Hello,

I'm a new straight razor shaver and thought it was about time I stopped lurking and introduced myself.

I'd been intrigued by straights for months and then on a trip to California to visit my wife's family I spotted and Art of Shaving store. I had a long discussion with the staff and went away to do some research. A few days later I went back and got myself a TI blade and set of oil/cream/balm to go with it.

Back in chilly Scotland now and I've got six or seven shaves under my belt. The first was by far the worst (What a mess!) but getting better all the time. I'm getting comfortable with the blade and I think I'm starting to get better results WTG than I did with my Mach 3.

My biggest problems so far have been irritation afterwards, decent lather and ATG shaving. I'm hoping the irritation will pass and it's just my face getting used to the blade/closeness, I'm also investing in an alum block and witch hazel to help. My lather seems to start off nice and thick but after 5/10 minutes turns into a sort of watery bubbly fluff, I have to start again if I want to keep shaving. I'm really liking WTG shaving and getting the hang of XTG (stretching the skin SO important!) but whenever I try ATG I find my beard really grabs at the blade - maybe I'm not removing enough with my XTG pass? It gets so tough that I tend to stop before I end up pulling the blade into my nose when the blade's released.