Thread: My First SE Shave

Originally Posted by Ron A

(Use the Track II for the 2nd pass for now)

F the Trak II. You'll look clean enough and it'll only reinforce bad shaving habbits. MHO.

Originally Posted by nickyspaghetti

... I can get by with a kind of diagonal stroke to nearly get a WTG.

I play that game a lot too. Keeps me from trying to reinvent the wheel to get a textbook shave and cuts down on my time spent in the shave. Without a chance for the lather to cool or dry up the time I do spend is subsequently very pleasurable and the results super smooth since I don't scrimp on the final ATG details.

X

I started out by stropping the Dovo Berg Graf with 50 passes, blade weight only, before starting the shave. I did the hot towel, lathered with C&E Nomad shave cream, hot towel, lathered up again then shaved routine. Felt great. This one went well on the cheeks. Nice and smooth with the first pass. I used little to no pressure and it worked well. I got as good a shave on the cheeks as I've ever gotten with a Trac II or Mach III.

The bottom of the chin and the neck were a different story. I re-lathered frequently to keep things nice and wet but I couldn't get anywhere near the closeness I got on the cheeks. I know I was cutting some beard because I could see the whiskers wiped off the blade onto the towel but there were lots left behind.

I got a couple of small nicks, one on the cheek below the sideburns where I took of some kind of small bump and one on the neck where I got caught in a deep crease. Both stopped with cold water. I finished off with C&E after shave balm. Also nice.

I'm gonna keep at it with the strop and keep working on getting more of the beard off. I'm sure this is an operator headspace problem that I'll get solved with experience. I'll limit it to every other day to allow more beard to grow and to let my face recover.

More to follow....Mike

Nice job Mike. Being a noobie myself, I was hesitant to strop too much before the first few shaves - didn't want to screw up the fresh honed edge. I got over it though and after a good stropping, my shave was definitely my best straight razor experience to date - and my first with no touch ups with the trusty Gem 1912 SE! Keep going, sounds like you're figuring it out.