Good Afternoon from Kansas City MO.
Hello gentlemen. My name is Mike, I'm located about 20miles east of Kansas City MO.
I became interested in straight razor shaving when I was a boy and was given my grandfathers razor. I'm now 51 and decided to make the jump.
I started reading and then I read some more. Ended up purchasing a starter kit from straight razor dot com. A Gold Dollar straight razor with Grimm Blades smolder after shave, pre shave and soap. After i purchased the kit and THEN I found this forum! Doh! So the Gold Dollar razor isn't first class, but I thought what the hell, I've thrown $80 out for a lot more stupid stuff than this. My first shave was, OK, I nicked myself 3 times, almost cut my ear off... I just finished up my second shave and it went a whole lot better. The first thing I did different was stropping the razor 30 strokes before I shaved. The shave ready may or may not be what it means. I think I stropped the first time about 10 strokes.
I also felt more at ease this time I knew what to expect, I knew not to "touch" the razor to my face, 2 of my cuts were from just touching my skin, so breath and enjoy shaving like my grandfather. I deem it a success, i only nicked my self twice, and on the neck, the ear is fine thanks! Since I'm still slow I also shaved in quadrants. First time i lathered up and started. This time I lathered up my right cheek then shaved. stopped and cleaned up a bit, then lathered up my neck under my ear. then the other side. finally my neck area. I have a goatee so don't have to worry about upper lip and chin, I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions when and If i decide to shave the goat off.
Reading the beginner shaving posts also gave me some tips and pointers to help my confidence. If there are any newbies around please read the beginner shaving articles on this site, worth their weight in gold. Thanks to all the authors out there really appreciate it! ;)
Thanks for reading and Hello Everyone!
Mike