Newbie's progress to date

Hi guys,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this so if admin could move it if I have knocked on the wrong door please :)

I've had a shavette now for a few weeks and as mentioned in my introduction post my thinking is to get the skills with this so I can go through as many blades as necessary to learn the skills to use a SR without ruining the blade and obviously with the shavette I don't have to learn how to strop etc. so can purely concentrate on the shaving part thus far.

I've now had approx 4 shaves with the shavette now, so far I've had to finish all of them with the cartridge razor for the awkward parts of my face however the areas I'm touching up are getting less and less.

1 - The first shave I had with it I sliced my face in 3 places and had no ends of nicks and cuts. I think this was due to me thinking "how hard can it be" and not treating the razor with respect. I had to wait a week or so for the slices to heal before I had another go which changed my attitude.

2 - The second shave was a bit better, I managed to get half a shave in this time with only 1 slice, I then stopped so not to cut my face up any more.

3 - This third shave again I took the scab off the last slice and was successful in shaving most of my face, but again with a lot of nicks

4 - My last shave was last night and I'm pleased to say I managed to shave my whole face without slicing myself I had to touch up the awkward bits with my cartridge razor but no slices I'm pleased to say. However I'm still getting lots of little nicks.

For anyone interested that is the brief background into my short career shaving with a shavette. My own comments/questions I suppose are as follows:

I think I maybe nicking myself all the time for one or both of the following reasons:

1, I'm using a shavette that takes the DE blades that you snap in half, I'm thinking the blades are too narrow and the sharp corners are catching my face and nicking it

2, I'm not giving the correct preparation to my face. As I've only had the shavette a few weeks it is all I've bought, I've been prepping my face like I would to shave with a cartridge razor (shower, clinique pre-shave exfoliator, shaving gel and then shave). I'm thinking that just slapping the having cream on and starting is not softening the facial hair enough causing the blade to catch and jump which happened a few times last night especially on the against the grain passes.

I know there's a wealth of information on this site and I'm gradually working my way through but any quick fix personal help would be grateful into any of the above and also what the best soap and brush would be as I'm going to take the plunge shortly and invest in those 2 and probably a SR razor.

Thanks,

What is your budget a soap and brush can cost between $10 and several hundred ?

I started with a Parker Shavette. It too took half a razor blade. It took me several weeks but I started to get some pretty good close shaves.

I started first doing just downward passes on my cheeks then on my neck. I would go back to my DE on my chin and finish off. Every couple of days I would add another bit of facial real estate and practice. It doesn't take long before you can get a good result without nicks. But don't rush, it is a skill to learn.

Prep for me I thought was already sorted because I came from DE shaving, however it took me longer to shave so things changed, my lather didn't seem so good. I learned to just soap up the areas I needed on the second pass. You can practice making lathers in a bowl or on your hand and not use them to shave, just feel them between your fingers for consistency or practice on your arm. Make loads of lathers and you'll soon get the consistency you want.

Its difficult to give you the best soap recommendation because all skin types are different but for me Proraso green cream and Nivea Sensitive skin balm seemed to work for me. I avoided alcohol aftershaves (which I love) while I learned to be kind to my hacked up skin.

I now use a straight razor, and yes it is smoother. I did cut myself with it lots when I started but the Parker Shavette had helped for sure and without it I wouldn't have continued into this world of straight razors.

Just keep practicing, read lots on here and take it slowly. Rushing will cause frustration and skin irritation. Soon if your like me, you'll prefer your shavette and want to move on to a straight, or you'll decide its not for you and go back to your old method. Over the next few weeks you'll keep changing your mind, but Keep going and the practice will pay off. The shavette need to be mastered, it is different than a straight, but its still a good skill to learn as there is pleasure to be had for sure.

I hope that helps.

Hi, I hadn't really thought about a budget, I don't particularly want to be spending hundreds but something half decent, I don't really know how long a soap will last so don't know what is good value for money. I've seen badger hair brushes around the £20 mark which seem reasonable but I'm open to ideas as I don't know what the quality is like.

Sorry to be so vague.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kevinred

I started with a Parker Shavette. It too took half a razor blade. It took me several weeks but I started to get some pretty good close shaves.

I started first doing just downward passes on my cheeks then on my neck. I would go back to my DE on my chin and finish off. Every couple of days I would add another bit of facial real estate and practice. It doesn't take long before you can get a good result without nicks. But don't rush, it is a skill to learn.

Prep for me I thought was already sorted because I came from DE shaving, however it took me longer to shave so things changed, my lather didn't seem so good. I learned to just soap up the areas I needed on the second pass. You can practice making lathers in a bowl or on your hand and not use them to shave, just feel them between your fingers for consistency or practice on your arm. Make loads of lathers and you'll soon get the consistency you want.

Its difficult to give you the best soap recommendation because all skin types are different but for me Proraso green cream and Nivea Sensitive skin balm seemed to work for me. I avoided alcohol aftershaves (which I love) while I learned to be kind to my hacked up skin.

I now use a straight razor, and yes it is smoother. I did cut myself with it lots when I started but the Parker Shavette had helped for sure and without it I wouldn't have continued into this world of straight razors.

Just keep practicing, read lots on here and take it slowly. Rushing will cause frustration and skin irritation. Soon if your like me, you'll prefer your shavette and want to move on to a straight, or you'll decide its not for you and go back to your old method. Over the next few weeks you'll keep changing your mind, but Keep going and the practice will pay off. The shavette need to be mastered, it is different than a straight, but its still a good skill to learn as there is pleasure to be had for sure.

I hope that helps.

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Yes, thanks very much, that's a great help, I am persevering with the shavette as the shave is definately closer on the parts I'm getting right :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Strops

Hi, I hadn't really thought about a budget, I don't particularly want to be spending hundreds but something half decent, I don't really know how long a soap will last so don't know what is good value for money. I've seen badger hair brushes around the £20 mark which seem reasonable but I'm open to ideas as I don't know what the quality is like.

Sorry to be so vague.

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Most badger brushes are good so that shouldn't be too bad for you. As to how long a soap will last, others will probably give you a better idea but I'm thinking a few months at least. Check out the soaps and creams section and guys have a few "what's your favorite" type threads going. You van get Van DerHagen for rediculously cheap but you get what you pay for. I just bought a couple different soaps/creams to try and I think the most expensive soap was $15USD. It was L'Occitane. I also got some Crabtree & Evelyn. Try them out. You can use a coffee mug or your palm or just lather it up on your face. No harm in trying them. If you decide you don't like something see if someone on here is willing to trade/buy it off of you. Good luck!

The progress continues.

I've just had another shave and prepped pretty well, I had a hot shower, put conditioner on my face for a while etc. etc. then shave time.

I put the foam on my face (I don't have a brush or soap yet, I'm still looking).

To cut a long story short I completed a full shave with the grain and cross the grain without slicing myself. The finish wasn't great and I still did a once over with the cartridge razor but I have a couple of thoughts:

I definitely think the blade isn't long enough on the shavette, the reason being is I ended up with around 7 or 8 nicks again from the ends of the blade.

Then I think because I know this I'm not 100% confident in using the shavette to give myself a close enough shave with it. The areas of my face that are easy, i.e. from the sideburns down to my jaw line, are smooth as a baby's bum however I'm weary of shaving the other parts of my face in case the edge of the blade catches and slices me, which inevitably ends up in a nick anyway.

The bottom line is I think I need a SR pretty sharpish, or at least a barbers shavette with round edged blades :)

Hi Strops,

Seems you're making progress. Every shave is great practice. One thing that really helped me was not shaving for a day and then looking and feeling which way your facial hair grows, this really will help with your shaving plan. Its good to avoid the ATG until your confident. The angle is all important to, so take your time and it will come, keep avoiding the difficult areas until you have a brush and lather not foam.

A good shaving soap and brush will really help as a good shaving lather will cushion the blade and create more glide. That will help lots, far less cuts and irritations for sure. Your local drug store will sell a cheap shaving stick and brush for very little and even these cheap items will be vastly superior to foam. Face lathering for me was the way to go as I found in the beginning it gave me more glide for sure.

The other thing is to use very little pressure. At the moment the corners will be catching you as your not familiar with your tool yet and you'll be pushing too much causing the corners to dig in and cut. A light touch, just try to remove the foam and not the hair, the hair will follow believe me with no pressure. A good practice is to remove the blade and practice removing the foam as lightly as you can. Sounds crazy but it will help with your muscle memory.

Also stretch your skin. I use alum on my finger tips which helps get traction on slippery skin. The stretch is as important as the blade. Your trying to create flat spots to shave, the flatter the area the closer the shave.

It's a big learning curve right now mate, there is a lot to learn, but you'll soon find what suits and doesn't and great shaves will follow.

Remember confidence will come with practice. :)

Hey Strops,
If it were me, I’d squirrel away my money and purchase a straight razor. Get your gear one piece at a time. Brush, soap, razor, strop, hone then a spare razor and you’re in business. Soap can be cheap as well as brushes and both can be found in the local department store or shave shop. The rest will take a little savvy to accumulate. There are plenty of resources on plenty of forum to guide your fancy.

Regards

Chasmo

Hey strops, just go to boots or Tesco, and get some Palmolive cream and whatever brush they have for cheap, try to get bristle rather than a synthetic mix as the cheap synthetics can be a bit nasty.
Your shave will improve for about ten quid.

Hi Strops. I'm just new to Straights as well and Like you I've started off with a shavette. I'm using the dovo shavette and like I said in another the post, the first time I tried a full shave with it I looked like I had been in a Knife fight with Jim Bowie!, Cuts and nicks everywhere and a lot of blood. ( those small cuts bleed the most don't they ? lol ) but Iv been using the straight for nearly 3 weeks now and have to say after the tough first week or so I'm starting to get the hang of it. At first I was like you constantly cutting myself, especially with the corner of the blade and also on first contact with my skin, however, after changing the blades ( at the advice of some of the experienced guys on here ) and getting a little more used to using the straight and not being as heavy handed I am now able to shave my whole face, including the more difficult parts around your mouth, top lip and chin, without cutting myself. At the moment I'm not getting as close a shave as I probably could be but I'm thinking that will come with time and experience but for me Its one step at a time and like one of the other guys said, every shave is another practice and a bit more experience for us newbs. For me I'm gonna stick with the shavette for a few more weeks to get a bit more experience then pick up a straight and go from there, but If you do have any questions or queries I would say you are definitely in the best place here to have them answered. All the best to you matey and stick with it, the results will come..... for both of us I hope. haha. :)

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Originally Posted by TurbineBlade

Hi Strops. I'm just new to Straights as well and Like you I've started off with a shavette. I'm using the dovo shavette and like I said in another the post, the first time I tried a full shave with it I looked like I had been in a Knife fight with Jim Bowie!, Cuts and nicks everywhere and a lot of blood. ( those small cuts bleed the most don't they ? lol ) but Iv been using the straight for nearly 3 weeks now and have to say after the tough first week or so I'm starting to get the hang of it. At first I was like you constantly cutting myself, especially with the corner of the blade and also on first contact with my skin, however, after changing the blades ( at the advice of some of the experienced guys on here ) and getting a little more used to using the straight and not being as heavy handed I am now able to shave my whole face, including the more difficult parts around your mouth, top lip and chin, without cutting myself. At the moment I'm not getting as close a shave as I probably could be but I'm thinking that will come with time and experience but for me Its one step at a time and like one of the other guys said, every shave is another practice and a bit more experience for us newbs. For me I'm gonna stick with the shavette for a few more weeks to get a bit more experience then pick up a straight and go from there, but If you do have any questions or queries I would say you are definitely in the best place here to have them answered. All the best to you matey and stick with, the results will come..... for both of us I hope. haha. :)

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Hello,

Thanks for telling me your story to date it's made me feel a little better about my progress. I'm still persevering and practising on balloons :)

I'm currently looking for a straight at the moment and was passed on to the site Taylor1000 (if you type that into google his link will come up) who has a load of SR's on sale plus he has an e-bay shop too. If you e-mail him he's more than willing to help. I'm currently keeping an eye on his ebay account as he said he's got boxes full of SR's however he only has so much time to hone them etc. so they don't get added as quickly as he receives them.

You're right the small cuts do bleed the most lol, tonight is episode 6 in my first season lol I'm hoping I can have enough patience to go slow enough to complete a decent shave with no cuts.

I'll let everyone know how it goes in the morning. Good luck with your progress too, keep in touch with your progress as it's nice to hear from someone who's started with a SR/Shavette around the same time as me.

Cheers,

Strops

Hi Strops. I'll take a look at Taylor1000's site matey. I skipped the part about practising on balloons, think I was too excited to get started to shave the balloons, hence the reason my face looked like I had been dooking for chips in a vat of burning oil, lol, but practice is practice matey and whatever makes you feel more confident is worth doing. Good luck tonight, hopefully there wont be any cuts or nicks matey, let us know how you get on.

Cheers

TurbineBlade

Why not try shaving a peach or a Kiwi fruit? It'll save on the nirves, not quite so messy and you get a treat afterwards even if you don't do well. It will tell on you if you nick the skin too. The old barbers that worked in the Barber's shop I worked in as a kid said that they learned shaving peaches. That was many moons ago.

Regards

Chasmo

You could go down to a fruit shop and offer to shave all their peaches one saturday :-) You'd be a shaving Jedi by the end of the day (maybe)

Serious question Strops did you get to using a different blade length on the shavette? I started using the Dovo long blades for the black insert, however some say that the short blades in the red insert are better to learn.. I find the length of the blade a bit cumbersome as it's only actually useful on the side burn & cheek, nearly everywhere else you don't get the benefit of the extra length.
Thanks
Nick