Thread: To beginners, From a beginner, (what I haved learned).

To everyone,

First with introductions, I am Josh, I am 24, and have recently joined the world of the straight Razor,( hi I'm Josh and I'm a shav-a-holic). I picked up my first straight a week ago and have indulged in this forum way before that, though I didn't join strictly on my compulsive nature to be apart of the club and actually own a straight first, there-by granting me a fair chance of being part of " THE CLUB".

Since I have indulged in this forum freely, with minimum participation, until now that is, I thought " Why not take the time to give back to the forums, by sharing what I've learned and properly thanking the forum members who actively day-today answer the same newbie questions over and over again. Meaning "wow" how tiring it may get sometimes to hear "my face hurts, my blades dull, I messed up my strop, please help my brand new razor has a clear oily substance on it should I return it. lol. SO, A BIG WELL EARNED THANK YOU, TO ALL THE FORUM MEMBERS WHO ACTIVELY MAKE SRP WHAT IT IS, which is a great place with awesome people who help us endear on a quest that all men at some point have to do... SHAVE. HERE IS WHAT I HAVE LEARNED so far......

1. Take your time.... Go slow...

I can't stress this enough it is repeated over and over again here on the forums. It applies to everything in the art of straight razor shaving, from shaving to stropping to honing, to buying your first shaving set GO SLOW. I learned this the hard way in five days I have purchased two dovos, and two strops, successfully shaved once partially shaved once, and successfully nicked my strops, ruined one blade, and had a face that felt like I dipped my face in acid. In these famous words, HONEY BADGER DON'T CARE..... Well neither do straight razors, they punish rushing equally and swiftly. Might I add, your WIFE will care and so will your wallet. So learn from my mistakes go slow and take it easy.

2. Shaving is addictive......

Creams, soaps, razors, brushes, brush stands, bowls there's too may to list. This hobby proactively encourage my OCD nature of having and collecting things. There are so many smells, so many products that at times it is, sad that I have a limited amount of money and I can't try one of everything. As well learning the technique is just as addicted. It's like always chasing an adrenaline rush of the next shave to try and achieve that BBS feeling. My beard can't grow fast enough now....

3. Have fun...

Responsibly of course, but in learning this art it can be frustrating and at times down right discouraging.. But keep learning and trying, like anything new we will master this skill, and one myself anyways will pass it down to a friend, son, neighbor, this is a unique and very pleasing skill to learn and I think anybody with a beard should learn.

Hope everyone here is finding what they need having fun and shaving well. Thank you again to all members and I am glad places with so many nice people still exist.

Well put and well said,
To quote Willy "We have so much time and so little to see... Wait strike that, reverse it"