Thread: I'm doing EVERYTHING wrong. Please help.

So I've been shaving with my Dovo straight razor 5/8ths off and on, but a few days ago I decided to shave every day. The first day went okay, a few noobie nicks, but other than that it was fine. The next day I had to finish with an electric razor because I still had some stubble left over after I made a pass with the razor. And today I had a lot of stubble left over and I nicked myself a good few times. So it's not cutting the hair and I'm cutting myself. So this tells me that my angle sucks ass and my stropping is horrendous. My razor did come professionally honed, and I have a 4000/8000 grit wet stone to sharpen it, which I used the 8000 grit the other day before I began to pick up straight razor shaving again. Yes, I stretch my skin and put a warm towel on my face before I shave. And my strop has 2 linen sides, one is coated with a honing compound and the other one is plain. I usually only use the compound about once a week and do 10 laps on the compound, and 25 on the lines suffer of the strop then 50 laps on the leather side. When I don't use the compound, I do 25 on linen and 50 on leather. So, tonight I threw in the towel. I feel like I'm doing all the right things, but clearly I'm not. If there's any advice for me, I'll gladly accept it.

You could have rolled the edge stropping it, or not be stropping correctly to maintain a shave ready edge. Either way it's not shave ready now..

You can either work on honing it yourself or send it away. The preferred thing to do would be send it.

You did do the right thing by seeking help. Don't get discouraged the nice gents on this forum will help you and set you on the right path. It happens to the best of us.

Since your shaves were degrading gradually over a few days I want to say it's a stropping issue but there's no way to be certain. It could have happened when you used the 8k the other day.

I wish you luck and will be watching this thread with interest.

-Scott

You're biting off way more than you can chew in the beginning!
You just need to go back to the basics.
Get the razor honed by a pro.
Strop slowly.
Learn to build your lather.

Buy a second Razor that is honed by a pro so that you can compare what it should feel like when the first razor needs to be touched up.
Only change products when you have perfected the current products in use.

Your post reads like you dismantled your cars engine only to find you needed to change the battery in your smart key

When you first start to shave with a straight razor there are so many things that can go wrong and some if not all usually do. That is frustrating but not unusual, just normal.

It is hard to diagnose what is going wrong and what is going right without actually seeing and assessing the condition of the edge and how you are shaving and stropping. The best thing is if there is a member near enough to you in NC to give you some one on one time. Hopefully a member will be along that can do that for you.

Bob

Welcome aboard,,,,,,,,,,
I didn't get a complete shave for almost a month, used a safety razor to finish most of the time,,,,,

If I were in your shoes, I would start my next shave with a stropping of about 20 leather nice controlled strokes,,, then just shave the right side of your face only,, do this to judge the condition of your edge, see if you lost it or not. If it(the edge) feels good, then stop with the straight,,, finish with the daily razor you have used all your life,,,,,,,wipe your straight, strop 20 leather only, oil & put away until your next shave. Don't rush a complete shave with your straight. A small area at a time, get comfortable with having that blade against your face slowly.

If after you have a few strokes on your next shave & you feel the edge is not where it should be, then stop,,, finish with your daily razor. Go to the threads related to maintaining an edge & learn that 8K method of bringing it back to shave ready status,,, it is extremely simple to bring it back into ready status if you read the method well. Then 20 stroke on a clean linen to catch anything the stone might have left ,,, then 40 strokes on clean leather to finish the stropping,,,, test it on your cheek the next shave.

I personally do not use compounds powders or pastes on my strops , never have, never will,,,, I believe in steel to stone only,,, then clean linen & leather. Many use pastes & what not, I do not. Maybe your use of the stones mixed with compounds on strops has removed your edge,,,, if so, put it back on yourself or send it out to be shave readied again.

Then take it slow, it's meant to be a pleasurable journey.

Blown away by your eagerness to attempt so many different avenues of edge maintenance.
I'm new also. 5th shave tonight. I definitely have stubble left over and clean up with a DE pass or two. I'm considering that acceptable until I become more comfortable and efficient with my SR. Then I can begin doing more passes in different directions. For now, I like the challenge of slowing down, remembering to stretch my skin, check my angle, and go slow while trying to figure out how to reach every area of my face with the SR. It's definitely a challenge and a learning process. My expectations are low as I understand that this is a learned skill over time, and gained through practice and patience. At least this is my current perspective on the act.

As for your situation. I can only assume that you're experience is a result of dulling the edge in one form or many. Professional honing only exists because there is a demand for it.

So... My inexperienced suggestion would be the same as the others. Send it out for professional honing. Once you get it back, shave with it for a gauge of sharpness. Then maintain the edge with a strop free of pastes.
Accept that your shaves will leave a bit to be desired, though you can finish off your shave with another razor option for a satisfactory end result.

Most importantly, don't give up. You started this with interest and motivation. Learn from your attempts thus far, adjust, and move forward.

Hope to see you make progress.

Cheers!

Hi there. Don't get despondent, it'll all come together for you...

1. Whilst you can certainly shave off an 8k edge, I'd recommend something of a higher grit for a touch up. I use a Shapton 16k. It's true that I have quite a light beard growth (very sparse, really) but I only need to do a touch up on the 16k every few months. A touch up consists of ten laps, 20 for the Swedish razors with the harder steel. You may need to touch up more often but, still, just a few laps on a 16k should bring the razor back. Get a 16k hone. Watch Glen's honing videos. Get in a zen-like mood. Get even more in a zen-like mood. Tape your razor's edge. Give it 10 very light laps whist in a zen-like mood. REALLY concentrate on keeping the razor flat. DON'T press down, just glide the razor evenly and lightly across the hone. I taught myself to hone my own razors by watching videos and asking advice from here and just doing it. Seriously, if I can do it anyone can do it. I'm NO handy man. My idea of a complete tool kit is a hammer. Maybe a screwdriver too. Generally if something doesn't work I bash it. So if I can hone you can too. But you need to be in that zen-like mood. :-)

2. I've never used a compound on a strop, so I may be completely un-informed, but I feel a pasted strop, esp in the hands of a beginner, can be problematic. If you're possibly rolling the edge (i.e. not keeping the razor flat when stropping or keeping the strop too loose - so it essentially 'wraps around' the edge of the razor) a pasted strop will do more damage than a non-pasted strop. I feel it's actually harder for one to hone incorrectly than strop incorrectly in regards to razor placement (i.e. flat). Use just the linen and leather strop for now. PS, I feel if I was going to use a pasted strop I'd use a pasted paddle strop.

3. Check your lather. Is it a good lather? Is it gluggy? Gluggy lather (too little water) causes the razor to dig in causing nicks. Is the lather too weak (too much water? A watery lather will not provide cushion.

4. Check your touch. Are you using a light touch? You should not press at all. The razor's edge only glides.

5. Ditch the electric thingy. If you need to finish the shave with something other than a straight; use a DE or SE razor. Using a double edge or single edge can actually be an experience that closely emulates a straight razor shave; one still needs a light touch (esp with an open comb DE) and it's still a wet shave.

6. Cheer up. This is supposed to be FUN dude!!! The glass is half full, not half empty! You've started on a new venture, you have a HEAP of stuff to have fun learning, you have a whole FORUM of helpful guys from all over the WORLD to help (the social aspect is astonishing; some of my best friends are guys I've never met from here) and you are now officially WAY cool because you shave with a straight, what's to get down about???

Carl

Originally Posted by Scareface

...Buy a second Razor that is honed by a pro so that you can compare what it should feel like when the first razor needs to be touched up...

+1 to the second razor option. Degregation of an edge happens so slowly at times you'll possibly not notice you're shaving with an edge as sharp as a spoon until you end up looking like this...

Are you sure you need to shave everyday? My skin don't do well with this, no matter what amount of care I spent on all the process.

If I were you, I'd visit a senior member nearby and let him assess your razor and technique.
There's a lot of things that can go wrong!