Thread: First Shave A Disappointment

Keeping reading here and keep practicing stropping and shaving. It does get better. Your timing on the flip will get better. I had the same situation. I stropped my razor before my first shave before I found out I shouldn't have. I also had bad shaving technique and got razor burn that lasted a few hours after the shave on the first try. I dulled my razor in two weeks with bad stropping technique and also nicked my strop numerous times. Now I haven't nicked it in a long time and I can actually improve the razor edge with it. I can also tell when the razor needs a little refresh now too. It'll come.

Thanks it seems patience will be my friend . I am looking for anyone on the island of Oahu that could give me assistance if you know anyone please point them my way.

Being your first razor and not knowing if it's truly shave ready, send it out and have it honed. When you get it back, pull it right out and shave with it. This way there won't be any margin of error of you possibly rolling up on the edge on your strop and dulling the edge before you feel what a shave ready edge feels like. This is what I did and it really helped me...I sent it to gssixgun and it came back fantastic! The edge spoiled me!

I'm a rookie also, the razor I got was supposedly shave ready, not, I almost quit, but found this site, once I had a really shave ready razor the difference was amazing. So If you're not sure, get it honed by someone who knows what he's doing and you'll have to watch your angles around the chin, that seems to be the toughest to do.

If you purchased your straight razor from Vintage Blades, it would have been honed and shave ready. All of VB's straight razors are honed by Lynn Abrams, the founder of Straight Razor Place.

As noted previously, you may have damaged the edge while stropping. Get it honed again. In the meantime, remove the nicks in your strop with some fine grit sandpaper; and practice your stropping technique with a dull table setting knife.

You don't need to bear down on the strop to maintain the edge. The strop should be about waist level. Go slow at first. Apply light pressure, using the weight of the razor itself to hold it on the strop.