So, I've been lurking here and reading a lot before I even thought about putting a SR to my face. My father-in-law gave me his father's razor for Christmas. It was in decent shape but I decided to send it out to Mr. Abrams to be professionally honed. I received it last week and boy what a nice job he did. I took the advice that I read on this site about purchasing a cheaper strop since the possibilities of it becoming nicked or cut is higher in the beginning. I also bought some Castle Forbes cream and am very impressed. I should be considering the price but I didn't want to cut any corners when it came to soap/cream when I'm learning how to shave with a straight.

After the shower this past week I lathered up, and attempted shaving the right side of my face. All in all it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I made the mistake of trying to psych myself out when in reality I should have gone into it with complete confidence. I was feeling a little cocky but left the rest of my face for another day. I figured why ruin a good thing, I didn't want to push it and regret it later when I'm applying pressure to my neck with a wash cloth to stop the bleeding! 2 days later I tried again, although I shaved the left side of my face as well as the right. Again, I resisted the temptation to keep going. So tomorrow I'm going to try shaving my neck or at least part of it depending on how I'm feeling.

I guess you can say that I've had my first attempt at shaving then. We'll see what tomorrow brings. There's definitely a strong learning curve but I'm willing to invest my time. I very much enjoyed my first 2 "shaves" and look forward to shaving a little more now. The 2 times I've shaved it's been a pleasant experience and I'm hoping it will only get better. No blood, no cuts, I can't complain.