more so than a traditional straight, in my experience. If you haven't already done so, check out the wiki and some of the videos on youtube for technique. Finally, don't rush your progress. Doing your entire face on third time out is pretty brave.

Originally Posted by kenshin133

. . .
The only other issue i have is that while i was shaving today, sometimes i would try to swipe down, and the blade would either grab, or stick to, or get stuck in the lather so much so that it would stretch the skin its self, anyone know the cause of this?

Your hair grows in different directions, on different parts of your face. So "swipe down" can be "with the grain" (WTG) in some areas, and "against the grain" (ATG) in other areas.

WTG is an easy direction (whether it's up, down, or sideways). ATG is more difficult. The edge must be really sharp, and the blade should be almost flat against your skin.

If you're shaving ATG, and the blade angle is off, or the blade is slightly dull, the blade just _stops_. That sounds like what's been happening.

There's a lot of stuff about "face mapping" on the Wiki. Nobody who uses a cartidge razor bothers to do it.
But it's really important when shaving with a straight razor.

Charles

I would look at your prep and technique. Prep, sounds like your lather is drying out, if this happens wet the tip of your brush and rework the lather on your face. The lather should not impede the shave. From what you said about going through 3 blades, I can get a good 7 three pass shaves from one blade, it sounds like a technique/angle issue to me. Make sure you have the correct angle (about 1.5 spine widths above the skin for me), and remember you have to change this as you shave different areas of your face. Like others have said, almost NO pressure. The first time I shaved with a Disposable SR, my face looked and felt like a cheese pizza. Good Luck.

This will be the last shave update I will post in this thread. Since my last update I have had a couple more shaves I received a traditional straight in the mail and have used it for the last shaves, I usualy do all of my face hair,(everything besides chin and neck) and have had great results, my shaves are not to the level of closeness that I want but in time they will. There is a lot fo great advice to be read just in this thread here that I'm sure will help.

Now starts a time of shaving, and then more precise reserch on ways to improve on what did not go as well.

I'm sure I will still be around straight razor place and I hot to meet you all again,

Thanks again,
Mick