First Shaves

Hi, all! I've been a DE shaver since only the beginning of the year, and I've been loving this new lifestyle. So much so that I thought I'd give a straight razor shave a try.

Yesterday was my first attempt at using the straight razor. It wasn't nearly as smooth as I would have thought. I tried different angles, and kept the spine fairly close to my face to keep the angle down. Still, it tugged a little more than I would have thought. I just shaved my cheeks on both sides, then finished with my DE. Today, day 2, I did my cheeks and then attempted the easier parts of my neck...then finished again with my DE. Stropping is fairly straight forward...I've been around woodworking tools and blades most of my life, so I got the hang of it fairly quickly. Thinking back, I'm wondering if maybe my soap was a little too dry on my face. So next time, I'll pay more attention to that.

Both shaves, I must admit, were fairly close...better than I've been getting with just the DE. I found myself touching my cheeks all day long! I think I could really get used to this! I was only going to use the straight on the weekends when I have more time for my shaves, but I think to learn I'm going to try to use it during the week as well...maybe just for certain parts of my face.

I watched Chimensch's video a dozen times, among others, and tried to get the idea of the techniques. I made the decision to use both hands from the start, and it wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be. The most difficult thing for me was finding the right angle to be able to see the edge of the blade as I started from my sideburn and worked down. My hand and the razor get in the way. I saw that Chimensch holds the blade from behind the ear, and I tried that, but couldn't get close enough to my ear when holding the razor that way. But I'll figure it out!

I think I'm going to like this straight razor shaving, once I get the hang of it...but don't expect me to give up my DE's!