Hello ! Thought I'd introduce myself.. I've been reading about straight razors occasionally flirting with the idea of owning one as my daily shaver for about a year now. I have been using a gilette D/E razor from the 30's (nonadjustable), for the last 5 years, and have spent less than 10 dollars on blades.. I love the thing, but felt it was time for the next jump up.

So, I got a strop, razor, soap, etc.... all of those things. I figured my new dovo would be sharp out of the box. Not. Well, I ordered a razor from billy, and it blew the dovo clear out of the water, 100+ year old steel as well. So, I've cut myself a little here and there,
everything has been going decently well so far, I'm waiting for more hair to show up so I can try shaving for the third time. The first time with the dovo I didn't feel like I accomplished a whole lot, and the blade pulled, etc.. Just scraped skin off. I even got it honed by a local knife guy.. It's definitely not shave ready though unfortunately. The guy's been sharpening knives and blades of all sorts for 30 years or so, but apparently the SR is a completely different beast.


Anyhow, I ordered a dovo brush, with the ebony handle from classicshaving.. is it normal for the brush to lose a lot of hairs the first few times you use it? l I don't think it should be doing that??? also, I think that the brush is too big for my face, a 30mm knot is the one I ordered, and it just seems massive. What is a good size for a normal sized face? will they accept a return of a brush for a different one?


a little about me. I'm a 23 year old photographer and artist living in san francisco, and am quite intrigued by antique things. Hence my draw to the straight razor. also, I'm green minded, so like the idea of not wasting metal and so on ...

So those things being said, hello !



~Omar