First Shave Success!

Hey everyone,

I posted here maybe a year ago about wanting to get into straight razor shaving. Thanks to the wife and Christmas, I'm now the proud owner of my first straight!

Unfortunately I had already shaved Christmas Eve with my mach 3 (had to look good to see the inlaws :P ), so I waited until the 26th to let my beard grow out a bit.

I think the first shave went pretty well! I was a bit worried that I was going to get very frustrated while doing it but that turned out not to be the case. I took it very slow and only got a few nicks. I had some trouble and didn't get as close of a shave on my chin and mustache, but I imagine those are two of the harder areas to learn to shave? I also noticed after washing up how that the shave on the right side of my face was a little bit closer than on my left- it was a pretty interesting display of hand dominance!

Overall I thought I did a decent job for a first shave, and happily I was not turned off by any difficulties or nicks. I'm letting my beard grow out for a day or two again before I go for my next shave, but I am already anticipating it! (in fact I'll find myself thinking about different grips and approaches throughout the day haha)

Great to hear! Congratulations on your first shave, and glad to hear you are not getting discouraged. I've only had about 3 weeks of shaves, every other day, myself. I find that I get really excited on Shaving Day. I look forward to it all day at work. I'm working 12 hour shifts in Afghanistan currently (and have been since I started straight razor shaving) so its a great way for me to unwind at the end of the day.

I find my best time to shave is around 11 pm or midnight. The community showers are cleared out, I can have a sink to myself, and not have 30 people behind me, bouncing the floorboards in the shower tent while i'm trying to make a critical pass.

I haven't been able to really watch alot of videos on techniques, as the internet here is quite slow, and takes 3 times longer to buffer a video than it takes to watch it, so I've made alot of self discoverys. My last shave I found that the notch behind the heel of the blade, along the shank, fits my throat, and I can get that little hollow beside my windpipe if I turn my head the right way. It's been a really fun journey so far, and I'm looking forward to reaching my 100 shave mark.

The best advice I can give, if you are like me and need to see results, is just to concentrate on one improvement at a time. Pretty soon, you'll have improved in many areas and will have a really great shave. I'm hoping by the time I get to see my wife again, I'll be able to produce a BBS w/ no nicks or red spots.

-Lucas

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Originally Posted by PSUOmega

The best advice I can give, if you are like me and need to see results, is just to concentrate on one improvement at a time. Pretty soon, you'll have improved in many areas and will have a really great shave.

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Thanks, this is a great idea. I definitely have a list of improvements that I want to work on- the base of my neck (I'm a hairy guy and my beard grows down all the way to my collarbone), the bottom of my chin, and my mustache area. For now I can either have a few rougher patches or make up the difference with a few swipes of my mach 3. For the future I want to work towards a SR shave that doesn't need any touch ups.

Bravo Armiller! 'You're getting a taste of a real shave, and can see how it'll do nothing but get better. Keep it going and enjoy!

Well done! keep and eye on the angle of your razor and the pressure you apply on your face. Those two points are for me the most important and when you handle them well shaving your chin and mustache will be a lot easier.

all the best and congratulations on your first straight shave!

Take your time and have lots of patience. When starting out, I did what Lynn suggested and only shaved one area of my face each day until I got confident with it. Then I moved on to gradually more areas of the face until I could do the whole thing. Hope that helps.