The long road: My personal journey to shaving success

I wanted to extend a thank-you to everyone who's helped me when I've been frustrated over the past eight months.

This morning I got a fabulous, BBS shave. But here's the breakthrough: Eight hours later, my face has no irritation whatsoever. :y

My shaving learning experience has been a lot more difficult than average. I've been working on this since last August, when I finally got fed up with the razor burn I got from my Mock III.

I started with a Zeepk-wannabe, a new razor that I got on eBay for about $15. You guys provided a lot of support as I learned to hone, especially AFDavis. But even with my razors passing the HHT like crazy, I still couldn't get the razor to cut through my chin hair without skipping and stuttering.

So I took a month and a half off and went over to Badger & Blade to learn DE shaving. That was enormously beneficial. I was able to get decent shaves within a few weeks, and I learned a lot about multiple passes, lathering, and prep. I came back to straight razors.

Throughout my learning experience, I've been plagued with really bad irritation: burning and itching that lasts all day. It baffled and frustrated me.

In desperation, I started working one-on-one with a senior member, who honed up several razors to different levels of sharpness for me, and also let me borrow his Feather AC. (I'd noticed that I couldn't get a good shave off the 8K Norton, so this member hone razors to 8K, 15K and 50K. Combined with the Feather, that gave me a wide range of sharpnesses to play with.)

Through this coaching, I've learned a lot:
- My beard is really thick--not wirey, but thick. It needs the sharpest blade possible and excellent prep.
- The grain is completely different than I thought it was three months ago.
- The skin on my face is prone to dryness, which makes it easier to irritate.
- Wetter lather (not as pretty, but slicker) works better than the really fluffy stuff. Refreshing it frequently is good.
- Creams seem to work better for me than soaps. I'm using Proraso green tube right now.
- Sticking with one razor, cream, brush, and prep routine is good if you're having trouble.
- Skipping a day of shaving once a week really gives your face a chance to heal.

Right now I'm using a Feather AC, which is the only thing I've found that can "glide" through my beard the way the rest of you guys seems to be able to do with a regular straight. I've just about mastered the Feather, and I love it.

Now that I have the technique down with a straight-esque tool and can get great, irritation-free shaves, I'm going to keep working with my "real" straights. I plan to use one razor for a while--keep it simple.

Right now, the regular straights cut well but pull a lot. I think the key will be improving my skin stretching and prep. Plus giving my face a chance to heal if I mess up.

I'm very grateful to everyone who has helped me out, and I hope this can be an encouragement to other guys who might find straight razor shaving more difficult than they first imagined. Keep at it--it'll all come together eventually.

Josh

I'm glad it worked out for you Josh :tu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhTiJEYqqY8

That's great information. Thanks for sharing, Josh. I guess I can only learn so much on my own since I've got an easy face to shave. Reading about your challenges has humbled me. You must overcome greater hurdles and thus be more proficient than I in order to achieve your shaves. I'm sure you'll continue to pass that information along to guys like Matt who seems to be having similar issues.

X

Great to hear this :tu
I think what really impresed me about it, is the fact you didn't give up
Way to go dude :D

Wow that is really sticktoitness if ever I saw it..:eek:

Hey, I like my straights. And I like you guys. Giving up would actually make me sad.

I think it's reasonable to expect to get deceont shaves in a month or two for most guys. But I think there are some of us who really have more problems for some reason--tougher beard, more sensitive skin, bad habits, whatever.

I just hope the guys who have more trouble like me can stick with it. Going back to the Mock 3 isn't really a solution, because shaving was always miserable before. (Of course, that misery was less time consuming. :) )

Josh

What frustrated me and at the same time kept me going was the guys who would buy my newbie razors and then post the next day about how they got the best, most BBS shave ever with no nicks and no razor burn. :cry:

Josh

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JoshEarl

What frustrated me and at the same time kept me going was the guys who would buy my newbie razors and then post the next day about how they got the best, most BBS shave ever with no nicks and no razor burn. :cry:

Josh

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Amm
Maybe next time you sell something good, just tell me :roflmao

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JoshEarl

What frustrated me and at the same time kept me going was the guys who would buy my newbie razors and then post the next day about how they got the best, most BBS shave ever with no nicks and no razor burn. :cry:

Josh

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Pretty sure I did that... sorry bout that ;) .

If it helps promptly dulling it with poor stropping technique put me back into the realm of irritation and mediocre shaves until I managed to get it back to where you had it (or a reasonable approximation) on the pasted paddle. Having done that I can imagine how hard it is to keep trying though when you're consistently getting sub-standard results. Without that first great shave to remember, I would have had a lot harder time keeping motivated after things started to go downhill.

Glad to hear things are working out finally... DE shaving is very nice (esp compared to the alternatives) but there's something special about a straight.

Ant

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JoshEarl

What frustrated me and at the same time kept me going was the guys who would buy my newbie razors and then post the next day about how they got the best, most BBS shave ever with no nicks and no razor burn. :cry:

Josh

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People aren't always totally forthcoming and truthful about such things --- I might not have mentioned it but I did have a definite break-in period of about 2 weeks -- pretty bad razor burn but I guess some people do have a better start out of the gates .

Justin

"I still couldn't get the razor to cut through my chin hair without skipping and stuttering."


This is were I'm having trouble, although its early days yet and I think its just bad technique. I can single pass my cheek and its BBS, other areas vary from shave to shave which points to practice but under my chin the razor just struggles to cut the hair skips and digs in ouch:cry: . I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, but would be grateful of any tips on shaving this area.
when you tried the feather on the chin did your problems go away or was there still a technique issue?
Would you recommend the feather for learning?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jaegerhund

People aren't always totally forecoming and truthfull about such things --- I might not have mentioned it but I did have a definite break-in period of about 2 weeks -- pretty bad razor burn but I quess some people do have a better start out of the gates .

Justin

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I think there's also the "new toy" elation as well as the additional care, prep, time, care, shaving just easy areas, etc. that may go into it for some people.

I know my first shave wasn't BBS but was a very nice shave. It was also only cheeks and took about 45 minutes and I already had my prep pretty much down from using the DE for quite a while before that. If I still took that long on just my cheeks I'd never make it out of the bathroom.

Ant

Hats off to Josh for sticking to it, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't in his shoes.

I was lucky, my first straight razor shave was incredible - the best shave of my life including some pretty great DE shaves. Unfortunately I dulled the razor, and my norton wasn't flat, so I struggled along for awhile (including a diversion to the Feather AC) before getting things back on track. But it was many months before I had another shave as good as that first one, and another month or so after that before I could do it on demand. But all those months of fighting the hone, at least I knew that the shaves I wanted were achievable.

I'm not sure I'd recommend the Feather AC to beginners. I was already very comfortable with handling a straight razor when I first tried the Feather. I actually found it easier to use, because it cut rather than skipping. I was also terrified by its reputation for being ninja-sharp, so I used the lightest pressure possible--actually holding it off my face. That turned out to be exactly what I needed.

I would recommend it to guys who try a regular straight for a couple of months and are still struggling.

The Feather eliminates the variables of stropping and honing, and maybe also blade grind. So you can focus on technique and prep.

It seems like some guys knock the Feather as "cheating," but it may be a valuable learning tool for some of us.

The worst part for me is that for now I'm still dependent on disposable blades, although they last longer and are 1/6 of the price of a Mock 3 blade...

Josh

How many shaves do you get from a blade? I always suspected they would smooth out after a while, do they? I never used a blade more than about 3 times before I gave up.

For me, the blade seems to do well for about five or six shaves. Then it dulls enough that I start using more pressure, and things get ugly.

I've only gone to six shaves once, though, so this observation might change as I get more experience with the Feather. Previously I've only used a blade four or five times before changing it.

This seems to match up with what I've heard about Feather blades from the DE forums. They're wicked sharp, but they once they start to go, they go quickly. Woe to he who shaves with a Feather past its prime.

Josh