Thread: Chi-Town straight shave

I just got my set up from Larry at Whipped Dog Straights in the mail yesterday when i got home from work. I felt like a kid at Christmas... Sure enough I was up first thing this morning for my first real shave.


And it was bad ass. I meant to simply shave the right side and finish up the rest with my other but I couldn't stop myself. Honestly, worst shave ever. First pass left allot of stubble behind. Second pass left behind some blood.


I did use right hand on the right side and left hand on the left. I was actually surprised how tricky it is to shave the face with a surgical sharp blade with your hand blocking the view to the face... and I really need one of those no steam mirrors.


I am proud to say I showed my 2 day old goatee who is boss. That is if you don't hold the much needed clean up around the edges against me.


After words I treated my face with some nivia shaving balm and boy am i glad i bought that because my face was red and it certainly soothed.


It felt like a severe razor burn after a first shave with a old electric razor.


I am realizing now what was meant by the learning curve. I am going to have to strop tomorrow, and my confidence has been brought down to a more appropriate level. I am definitely going to be reading up tonight before tomorrows attempt.


In summary, I was surprised by my first experience but I know the pay off will be sweet.

tnorthwest,

The razor burn is fairly normal after one's first straight razor shave. Let your face rest one day, then dive back in.

Once your face/beard becomes used to the straight razor and you perfect your technique, the razor burn shouldn't be a big problem.

Tommorow will be a day of rest for my face. I have not lost hope yet. I guess I was expecting my first shave to look a bit more like some of the you tube videos i have watched, even though i was warned by the faithful SRP members it took my first attempt to understand what was ment by the learning curve.

You should shave your whiskers down to skin level with your blade flat or close to flat on your face. Then, the blade travels parallel to the skin and there isn't as much chance to razor burn. After shaved down to skin level, raise the blade slightly for the rest of the shave.

Alternately, shave to short stubble with a safety razor. Then, finish with the straight. With each subsequent shave, leave more and more for the straight.

But, easy! And, don't hesitate to rest your face for a day or two.

tnorthwest
I think your experience is not an unusual one, it takes a little time for both your face and your technique to adapt and as everyone else has said, don't be afraid to allow your face a rest to recover, either don't shave or use a safety razor. don't be disappointed, it will improve rapidly.

Originally Posted by tnorthwest

Tommorow will be a day of rest for my face. I have not lost hope yet. I guess I was expecting my first shave to look a bit more like some of the you tube videos i have watched, even though i was warned by the faithful SRP members it took my first attempt to understand what was ment by the learning curve.

Yes... a rest day helps.

If you need a tidy shave for work consider
a tossable blade like the Yellow Handled
BiC razors for sensitive skin.

The reason is that they have a single blade
and help maintain a face condition that
is compatable with other 'blade' shavers
like an open blade (straight) or a double
edge (DE) razor.

They are not the best razors out there but
they rinse clean and are light enough to
make a light touch shave possible. They
are "travel legal". They last long enough
for a couple shave and dull in a kind way
teaching what dull is. They are inexpensive.

As you work your way through the learning
curve a bag of tossables gives you the luxury
of shaving the easy bits with a straight (str8)
and finishing with the tossable on the harder
bits and angles.

With good shave prep you do get a good
shave from them. If you doubt your shave
prep they do come in handy as a
constant in the process.

One trick is to hold the tossable at
the very end of the handle with just
two fingers. It is hard to press too hard
and also makes it harder to inflict
a slicing motion on the face.

For some just knowing that there is no
shame in setting down a str8 and finishing
a good to go to work shave makes it
easy for some to use an open blade.

A straight is not magic -- it does give you
all the opportunity to match (or mismatch) an edge to
your face. When you find the ideal match
you will understand why we like them.

I really had to use some discipline but i gave my face a break today.

But I did give stropping a go. I nicked my strop and it didn't seem like it went all that well but it shaved a small part on my fore arm proving to be sharp.

I struggled to get the right flipping motion of the blade, and there were a couple of time that there were some high pitched sounds that cant be right.

I am afraid of going to slow, to hard, applying pressure to the blade and not the spine and to keep my wrist steady.

Tomorrow I will see if there were any ill effects on my 2nd go at it.

Third shave here. Today thing felt much better and my face was not totally red. I see how a little technique goes a long way. Thanks for the tip Larry. I was thinking about what you said and I heard some one else spell out a 30 degree angle equaling 2 of the blades spine from flat and that made for a much smoother shave.

I did a wtg, xtg, and atg. My beard is like sand paper and going against the grain was a bit scary because my beard really fought the blade. All i could imagine was the blade skipping across and slicing my beautiful face.

I am taking it slow in the chin and jaw areas as well.

Thanks for the tips and all the welcomes.

From one newbie to another ... go lightly and take your time. My worst shave by far was when I tried to be clever and both rushed and did extra passes to get as smooth as possible. I was fortunate enough not to cut myself, but OMG the burn! O_O Also, hold your razor firmly but gently, kind of like you're maneuvering a feather over your face. Too tight a grip and you won't feel when things go bad plus you'll lose fine control, too loose and you lose fine control as well. ... at least that's how I understand it so far. If I'm off I expect I'll be corrected shortly.

Originally Posted by tnorthwest

...snip...
I struggled to get the right flipping motion of the blade, and there were a couple of time that there were some high pitched sounds that cant be right.
...snip...

You can make a practice strop out of a roll of
news print. You can even roll your strop up in news
print to practice. News print is a lot like canvas
on a razor. You can shave off a newsprint strop.

The trick is to roll the razor between the thumbs
and forefinger. There is almost no wrist action.

Speed is not an advantage in terms of the resulting
sharpness so slow down.