First Post and First Shave!!

Let me first introduce myself. My name is Travis and I found this site via a cigar forum I frequent. Once i start a hobby, i obsess over it. Well Ive been lurking for a while now, and last week finally decided to take the plunge. I got a dovo 5/8 gentlemen razor as well as a brush and all the other goodies. My strop is taking forever to come in the mail so thats the only thing I'm waiting on. I got tired of waiting and went ahead and shaved tonight regardless. It was a little difficult due to the fact that I don't have hot water (just moved into place, not setup yet). I should have used the microwave. Any way my whiskers were a little tougher than i liked. Overall it was a good learning experience, got crazy razor burn though and had to finish up with a disposable. Im looking forward to becoming masters like y'all. Thank you all for all the info. Great times are ahead! I will surely update with my progress. Here's a picture of the dovo:
http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/...tra/Image4.jpg

Welcome to SRP. Nothing wrong with jumping in with both feet. Check out our library here and the "Getting Started" section for some good tips to make the transition more smooth for you. :gl:

Welcome to SRP!

Nice - great looking Dovo!

Welcome to SRP! That's a fine looking razor you got there, buddy!

Welcome to SRP! What kind of strop are you waiting on?

Thank you all. ^^^ the strop is a 3" "big daddy" leather strop from star shaving. Has a wool felt backing to it. I will also need me a 4/8k stone here soon too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dirletra

Thank you all. I will also need me a 4/8k stone here soon too.

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I hope by 'soon' you mean in about 4 - 6 months.

Concentrate on one thing (3 things actually) at a time (ie. lathering, stropping and shaving) and it'll make the journey easier in the long run.

Send your blade out for professional honing when it needs it for a while so you can remove one variable.

Thanks for the words of wisdom. I promise I won't buy one until I do more extensive research. It's amazing the info one can gain from a forum. The gun in my avatar, I built 6 months after shooting my first ever gun. Put 300 hours into it and even more time into research, mostly on forums.

I hope to get my second shave in tomorrow. I think another one of my problems with the first shave was lack of confidenc with my strokes if that makes sense. I've been watching a lot of videos of ppl shaving, and my strokes seemed kind of timid, which ddnt seem to work well. We'll see how it goes.
Thanks

Well the second shave today went much smoother! Not only could I complete entire face, but I did two passes. Was much better than 2 days ago. It kind of felt like scraping a knife against toast...ur not pushing blade into toast but guiding it across the surface. Also, my dad and brother-in-law might be joining the dark side and getting some straights. Also found that styptic pencil works wonderfully!