Thread: New to straight razor shaving

I am on my third straight razor shave after switching to safety razors about a year ago. The knowledge gained from this website has been critical to me keeping the injuries to a minimum. If there are any safety razor people who are thinking about making the transition, go for it. You won't be disappointed.

Welcome to SRP! Happy to hear that the members here have been able to assist your transition into straight razors. Be sure to ask any questions you may have and keep us abreast of your progress.

Welcome to SRP

A quick update on my straight razor shaving experience so far: I have been using a straight razor everyday for about a month now. I have only touched up with a DE razor two or three times, mostly due to frustration. I followed the recommendations of the senior members and purchased two shave ready razors to have one for comparison, but my poor stropping technique quickly took them out of shave ready condition. The shaves are coming along nicely, nothing close to BBS, but no serious injuries. The only serious casualty so far was when I dinged one of the razors on the faucet. Oh well, I am committed to the straights now, might as well try my hand at honing. Although I don't post very often I find the information provided by this forum to be extremely helpful. Shaving is fun again, I can't thank you enough.

So it has been a few months since I started straight razor shaving and it has been a slow learning curve. I try to limit the variables as best I can, but it seems that one day I will have a good lather, but bad stropping and the next day I will have a good stropping and bad technique. Some days all of the stars align and I will get a nice shave. It seems to come when I start to get discouraged. I find on those days, I slow down, take my time and try to remember the fundamentals.

Reminds me of when I started learning to tattoo. It seemed like an insurmountable mountain to climb. There is so much to learn that all has to be done well and if not all at once pretty close together. So I gradually learned one thing well after another and then one day it all began to come together. My experience with straight razor shaving and honing has been similar to that. I'm still learning but a lot further along. So hang in there, it gets better and better.

jimmy is absolutley correct. Gradually learning.have patience it will come.gl

glad to see i am not the only one. if it isn't the lather, it's the stropping, or the technique. my mach 3 is much comfier at the moment, but im not going to give up yet. when i get an area well with the straight, i like it much better.

oh well, practice...
thanks everyone
mike

I would like to personally thank JMS for his help. I contacted him because he was a mentor in my area and IMO a respected member of the forum. I learned more about shaving in the three hours of instruction and show and tell than I thought was possible. Needless to say my learning curve went through the roof! Reading the forum has been very helpful, but getting to see what works for one person was crucial. Often times on the forum, I found myself paralyzed with indecision or utterly confused because there were so many differing opinions. I hardily recommend that if you are new and you have reached a wall, try to get yourself a mentor. Sometimes all the reading and video watching in the world wide web can't replace hands on instruction.