Thread: First few shaves (HELP/ADVICE)

So, i've been getting into it very slowly and carefully. My first shave consisted of my left sideburn (me being left-handed). The 2nd night was my left sideburn, and part of my left cheek. The third day was my whole left cheek and sideburn. Perhaps, I should change my grip, because when done in front of a mirror, my left hand blocks my view of my left-side face, making it difficult to see what i'm doing. Unfortunately, I did cut myself on the third day, no biggie, I expect that to happen a little in the beginning. My main issue is the quality of the shave. I know that, as a beginner, I shouldn't be good at any aspect of it, but it's still scruffy. I shave every day, so the hairs aren't very long to begin with, but am I not supposed to be clean shaven yet on the areas where I shave? I'm just concerned, but it's really not a smooth shave at all. I'm hoping it's not me, and will just take time with the razor. Any tips at getting a smooth shave on the parts that I do shave? I have a good razor, strop it, and shave at a 30% angle, even tried pressing a little harder, but still no smoothness.

Advice/help is greatly appreciated.

THanks,

I'm still a noob myself, so take that in consideration here... I'd say that more pressure is never going to help. Using less pressure is one of the main things to learn, and one of the hardest. Cartridge razors train you to use pressure, now we have to unlearn all that.

Second, I'd say make sure your razor is actually shave ready sharp. It sounds like it may not be, for one reason or another. Strongly consider sending it off to be honed. You may find that makes a huge difference.

Keep in mind that more pressure will only make things worse, not better.

Angle and stropping are the other things to be VERY sure of. 30% is more a suggested MAXIMUM, not a magic number you should use every time.

I bought my razor from Lynn, i'm sure it's shave ready

Actually, thinking on it, I just realised I should mention this. The first thing I wanted for my sign of advancement was a smooth cheek. It didn't happen the first few shaves, it happened when I started playing with angles and stropping better. I know I use an angle considerably smaller than 30, so I would try flattening out the blade a bit.

Originally Posted by dustinoparker

So, i've been getting into it very slowly and carefully. My first shave consisted of my left sideburn (me being left-handed). The 2nd night was my left sideburn, and part of my left cheek. The third day was my whole left cheek and sideburn. Perhaps, I should change my grip, because when done in front of a mirror, my left hand blocks my view of my left-side face, making it difficult to see what i'm doing. Unfortunately, I did cut myself on the third day, no biggie, I expect that to happen a little in the beginning. My main issue is the quality of the shave. I know that, as a beginner, I shouldn't be good at any aspect of it, but it's still scruffy. I shave every day, so the hairs aren't very long to begin with, but am I not supposed to be clean shaven yet on the areas where I shave? I'm just concerned, but it's really not a smooth shave at all. I'm hoping it's not me, and will just take time with the razor. Any tips at getting a smooth shave on the parts that I do shave? I have a good razor, strop it, and shave at a 30% angle, even tried pressing a little harder, but still no smoothness.

Advice/help is greatly appreciated.

THanks,

ok Here goes nothing lol I have been shaving for for 3 months now and I have down the BBS "Baby Butt Smooth" shave. I watched a video and this guy was great to me. Im a visual and hand on guy. Next I started with training wheels. lol I use a dovo shavette. It is a single blade replacement style. This way I could get the feel for shaving and not have to worry about so many factors " stropping, rolling the blade and so on. One thing shaving and I knew the blade was sharp. How I start. 1 I draw a sink of hott water and let my brush, bowl, and towel sit in it for about 5 mins. Next i scrub my face with the hot water towel and pull my bowl and brush out bowl still with hot water. I rub about 3 or 4 times getting all dirt and sweat from the day off my face. Then last I lay it on my face for 3-4mins. I empty the sink and bowl and draw just to the middle of the bowl fresh hot water. Next I squeeze out some cream and get a good lather going with my brush in my bowl and bowl back in the water. " the water just keeps the bowl hot and lather hot". I then put on a pre shave oil. My wife got me a Kit and that helps me you dont have to. I start my shave using the towel to wipe my blade after each stroke. After I complete my shave I wash out my towel with hot water and wipe my face down and clean up . I then shower ending in a cold shower and get out dry off all but my face leaving it wet and going to the sink to finish up. I use a alum block to wipe my face down with cold water on the block. I fan dry my face then use the lotion with a mix of my fav aftershave and fan dry again. I do not have the time for this in the morning so I do it at night. It takes about 1hr for all of this. Doing it at night helps with not wanting to rush. I tried in the morning and cut my self twice cause of rushing with the wife and dog and other junk. Night is my guy time and I just blare my radio while shaving nice and relaxing to calm down and go to bed. I hope this was helpful! I am just now starting on regular razors and strops cause I really enjoy it now. Now I know how to shave and can focus on having a sharp razor.

Hi Dustin,

Are you stretching your skin as you shave? That makes a huge difference in how well the blade meets the hair bases. Maddafinga's advice on pressure is spot on; it shouldn't take any more pressure to remove hairs than it does to remove lather. If it does, then your edge needs attention.

Early shaves won't be your best, but keep at it. They'll get better, over the scale of years. After a few months you'll be satisified with your shaves, but every once in a while you'll stumble on a new tidbit of advice here, or discover something on your own, and get a noticeable improvement again. Small thrills but thrills nonetheless.

How's your stropping? That daily task has a big influence on how your shaves will be. It's possible to damage the edge while stropping.

Fill in your location in your profile, and maybe there'll be someone nearby who can give you some one-on-one help.

As far as having a blind spot, I think we all do on some portion of our face. I know I do on some of my dominant-hand-side passes. You can reduce the blind spots by shaving with your off hand, and, as you said, by modifying your grip. I do a good bit of my face with a backhand sort of grip because I haven't gotten all that good with my off-hand work yet. Your dexterity around odd grips will increase along with all these other new skills.

Best wishes. Keep asking questions, and keep us posted with your progress.

I don't remember you mentioning your shaving direction. If you are shaving, as a beginner should, only WTG, then you will not get a smooth shave. That doesn't mean that you should immediately move on to XTG and ATG passes. What it means is that your early expectations are unreasonably high. I've been at this one and a half years, and I don't expect my initial WTG pass to remove all the whiskers. It cannot do that because the whiskers bend away from the blade as it cuts them. That will mean that some is left behind. Eventually you will learn to get them totally removed with an ATG pass. I'm not recommending that you do that. Give yourself some time with WTG passes, don't expect too much at first and give yourself some time to build your technique. There is a lot involved here, a lot to learn and lots of things to get good at simultaneously. I might have been a slow learner, but it took me a month to get decent shaves, two months to get good ones, and I'm still improving every day after a year and a half. It is a better and closer way to shave, but it doesn't just happen. You can have the fastest race car in the world, but you won't be turning in fast times until you learn how to drive it properly. That won't happen in your first few races, so don't expect your first shaves to be all that and a bag of chips. It takes time and patience.

When I first started with a straight the notion of getting any real shave wasn't even part of the equation. Just running the razor down my face without massive irritation was real progress. You just need to develop facility with the blade and then everything else follows. That just takes time.