First shave completed

Well, it's done, first shave finished last night. Of course I didn't do what is recommended, I did my full face. Got the odd nick, but nothing too bad, & it's a nice even shave if not particularly close. I'm only doing with the grain at the moment & that won't change until I'm more comfortable holding the razor. My skin was a little fresh & red afterwards, but that was to be expected.

From my first experience, I do have a couple of possibly stupid questions though.

I got the traditional starter kit from Invisible Edge, & it came with a small metal bowl. I know this may be dumb, but I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to use it for. If it's for soap, then am I supposed to chop some out of the OSMA soap jar that came with it & put it into the bowl. The full OSMA soap is too big to be removed from the jar as is. I ended up just watering the brush & using the soap directly from the OSMA jar, then applying it straight to my face. What I ended up with was better than canned foam/gel, but didn't appear as luxurious as the pictures I've seen, it was a little thin & a little dry.

Any advice on my bowl issues & pre-shave prep are much appreciated.

Well done for the first shave!

Looking at the picture on Invisible edge, I think that bowl is a little small for building lather in. Perhaps you're meant to put some soap in it, swirl the brush on the soap, and build the lather on your face. If you want to make a lather in a bowl, try a small soup bowl/ round food container maybe. (Personally, I find face-lathering easier than making a lather in a bowl - it's easier to add more soap if too thin, or more water if too thick.)

Hmm - lather thin and dry - maybe just not enough soap? You'll have to play with the amounts of soap and water to get the consistency right, and it varies with the type of soap and the hardness/softness of the water. Even with the right amounts, it takes a minute or two of mixing air in with the brush to get a good lather.

Lather making:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

My lather was very thin, but I gave up using a bowl/mug and just used Lynn's video for face lathering (plus a few tips from guys on here) and get great lather now through face lathering only. And as Matt says, easy to add extra soap if necessary (plus less to wash out after)

Thanks for the tips. I'll probably just use it as a soap bowl then & lather straight onto my face, once I figure out how to persuade the soap out of the OSMA jar that is. We haven't got room in our bathroom for a bigger bowl than that one anyway, so the choice is kind of made.

Sounds like you are off to a great start. Well done. Don't worry about the soreness, you will get used to it very quickly and soon it won't bother you at all. Still you could treat yourself to an after shave cream. Might get one myself.

I'm definitely going to have to look into more "product" at some point. Previous to this it was a Mach 3 with the cheapest shaving foam/gel the supermarket had, & followed on by a splash of Davidoff or Usher aftershave.

I do have a question for all of you knowledgeable bods out there. I've read that the ALUM in the OSMA shaving soap is a negative thing & doesn't allow good lathering. I don't know how much to trust this. It wasn't on here that I found this information. Has anybody used this soap & how does it rate compared to other soaps out there? Until a couple of weeks ago soap was something that came in a bar that you washed your hands with & nothing more, so I'm a complete novice on these things.

Well, just done my second shave. That felt better. Only re-opened the biggest nick that I did on my first shave, & the alum block stung a lot less this time round, so I'm taking that as a win. My lather was also a lot thicker, but still felt a little dry. It's hard to say as the only thing I've used before is shaving foam/gel. Took me the best part of 40 minutes, & it wasn't perfect, had to finish round my chin with the old mach 3. I definitely need practice with my stropping as well, the actual motion & keeping the spine on the strop wasn't difficult & felt quite natural, but I suspect I was a little heavy handed. I don't know if it's the stropping or my lather, or maybe a combination of the two, but my iron whiskers didn't feel particularly soft.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey.

I'll get there

Don't worry, you will. I recommend using little more than the weight of the blade when stropping. My first few times at it I don't think I made enough contact but that's better than too much. It feels alot more natural now and it seems to have fallen into place and it's now doing some good. And yes, the chin is a bugger. I found the best way to deal with under the chin is to start from the lip, go down and maintain the angle round the curve rather than do it separately. But I varies from face to face I suppose. Keep up the good shaving.

They are made for mixing up lather right in their original containers. From my personal experience (I have only been SR shaving 1 1/2 years steadily and I am by no means an expert), mixing up a good lather takes time and practice just like the SR shaving process. It only has been in recent months that I started creating a nice creamy lather with the right cream/water ratio. Of course patience and practice had a lot to do with it.

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Originally Posted by Kaden101

Well, it's done, first shave finished last night. Of course I didn't do what is recommended, I did my full face. Got the odd nick, but nothing too bad, & it's a nice even shave if not particularly close. I'm only doing with the grain at the moment & that won't change until I'm more comfortable holding the razor. My skin was a little fresh & red afterwards, but that was to be expected.

From my first experience, I do have a couple of possibly stupid questions though.

I got the traditional starter kit from Invisible Edge, & it came with a small metal bowl. I know this may be dumb, but I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to use it for. If it's for soap, then am I supposed to chop some out of the OSMA soap jar that came with it & put it into the bowl. The full OSMA soap is too big to be removed from the jar as is. I ended up just watering the brush & using the soap directly from the OSMA jar, then applying it straight to my face. What I ended up with was better than canned foam/gel, but didn't appear as luxurious as the pictures I've seen, it was a little thin & a little dry.

Any advice on my bowl issues & pre-shave prep are much appreciated.

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