Thread: Hello all, interested in a straight razor shave

Hi Nate, and first of all, Welcome! It sounds like you've settled on the right track, focusing for now on a new kind of lather. All the advice to start with a blade that's a known quantity--i.e., shave-ready from a reliable source--is the only good advice. You'll want a strop at the same time you try your first straight--stropping is key to daily edge prep and care.

Like you, I ended up starting with the lather and my old cartridge system, then shifted to straights gradually, shaving sideburns and cheeks with the straight and handling the trickier areas with the cartridge, until I got comfortable using the straight everywhere.

The main benefit (besides the cool factor and the excellent meditation) of the straight was that I no longer suffered ingrown hairs, nor did I shave with something that could harbor bacteria, old sebum, soap scum, or other yuckness between shaves.

Plus, of course, there's all that cool gear! (says the man with three belly boats, a tent, a bivy sack, a tiny camper, a metal lathe...)

The main benefit (besides the cool factor and the excellent meditation) of the straight was that I no longer suffered ingrown hairs, nor did I shave with something that could harbor bacteria, old sebum, soap scum, or other yuckness between shaves.

I have to say that I've read this enough here that it's fast becoming a big reason I want to do this. I don't have as many problems on my face now as I used to, but I still have lingering issues with ingrown hairs from time to time. In particular, though, the skin on my chest is pretty bad and I'm thinking that some of the washing techniques and products I'm reading about might be helpful there.

A different type of razor isn't going to be magic, so better understand what you're getting into.

With a cartridge razor you usually have 3-5 blades going over your skin with every stroke. Then between the shaves those blades are left to rust (yes they have special coatings but those wear off) so each subsequent shave is worse than the previous.
With a DE razor you have a single blade scraping at your skin and they are about 20c-50c so replacing them often is much cheaper than cartridges.
With a shavette type of razor you have the freedom to vary the angle of the blade at your skin (that's fixed in a DE razor and people usually call the ones with steep angle agressive). That of course means that you need a lot more skill, but the benefits of the extra freedom is worth it for many. Also to avoid cuts you will be forced to be much gentler than with those cartridge razors, which means less irritation.
With a regular straight razor you have thicker edge and bare steel (no coatings) and you strop the blade between shaves to keep the oxidation at bay (that's why the edge can last weeks/months/years vs. several shaves with a replaceable blades that you do not strop). Of course it's of utmost importance that the edge you have is good, so it's best to stay away from ebay and antique shops. Buy a razor from a person you trust to know what they are doing and who has honed and verified that the edge is what it should be. Gillette/Schick/etc have machines that put a perfect edge on miles and miles of steel, but doing the same thing by hand across a 3" blade takes a good deal of experience.

And the way you treat your skin and whiskers before and after you put a blade to them makes a huge difference too. With a soft whisker you don't need to apply pressure and scrape off a lot of skin, and the lubrication from the lather does the same.

So, it's up to you where you want to go, but the low hanging fruit would be switching to using good shaving soap/cream instead of the canned stuff that's optimized for convenience and shelf life, and after that you using the 1-bladed bic disposable razors - they're very cheap and dragging 1 blade across your skin gets far less irritation than than 5.