Finally Decided to Give It A Try
Hello Everyone. I've been thinking over the last few years of giving straight razor shaving a try. Before this was using an electric for years and in last few years have switched over to cartridge razors. My biggest concern with using a SR was that I would slip and slice off an ear.
First thing I did was start looking at all the different types of razors and razor equipment out there so that way I could start getting a good idea of what I didn't know. Started Googling every question I could think of until it realized that they all lead me to here so figured might as well cut out the middle man and just soak in the knowledge already here. For about a week it seemed that for every answer I found I would come up with about a hundred more questions.
Finally felt comfortable enough that this was something I would like to try that I brought it up to the wife and it actually made her happy because it finally meant that after 11 years of being together she will have something she could buy me for my birthday (one of her biggest complaints she has about me is that I'm impossible to shop for). Due to some money constraints, and I didn't want to put a lot of money into something that might not be for me, we went with a bare basic set of just a razor and strop for now. I went with the Dovo 6/8 half hollow "Best Quality" razor and 2" Latigo leather strop. Went with heavier razor due to I've always felt more comfortable with my kitchen knives and tools with a heavier one over a lighter one so figured the same will probably hold true with the razor. Figured if I did enjoy SR shaving then I can pick up everything else a little later (already have 90% of it picked out).
Got my razor today and decided to give it a go (seeing as it was professionally honed prior to shipping), and I have to say it went decent. I know the site recommends that you only start with doing the cheek area and so started with those and they went so well figured might as well give the rest a shot. I took my time and went pretty slow (think it was around an hour from first stroke to last) only lather up one section (right cheek, left, cheek, right side of neck, ect.) at a time, and then would try a couple of different dummy passes (without the razor actually touching the skin) just to get a feel for the grip and angles before actually shaving with it.
In the end only had a couple of small nicks and one good slice (just underneath the right jawbone when i placed the razor against the skin), and had a pretty decent shave. It wasn't BBS but was better than what I usually got form my electric and on par with using an older cartridge. I was very happy with the shave, and was kind of surprised just how relaxing the whole experience can be. Now I can't wait for my next pay here in a couple of days so as to get the brush and bowl set I was looking at for an even more complete experience.
I do want to say thanks to everyone here for sharing all the knowledge and tips on this site, it had gone a long way to influencing me into giving straight razor shaving a try and not making it seem so daunting.
