Every time I speak to a new straight razor user these are the first words I utter to them.
Ego:
Don’t let it get in the way of you taking your time to actually feel your way around your face and learning the angles of it. The way you angle your razor and the pressure you put on it, lead to good or bad shaves. Cuts and razor burn are direct results of too much pressure and poor angles.
Always be conscious of stretching your skin as you go, this will also give you a close comfortable shave and cut down on chances of nicks. New comers get over –confident and speed up the process feeling the “I got this” and forget to stretch as the continue the shave. Almost always the razor “bites” the looser skin and out comes the styptic pencil. You need to remind yourself of technique to truly get this stuff down. Over time, muscle memory will kick in and you’ll be able to skate through this.
Eagerness:
Don’t fall into the idea that just because others are doing this well that you can also. Don’t get me wrong, you will become good at it, just take your time and let it happen. None of use started out being good at this. My best advice is to not get too eager and start by shaving just your sides. Do from your sideburns down to the jawline. Do this for a couple of days to get acclimated to the razor. This is the easiest part of the face to shave to try to contain yourself from getting over confident.
Once you become comfortable, you will find that you don’t rush through your shave, quite the opposite. You’ll tend to relax and let it happen. When you get done and are cleaning up you’ll realize just how quick that went without thing of it at the time.
We all need to walk before we run and if you take your time, you too will be flying through this and getting the best shaves of your life . Just like the rest of us.
Enjoy it from the start and you will never look at shaving the same again!
