Thread: Incredibly Frustrated / Thinking of quitting after 6 shaves.

Originally Posted by jeffegg2

I really doubt that "everyone" was straight shaving. Most I think either grew a beard or went to a barber.

Those were the guys that wouldnt/couldnt do it.

I didn't read everyones advice to you, and I'm no expert by any means, but I agree with the rest, it takes time and patients. I've only been at it for about 8 months now and just got settled in to my nitch, except for post shave cream. Here's what I do: I start my shave, after a hot shower, with some C.O. Bigelow shave cream, letting it soak in while I strop 30/70. Shaving with the grain. Then, I lather up with Mitchell's Wool Fat soap and shave across the grain, and then against the grain with the Mitchell's soap. Each time rinching off your face with hot water. Seems to work very well for me and I'm only using a manufactured honed razor, what they call "shave ready." Havent had mine honed by a master yet.

Now we know what it like 'Not to Cut and Run' !(:-) read through all of the advice that's been given and it's been really good and supportive. I also know what it's like for your wife to look at you and seriously say: "you might not want to try that again When Nobody's at Home with You!"
Also found out quick about Alum!
Go slow, do the parts of the face that you've had luck with. Muscle memory will come.

We have all been through it when we started, it is an art that does take patients and skill to fully enjoy. It's funny to say now because i made some of these very mistakes year ago but every element of straight razor shaving adds up to how a shave goes. Each step is vitally important to a great shave starting with a properly honed razor, to proper stropping and stropping enough to get the blade straight, beard prep, technique during the shave, and after shave care.

You can't shortcut any of the steps NOT one. It's like a symphony each of the instruments together perfectly in tune and right on the mark make for wonderful heavenly musical experience, but if you have one instrument in the group out of tune, off beat, etc.. it will lessen or kill the enjoyment.

Which brings me to two points.
1. Will you always get that heavenly experience, of course not no two shaves will be the same but they will get progressively better and consistently better as you become more experienced, even the best of us have a crappy shave here and there no matter how experienced we have become.

Will you ever get that perfect shave? I believe we all continue to chase that perfect shave which is why we are always trying new hones, new strops, new creams, new blades, different techniques and the likes we get dam good one's but a perfect shave is one that you treasure.

2. What experience brings is the ability to know which of those instruments are out of tune, and which need to be corrected when things go out of sync, in the beginning it's hard to tell I'm under stropping, or my cream was to dry, or I rolled my edge. In time you will learn how to know what to tune to get a good shave, and what works for you.

Cream you can experiment with, stropping you can always try and correct, technique we are always learning and looking for new and better ways. Honing you need a benchmark, you need to know what a blade should feel like and that in and of itself can be a challenge, one easily corrected by being sent out to a credible honemeister.

Step back and learn to tune your instruments with patients and you too will one day enjoy the daily symphony that we have all grown to cherish in our shaving time.

Assuming they are, you can still get great shaves as a newbie with straight razors and show up for work perfectly clean shaven. How? By doing one pass or so with your straight and finishing with your Mach. You might want to invest in a double edge; there's a learning curve there, but it's not nearly as bad and you will learn, with the right technique, how to get a great shave with a safety.

The two nice things about DE shaving:

. . . A fresh DE blade is "shave ready" -- no ifs, ands, or buts.

. . . If you cut yourself, it'll be a shallow cut.

So you can get your beard prep technique worked out, and learn your beard's growth patterns, without worrying about stropping, honing, and self-mutilation. There's much less banging your head against the wall with a DE -- the learning curve is _way_ shorter than with a straight razor.

. Charles

It's impossible to put down a Mach 3 and pick up a straight razor and make the transition. It's not an either/or proposition. Get some practice under your belt and then start using the Mach 3 less.

Don't put any pressure on your self. You've got a few years before Gillette discontinues the Mach 3 and a few decades before the world's disposable steel reserves disappear. THEN you'll be forced to transition completely.

The bad things about DE shaving:

I spent 20 years hacking at my face with a DE. If your beard is over 4 days, forget it. You would then need to get out the clippers and cut the hair as short as possible before dragging the factory edge across your face. It always left a razor burn, always.

I will never regret taking the time and effort to learn to use a straight razor.

Jeff.

Originally Posted by cpcohen1945

The two nice things about DE shaving:

. . . A fresh DE blade is "shave ready" -- no ifs, ands, or buts.

. . . If you cut yourself, it'll be a shallow cut.

So you can get your beard prep technique worked out, and learn your beard's growth patterns, without worrying about stropping, honing, and self-mutilation. There's much less banging your head against the wall with a DE -- the learning curve is _way_ shorter than with a straight razor.

. Charles

Originally Posted by jeffegg2

The bad things about DE shaving:

I spent 20 years hacking at my face with a DE. If your beard is over 4 days, forget it. You would then need to get out the clippers and cut the hair as short as possible before dragging the factory edge across your face. It always left a razor burn, always.

I will never regret taking the time and effort to learn to use a straight razor.

Jeff.

You're absolutely right, at least from my perspective.

I think (though I can't speak for him) cpcohen1945's point is that a DE makes for a nice transition from Mach to straight. You can clean up with the DE so you don't depend on your straight for that clean shave. You can then concentrate on learning technique with the straight. That would be my point, anyway.

I've been straight shaving for +4 yrs. now. In the first six months, it was more like a treat, 1x weekly or so, with a Fusion still the main method. But since I got the hang of it and found the right rhythm and products, the straight has been my go-to.

At some point, my first blade went dull, and I could not get it sharp again. It was a Dovo No. 105 Damascus, and I found out that stainless really IS inherently harder to sharpen than carbon. More fool me. I finally sent it out for re-honing, which brought the edge back, but in the meantime, I had also purchased several carbon-steel straights that worked out better for me from various aspects - blade and handle size, ease of honing. Still use the Dovo occasionally, just to make sure it's still working, but it's not my favorite shaver.

The point is, this style of shaving does take a bit of trial, error, and practice. Using different razors, different facial products, different strops, pastes and stones, and shedding a few drops of blood in between ;-), is all part of the ramp-up cost. I would suggest you try working with at least one other blade before giving up! I own five by now, working on a sixth, and rotating 2 or 3 throughout the week. Thanks to this forum, I now have different options for taking care of my blades - generous leather stropping is no. 1, touch-ups with a CrOx stropped linen no. 2, and some light passes on the coticule no. 3. That seems to be working out, it's been a while since I had to put any of the "active" crew back on the 4/8 stone...

Best of luck, and don't give up, the results are worth it!

After reading the suggestions and calming down from my near rage state yesterday, I decided that I couldn't make the blade much worse than it is now if I decided to use my barber's hone on it, and if it doesn't work, I'll just send it to get re-honed.

I soaked the hone while I was at the gym, did 5 wet laps, 3 laps with lather, then 25 linen and 50 leather. It passed HHT with a barely audible ping.

I did a full prep (hot shower, glycerin wash, pre-shave, hot towel, hot lather, hot towel on lather) then decided to shave.

Best shave yet, with the exception of the sides of my neck. My beard grows horizontally there and I can't figure out how to do WTG.

At any rate, cooler heads prevailed and I'm once again happy with my decision.

Also, shout out to gssixgun. Couldn't have done it without his fantastic barber hone vid.

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