Another Pacific Northwesterner

I am just starting to get into straight razor shaving. I have been reading up as much as time allows. I have not purchased anything yet, though I almost did last night but it was sold before I had the time to inquire about it.

Anyway, about me. I am 34 years old and I hate shaving as I easily get razor bumps and burn. The whiskers on my neck do not follow any certain grain pattern and I am told this is most of my problem. I was also told that learning to straight shave would help a lot. So here I am. I do not have anyone left in my family who has used a straight razor so the only people I have to run to are those on this board.

For the time being I am living in Spokane Washington for one more year anyway. I will graduate with my Mechanical Engineering degree then I am not sure what I will do. I absolutely hate living in the city. I am a country boy.

Off to more reading.

Welcome to the fun way to shave. The learning curve is a bit steep, so I thought I'd make you aware of a meet-up coming up in September or October. You will learn more in 1 day face-to-face with experts than you will by spending weeks reading threads here. Hope to see you there. :)

http://straightrazorpalace.com/get-t...endezvous.html

TA - speedster tells ya right about the meet-up. If you go, I'll get a chance to meet you & you'll meet some great guys. The learning value would be hard to overstate.

I would love to meet up, but I am not sure if I could make it happen, even if it happened in Spokane. See I have kind of a different situation. I live here in Spokane by myself during the week while I go to school and work full time. On the weekends I go to the farm and live with my wife and two children. Usually my weekend time is precious with the family and all. Depending on the time and date decided upon would determine if I were able to join up, and I do realize that it would need to be on a weekend. I am a family first man, above everything else. If my job got in the way of my family and I was risking losing them, I would leave the job. Luckily my relationship is stronger than that so hopefully it would never happen though. I will put my name in that thread so I am able to keep tabs on it though.

TA - priorities are well placed. 'Nothing's more important. Best of luck w/ the school work. 'Got 2 pcs of wallpaper myself while working full time. It pretty well removes you from most optional activities. It won't last forever, and you'll probably be very glad you got the education/wallpaper.

Welcome aboard! Congratulations on finishing your degree up, I know it is hard, but it really pays off in the long run (personal experience). I am very new to the world of SRs, but a cheap way to put your toe in the water may be to get a "shavette". FYI incase you don't know, that is a faux staight edge with a replaceable blade. I picked one up on amazon for about $12 and a box of Dovo single edge raxors (50 count) for a few bucks more.

Before anyone else says it, let me say that a shavette is not the same as a SR, but its a cheap intoduction and can latter be used in your travel kit or such. Best of luck and hope to see you around!

Thanks for all of the welcomes. I plan to read as much as possible. There is so much information here it is amazing.

California, I think most of my whiskers of different than what that diagram shows. I have read some people say to find one of those diagrams and mask out my whisker grain. I have not looked for a blank one on the web yet. I saw the diagram and immediately started feeling my whiskers to see how they compare to what is typical of a lot of others. I also thank you for all of those links. Even more good reading.