Had my first 'professional' straight razor shave, and not sure if I am missing someth

Really no excuse for it. As we know.. Shaving involved both the blade and the hand. If you're in the trade, you shouldn't be afraid to touch people. A shave is almost the same as a facial. You need to be able to touch and rub with you're hands not just use a blade and brush.

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Originally Posted by Mephisto

I have had a professional shave before and it was nice. The towels, the Preshave and the lather were all great. The shave was pretty nice too. I walked out of their feeling BBS.
When I got home I noticed she missed a few spots. I noticed during the shave the lady struggled with my beard. She even changed out blades during the shave. I'm guessing she did not go over certain spots again to avoid irritation. Maybe your barber did not want to get too close and cause any pain or discomfort. I mean to shave someone else is nerve racking.

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If they are nerve wracked at the prospect of shaving someone then they probably shouldn't be doing it

The issue is barbers are not trained to use a straight type blade so they learn on the job with no direction and YOU are the crash test dummy.

Back in the day barbers trained long and hard to use a straight. if you went to such a person for a shave you would have the closest and most comfortable shave in you life. if a barbers drew blood the customer would have laid him out on the floor. Something like that would just be unthinkable back then.

Amazing what we learn to accept these days isn't it?

You don't say how many passes she made, but I'd be willing to bet it was just one WTG pass and no XTG or ATG. I've read in a similar thread here that if you want a BBS result, you have to say you want to be shaved close. And I agree that she may have chosen to err on the side of caution, not having shaved you before and not knowing anything about your beard or the sensitivity (or not) of your skin.