Day 5: Staying here for a while

Ok, like the title says, I'm on day 5 and my progression has been as follows:

• Day 1: strong side side burn (right side)
• Day 2: added strong side cheek
• Day 3: added weak side side burn and things went well enough to go to the cheek also
• Day 4: added strong side neck
• Day 5: added weak side neck

On my neck passes, I've had a little problem getting the razor started. It may be my tentativeness, but I'm going to be staying at this stage until totally comfortable.

Some things that have really helped during my first week - mainly from Lynn's video's and Glen's beginner's tips:

• Pressure: the lighter the better - I'd have thought the other way around, but the closeness of the shave, along with absence of irritation prove this out. Yesterday, the first neck shave caused some irritation, but today, I really focused on keeping a light touch and it really made a lot of difference
• Stropping: the thought of pulling/pushing the spine as opposed to putting light pressure on the edge made a big difference last night as I was practicing and this morning as I was preparing to shave
• Go slow: starting with one portion of the face and adding separate portions as I became more comfortable has made a lot of difference
• Have an idea of what you're after: I'm one of these folks who subscribes to the saying: "beware the man with only one gun as he will know how to use it". In that vein, I'm truly enjoying my Dovo Best Quality razor. I took a look at the beginner's tips from June 2011 (http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...ne-2011-a.html) and determined what type of shaver I thought I wanted to be. That exercise has allowed me to remain focused on learning to shave (right now I'm in the "Shaver" category) instead of looking at hones and additional strops and razors. An additional razor may come at some point - one with a fancy handle and spine of some sort, but I'll stick with this for now.

Thanks for all of the guidance so far guys - looking forward to many more shaves.

twomarks

Wow that is one of the greatest early reports I have read. Congratulations on all the successes and good fortune with all the fun to come. It really does just keep getting better. Building the skills as you are also helps to eliminate the multiplicity of factors we beginners cope with which allows you to solve the minor problems much more directly.