Thread: Hello from the Midwest!

I went in to a shop in Las Vegas a few months ago that was selling straight razors, and I thought to myself, this is different - I'd never seen them before in a store, only in the movies. A few weeks after I got home, I remembered the experience and started looking into some information on straight razor shaving. As you may all appreciate, all roads seemed to lead to Straight Razor Place and Straight Razor Designs. I don't know how many hours I've spent watching youtube videos on everything straight razor shaving - something about it is very intriguing.

I bought a Ralf Aust 5/8" from SRD last week and had my first go at a shave tonight. I have to say I am happy with the outcome - but I wasn't too ambitious. I took the advice to only do the cheeks the first time to get the feel for it. Despite feeling like I knew just what I needed to do, I found myself finished with my first pass on both cheeks before realizing I forgot to tension the skin. I was so focused on keeping a 30 degree blade angle. Also, I found it more difficult to create a lather than I had imaged. I used Col. Conk almond with a basic Tweezerman badger brush. I only went with the grain, so when I feel against the grain, it feels terrible - but I achieved my objective for day 1 - and it feels good! (I shouldn't even comment on my first attempt on stropping - I was so worried I was going to screw it up I doubt I achieved anything because I went so soft. I didn't want to mess up the hone from SRD anyways...)

I gotta say, it feels pretty cool to shave with a straight razor. I can't wait continue to get better. Many lessons to learn!

Welcome welcome welcome! It does feel cool. Meeting your day one objective confirms you are already getting better!

Welcome to the party. Congrats on your first attempt. Your shaves will improve and before long you'll be shaving your entire face and end up with a BBS shave. It's a journey not a race so enjoy the ride.

Hi and welcome. Congrats on the shave success. Any questions always feel free to ask.

Hi , and welcome to SRP.

'Noticed your mention of stropping. I'm somewhat legendary for violent destruction of strops when I learned. I ate 5 of them. ($$$) What is less mentioned is that my stropping seemed to *dull* the edges. It was quite frustrating, as you could imagine. New guys are *hard* on edges. Don't worry about it - part of the learning. Should you need any edge touch-up, pm me. 'Just the cost of mailing it back to you. You're gonna enjoy this.

Greets fellow Iowan! I'm in Iowa City-let me know if I can help

I just love the way so many people new to the SR respond with "It's so cool!" I've been SR shaving for a few months and every time thus far it's still Coool! Welcome to SRP. Lots of 411 via the search engine and many willing souls to answer whatever questions you might need. Hope your suds come around. I'm still working with different products to find that "just right" lather.

Enjoy!

Just finished my 4th shave. I finally felt like I had the hang of it and got a much better shave. I'm still on the cheeks on WTG strokes. I'm not sure if I should go XTG or ATG on the cheeks next, or move on to a new area WGT. Does anyone have any thoughts on that?

Both. A new area wtg and try xtg on the cheeks