Thread: First shave and don't know what to think

Hea everyone!

I just received my first "real" straight razor after shaving for a couple of months with a Bluebeards Revenge shavette.
I reached the point of shaving really comfortably with the shavette, but it never gave me a really close shave on some parts
of my face like the chin and jaw.

The blade I bought is a Mühle 5/8 inch round-tip hollow ground from manandshaving.com (Dutch website). It says that it is made
in Solingen on the blade and scales. According to the website and the sticker on the box the blade is already professionally honed
and stropped so it should have been completely shave ready but I have my doubts for as far I can have doubts as a beginner.

I started the the shave with the lathering of the face using a Mühle badger brush and a Mühle aloe vera shaving soap cake.
After getting the lather on my face as a white covering blanket I noticed that the lather dried to a plaster after shaving my cheek.
I reckon I will need to use more water in the future?

I pressed forward determined to finish my shave as I think I should have a basic technique as I used the shavette for quite a while.
In the end I relathered a couple of parts of my face as the lather dried quite quickly. The main problem I face is the following:

My face in the end was really irritated and red. I started on my right cheek which gave a very nice result but my left cheek did
not get even close to a shave as there are still stubbles there. My chin still had hairs even though I tried to shave it with a 30 degree
or higher angle. During the shave I noticed that the blade would skitter across the skin on the lower left part of my neck. During the
entire shave I felt I had to put a little pressure on the blade to get it across my face especially near the end.

Due to the incomplate nature of my shave I quickly grabbed my shavette to complete the shave to a passable result. I did not
strop the razor before the shave as the sticker said it should not be needed.

Hopefully I gave you guys a clear picture in the hope you can answer me the following 2 questions:

- How much water is enough to get a good lasting lather?
- Is my blade a bit dull or is there a certain part of my technique/preparation that should be the answer for my problem?

Regards and thanks in advance!

*EDIT: The parts I did shave of my face I did when the lather was still wet and foamy and was not in the plaster like state.

$0.02 from another beginner. Use your previous shaving method until you figure out the shave prep and lathering. I found the face lathering technique featured at classicshaving.com worked for me. Once you've done that then move to straight and strop. Strop slowly and carefully - speed will come with time. Good luck.

You can have 3 things going on here, independently or in combination:

1) The technique you use with a straight razor, while similar, will be different than with a Shavette. It's hard to explain but you eventually will learn yourself through practice. Your skin will also need to adjust as well.
2) The straight razor I suspect has a good bevel set but still needs to be honed and polished. I would first try polishing/refreshing (ex; 8,000 grit then 16,000 grit then Chromium Oxide strop then leather strop- light light light X strokes on all) so that you avoid removing unnecessary metal. Before even that try some extra stropping (ex; 100 laps) just to make sure your edge is uniformly stropped.
3) Your shave prep also needs to adjust to a straight razor. I would recommend a gentle face scrub while in the shower, a shave oil (very small amount) (you can use olive oil, grapeseed oil; neither will clog your pores) to prevent the 'skipping' and maybe a more moist lather consistently applied- like Cool Whip. Rinse between passes before relathering (many people skip this important step). Did you shave right out of the shower?

So, try the quick fix first; more careful stropping and more comprehensive shave prep. Also, look at Youtube on scything strokes. Done right and lightly they work very well. If that doesn't work for you, providing your face has healed and you can see if this improves it, then you need to polish and possible hone your edge.

Above all don't give up! Be patient and this temporary inconvenience shall pass.

Edit; PS; I tend to only use shave oil when I'm suspect of a new razor. It adds a level of insurance to avoid razor burn. Normally, I don't use it.

Edited my previous post to link to the exact article referenced.

A lot of userful information going on here. Thanks a bunch! I will try all three tips next shave but first I am gonna give my face some days to heal up.
Thought there wasn't a lot of difference between a shavette and a straight razor. Knowing this will definitely help.
Never thought of quitting haha. Thanks again and I will get back here in a couple of days to tell if it worked!

I find that although while shaving with a shavette get a good BBS, it irritates my face. I get a much better shave from a properly sharpened straight and less irritation. May just need to adjust your technique, I find less of an angle with a real straight.

I would not try to polish it on your own as a beginner. Too much room for error and honing takes a long long time to get proficient, even enough for touch ups. As stated your shavette and straight are two totally different animals and while similar require two different sets of technique. The problem with your lather could be the culprit here. All you need to do is keep adding water a couple of drops at a time until it gets wet enough so it won't dry quickly. Be careful not to get it too wet, there is a fine line there. I would strop the hell out of it and give it another shot. If you get a good lather and are still having problems you may want to think about sending it out to get honed. This way you will KNOW it is honed professionally and will know what shave ready is without a shadow of a doubt. It makes for a good point of reference. Many many vendors claim their razors are professionally honed, but I find very few can hone them to the point that I consider shave ready. Even my Hart which is supposed to come honed on an Eisher did not come as sharp as I like it and I had to finish it up myself. Now it shaves like a dream. But I would strongly advise you not to attempt to hone or touch it up yourself. First off you will need the right hones, just any stone will not give you the results you are looking for, second it takes time to develop skills and a lot of trial and error. Third without knowing what shave ready is you have no idea what to look for as a finished product.

Hea everyone,

Thanks for the awesome replies once again!
Just had my second shave with the new equipment and it went a lot better than the first time around. This time I was able to produce more foamy lather by squishing out the lather
out of the brush and onto my palm. I think this inserts a lot more air then just going from the shaving soap to the skin directly. It dried much less quickly but still it dried before I could finish
a pass. That and doing a proper preshave helped to get rid of most of the irritation. The only irritation I have now is due to shaving on a spot I just visited without relathering it and causing the skin to get too dry a.k.a. being to stubborn to relather.

There are 2 remarks I still have from this shave. The blade seem to skip only once again but this time on the left side of the underjaw. Also the hairs on my chin and neck did not seem to cut properly once again. After one pass the hairs on my chin were still 1mm long and clearly visible. The hairs on my neck were still a good stubble in most directions and still visible but not as clear as the chin ones. Is this a rough spot which will eventually clear itself after the technique takes over or is something else going on?

All and all a great ritual and experience which will get even better in the future Thanks a bunch for the support!

Hi from another straight newbie! I had/have all the same problems. Lather drying too quickly, and problems on chin and neck. I just needed more practice making lather and using the correct amount of water and that helped. I have one soap that tends to dry out faster than the others. You'll just have to learn by trial and error. I think I might also try another's recommendation of adding glycerin. Also, if the blade isn't gliding smoothly and wants to skip you need to re-lather. Just stop and do it. Between passes it helps to rinse your face and this adds a little more water to the lather to help prevent it from drying out.

As for the problem areas, I see from your original post that you were having the same problems with the shavette so I doubt it was a razor sharpness issue. Probably technique. For me it was a combination of both. I had dulled my razor in 2 weeks using bad shaving and probably stropping technique. I touched up the razor myself and that made a huge difference in the comfort and closeness of the shave for me. But I still had the problem areas and the only way I could get them smooth was using ATG on those problem areas. WTG and XTG just wouldn't cut it. It was uncomfortable and irritating at first because my razor was dull. After the touchup the razor glided right through as long as my lather was good. Are you just going WTG or are you also trying XTG and ATG. I'm assuming you know which way your whiskers are growing.

Forgot to add the all important skin stretching! Try stretching the skin a different way than what you've been trying. Try pulling the skin away from direction of growth to make it stand up more.