Thread: Beginner troubles

Hello!

I received my first straight razor recently, along with the accompanying equipment. I ordered through Classic Shaving website. It's a Dovo "Classic" 6/8 and I had it sharpened with CS sharpening service.
I have no objections to the razor. Every stroke feels smooth and there are no tugs or pulls. The problem is probably my technique.
I'm following the "First straight razor shave" article to learn the basics, and I'm trying Grip 1 here. I'm still only doing WTG strokes.

Here are my problems:
1. In the mirror, I can't see what I'm doing. My hand hides the razor and I can't see where I'm placing it. The mirror is mounted to the wall, so I was considering buying additional mirrors. Is that necessary, or is there a particular way to tilt my head, or hold the razor, to avoid hiding? Or am I just doing something wrong?
2. After some guesswork and trial and error, when I do manage the first stroke, the result is not very encouraging. This goes for other parts of my face where I can clearly see what I'm doing. The beard is shaved, but not very clean (I can feel substantial stubble under my finger). When I do everything I can with my straight razor, I go back to what I've been using since I started shaving and basically shave the same areas again. What could I be doing wrong?

And a couple of questions:
1. Should I strop the razor after I shave, before I shave, or both?
2. How do I make proper lather? What I get out of my soap is very thin and dries up quickly, compared to what I see on various SR shaving videos. I bought this soap at CS as well after seeing it praised on this forum, so I'm more inclined to believe that I'm doing something wrong.

Hopefully someone out there is willing to help an utterly confused beginner.

Thanks!

I have the same problem of not seeing where the razor is when starting at the sideburns and all I can say is that you get more confident over time with that. I just turn at a 45 degree angle to the mirror and look out of the corner of my eye. Having a wing mirror, a section of mirror that folds out at an angle to the main mirror, does help some if you use it.

The gap between your face and the spine of the razor is important and hard to judge in degrees. I go by having a gap of between one and two spine widths. That seemed to help as I was estimating 30 degrees and had too big a gap in the beginning. Mind you I do not get the whisker completely gone on the first pass WTG, that is what the other two passes, XTG and ATG, are for.

You should strop before you shave and stropping it after is optional. Doing both would do no harm if your stropping technique is good. As a beginner I would only strop before a shave just in case your technique is not so good and leave the extra stropping after the shave until later.

The soap you bought, is it a hard puck type soap or a cream? Also do you build your lather in a bowl or on your face? Knowing which would help to suggest how to create a good lather.

Yea, I know about being confused. I was at the start too and still am a times.

Bob

Hello, Bob!

Thanks for the response. It's good to know that the cause of my troubles is not that I'm doing something completely wrong.
The advice to watch the gap between the spine and face is wonderful! It's hard enough to estimate degrees when I see the angle, let alone when I don't. Watching the gap width will be much easier. As to not being able to see things, I think I'll go with the wing mirror.

The soap is a hard puck and I build lather in a bowl. I did some experimentation just after I wrote this post and it seems the issue was the amount of water I let the brush hold. I was able to build a solid lather on my third attempt today. (My first attempt resulted in a sticky lather that made the razor stick to my face, and the second was too liquid.)

Thanks for lifting some of my confusion.

I hope it does help with the razor. Be sure and let us know how you make out. Yea, it takes a little practice to get the lather just right. Personally, I shake the excess water out of my brush before I work it on the puck to load it. I work up the lather on my face but you can do the same in a bowl. When you have enough loaded on the brush and start mixing it in the bowl just add a little bit of water at a time by dipping just the tips of the brush in the water and mix some more. Repeat until you have the lather you want.

Bob

1. I also have a fixed mirror and have trouble seeing where I'm starting with the sideburn. I turn to 45 - 60* from the mirror using same hand as the side to hold the razor and opposite side hand to pull the skin taught. You'll only be able to see a bit of what you're doing, but it's enough to line the razor up to get a straight cut on the end of the sideburn. I've heard people getting the vanity mirrors that can be mounted to a wall and swivel, most of them have a built in light and are somewhat magnified. That may help as well.
2. If you still feel stubble with you move you hand WTG after you've shaved, you may need to stretch the skin more and take smaller strokes to really get a close shave. I'm on my 5th shave and my face is consistently BBS with no razor burn for about 20 hours after my shave. At about 24 my stubble returns. You also may need to do a second pass XTG with your skin stretched really taught to get the desired effect.

I also use a puck soap, and have watched many videos on building lather and read plenty of advice of how to do so inside a mug. I've been able to generate nice lather in the mug, but I find that building the lather on my face instead actually does a much better job and help soften the stubble before the shave.

I soak my brush thoroughly with hot water, then shake it out quite well. I then load the brush with soap from the puck inside the mug with a firm swirling pattern. Add just a tiny bit of water to the brush by passing it through the running hot water. I generally give it a quick shake to get some excess water out and then start my lather on my chin, as it's my thickest growth. Using a firm swirling pattern over my chin, slightly releasing pressure and apply pressure again, similar to plunging a toilet, the lather with begin to build. I'll continue the swirling pattern with the light plunging effect over my cheeks and sideburn area, then over my neck. I'll usually do a hot towel after that and wipe away all the lather and then relather and let it sit on my face for a minute or two while I strop. I'll refresh the lather once again and begin my shave. If I find the brush isn't producing as much lather as I continue my shave, I'll refresh it by just passing the base of the bristles under running hot water again and then repeat the lather building process. You won't have to reload the brush from the puck, as one loading will generally make enough lather for one whole shave and then some. Hope this helps! Cheers and happy shaving!

-Dye

Originally Posted by reasonsharp

Hello!

I received my first straight razor recently, along with the accompanying equipment. I ordered through Classic Shaving website. It's a Dovo "Classic" 6/8 and I had it sharpened with CS sharpening service.
I have no objections to the razor. Every stroke feels smooth and there are no tugs or pulls. The problem is probably my technique.
I'm following the "First straight razor shave" article to learn the basics, and I'm trying Grip 1 here. I'm still only doing WTG strokes.

Here are my problems:
1. In the mirror, I can't see what I'm doing. My hand hides the razor and I can't see where I'm placing it. The mirror is mounted to the wall, so I was considering buying additional mirrors. Is that necessary, or is there a particular way to tilt my head, or hold the razor, to avoid hiding? Or am I just doing something wrong?
2. After some guesswork and trial and error, when I do manage the first stroke, the result is not very encouraging. This goes for other parts of my face where I can clearly see what I'm doing. The beard is shaved, but not very clean (I can feel substantial stubble under my finger). When I do everything I can with my straight razor, I go back to what I've been using since I started shaving and basically shave the same areas again. What could I be doing wrong?

And a couple of questions:
1. Should I strop the razor after I shave, before I shave, or both?
2. How do I make proper lather? What I get out of my soap is very thin and dries up quickly, compared to what I see on various SR shaving videos. I bought this soap at CS as well after seeing it praised on this forum, so I'm more inclined to believe that I'm doing something wrong.

Hopefully someone out there is willing to help an utterly confused beginner.

Thanks!

Hello, Dye!

Wow, that lather business sounds like science! I'll get the hang of it, I think. I've only just started SR shaving and there's a lot of aspects to cover.
I'll try stretching my skin more and see how that works. If I can't get that stubble out with WTG, I'll just have to move on to XTG and ATG and see what happens.

Thanks!

It's not hard, I actually find it really easy to build my lather on my face rather than inside the mug. You'll get it if you stick with it, that's for sure. Everyone has a preferred way to do things, that just happens to be mine. I spend half the time making lather on my face than if I were to work it inside the mug. If you can't get a pretty good smooth shave just going WTG, try XTG until you're really comfortable with using the razor. ATG is far less comfortable for me, as I'm still new to SR shaving as well. As I understand it though, as you progress and feel more comfortable with the blade, moving to ATG shaving is much easier than before. I've tried it, and I can get a good shave from it, but it takes a lot more time for me to do it and makes me a bit nervous still. So until I'm perfectly comfortable doing it, XTG and WTG is perfectly fine. It takes time to get your technique perfected for the difficult areas like neck and chin. Keep with it, and happy shaving! Cheers!

-Dye

Originally Posted by reasonsharp

Hello, Dye!

Wow, that lather business sounds like science! I'll get the hang of it, I think. I've only just started SR shaving and there's a lot of aspects to cover.
I'll try stretching my skin more and see how that works. If I can't get that stubble out with WTG, I'll just have to move on to XTG and ATG and see what happens.

Thanks!

Remember as you proceed with SR shaving that nobody gets it right quickly. There is a tremendous skill set involved, and it just takes time and practice to make progress. You'll eventually get to the point that you can shave without a mirror, but that time is months away. It is the same with ATG passes. They are the meat and potatoes of great shave results, but I would wait on those until you have more experience. That will come with time. For now, just keep shaving carefully, don't expect great results right away, and read and learn from the Library and from posts you will find here. It took me a month to get decent shaves, two months to get good ones, and I was still improving each shave after six months. You will wonder at times if it is all worth it, and I can assure you that it is. But first you will have to put in the time and practice, persevere, and eventually the results that your new skills will bring you will be wonderful shaves.

As a beginner I'm still struggling with lather. Can anyone recommend some good tips or resources to learn from?

For me a modern badger brush makes a huge difference.

lather secrets but mainly; Share Your Lathering Methods/Secrets + Poll, Unlocking the secret... modern Williams Mug soap exposed to ...

Jonathan