Loving my new shave.

Hello All!!
I am Jared. I live in Elko, NV working as an Environmental Engineer at a gold mine. I am 25 and have just started a long life of straight razor shaving. I have been looking into Straights online for almost 3 months. I was nervous with buying online because I was not completely sure what I was looking at. I was in Salt Lake City, UT on Sunday through Wednesday with my wife for a work training I was attending. On one of our nights out I found a store in the mall called The Art of Shaving. I realized it was a bit pricier than the net, but the sales lady was very helpful and showed me the very basics of shaving. I decided then and there to pull the trigger and purchased a Dovo 5/8 Soligen that had been professionally honed by one of their vendors. It just felt so good to actually be able to see the razors, pick them up, and feel which balance I liked the best. I have used soap and a bowl with a boar hair brush for a long time but decided to get a little travel kit they had as well. It came with some pre-shave oil, cream, a travel size badger brush, and some aftershave balm. I also got the 2" Dovo strop. I gotback to the hotel and found these boards. I read through the "first SR shave" thread and decided to just do my right cheek that night. I was so excited about it that I got up early the next morning and did my left cheek. I am already pretty ambidextrous so it was a very comfortable shave and I had a good angle down. I finished with my disposable so I looked clean. I gradually added more parts of my face and by day 3, I completed my WTG pass along my whole face. My face feels great and have no razor burn at all. I nicked myself once on day 2 but it was just because I left the edge touching at the end of my stroke for too long. I am getting comfortable on the strop and Have found that I have a nice edge with about 50 round trips on the leather strop. I absolutely love shaving now and look forward to it all day. This has been the best anniversary present I have gotten. I thank everyone here for all the information on this site. I have found it very useful. Thanks for reading everyone!!

Congrats on the new razor! And welcome to SRP.

You sound really happy with the straight and are having a great level of early success.

Michael

A rare good start "going by the book". It'll keep getting better and better.

Welcome to SRP.

Russell

Good Grief, Jared. This is almost a model post of a great first shave. Mine was a bit... colorful :)

Starting this well, you're toast. Now you've tasted quality. Enjoy, Jared. 'Great to hear from you.

Thanks everyone. Yes I have definitely tasted quality. I am now looking at getting a full size brush next. I am excited to learn and progress