Hey, Scotlandia here

Hey everyone,

Name's Jay. 26 year old student (psychology) from Dundee in Scotland.

Joined because I hate shaving and an old friend suggested a straight razor, So i bought a cheap one (yes i know bleh bleh..) and looked up how to use it, ended up here and i like the look of the place.

Anyways razor is coming today/tomorrow so gonna give it a crack on the beard I have going now and if all goes well my head too.(yes I will put pick up for y'all to giggle at) Hopefully things wont go too bad and i'll get a feel for if I wanna keep it up and invest in good gear.

Anyone got any tips for shaving a head with a straight razor?

Peace

Welcome!

When you say cheap razor, do you know if its coming to you "shave ready"? Meaning its been honed properly. I'd say that's going to be your biggest factor in your new journey. A razor that's not properly honed will result in a poor and likely painful first shave. Not sure if you've ordered a strop as well but you would be best to pick up a cheap one as you'll likely nick it up practicing.

That said, you don't need to spend allot to get a shave ready Straight to begin on. There's tons of threads here to read up on to get you started.

Once you get going its a much better experience for sure, 10 months in and I'm never going back to cartridges :)

yeah man i got a strop :) have a few anyways for other things so made sure i gots a cheap extra, it says shave ready but we'll see tomorrow. I'm not the type to be dissauded by one bad shave otherwise I'd have stopped shaving my head after i cut it open with mach 3, :)

How did the first shave go?

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Originally Posted by Jayenmac

Hey everyone,

Name's Jay. 26 year old student (psychology) from Dundee in Scotland.

Joined because I hate shaving and an old friend suggested a straight razor, So i bought a cheap one (yes i know bleh bleh..) and looked up how to use it, ended up here and i like the look of the place.

Anyways razor is coming today/tomorrow so gonna give it a crack on the beard I have going now and if all goes well my head too.(yes I will put pick up for y'all to giggle at) Hopefully things wont go too bad and i'll get a feel for if I wanna keep it up and invest in good gear.

Anyone got any tips for shaving a head with a straight razor?

Peace

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Welcome!

Been shaving my head regular for a while now. Started with the electric razor, then a Mach 3 in the shower. Since a year or two, I've been using the straight in combination with the Mach (purists be damned ;-)).

I prep the old noggin same as the face - shower or hot towel, shave oil, thick lather. Then I do a careful, slow, single pass in one direction (front to back) across the entire head. That takes care of about 80%. Re-lather, thinner this time, then I use the Mach 3 for a second pass from all the way back to front. Finally, I feel/look for spots I missed and go over again with the Mach.

I've tried doing it with the straight only and found it to be too unreliable on the back of the head. Mind you, it might work out better with the right mirror setup... but until then, I'm fine supplementing with the Mach!

Welcome Jay! I spent six wonderful years down the coast from you in St Andrews and so I used to spend a fair bit of time in Dundee. Nice to hear a voice from one of my homes away from home. :)

Keep us posted on how things go, and hit us with any other questions you have. As you have no doubt already read, cheap razors can be horrible, but you can also stumble on to the odd decent one: inconsistency is one of their great failings. My first straight was from that category and I lucked out in that it took a half-decent edge. Hopefully you got one like that!

I'm afraid I'm not a head shaver, but in addition to the advice above, I know there's plenty of info here in the forum on that subject. The search box at the top-right corner of the page is your friend.

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by Jayenmac

Anyone got any tips for shaving a head with a straight razor?
Peace

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Yes: don't decapitate yourself, :chop: but less than 10 stitches doesn't count.
Sorry about that, I couldn't resist! Welcome to SRP! This is the very best place to have all of your cutthroat questions answered.