Thread: First straight razor shave.

As the title says, I had my first shave yesterday. I took the time to watch two of Lynns videos on YouTube beforehand. The first about stropping, the second about the actual shave.

Happy to report that no major arteries were severed! As I mentioned in one of the posts in my introduction, my facial hair doesn't grow that fast so I decided to do the whole face. I found the whole experience easier than I was expecting (or I was just bloody lucky) the bit I did have a bit of trouble with was the moustache part or upper lip as I suppose it's actually called. The hair is coarser there and obviously, without removing my nose, the angles were awkward.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience. The sound of the razor was a little disconcerting at first. It seemed very loud, but I guess having always used disposable razors with multiple blades all wrapped up in a plastic housing, it insulates the sound somewhat.

Also, the soap seemed to keep drying on my face. Not sure if that's because I was taking too long with the shave or whether I didn't mix it properly on my face (or didn't use enough soap?)

All that being said, I will definitely keep at it! Thanks for reading.

Congrats on your first shave.

It is always more difficult where the hair is courser and the hair is always courser in the trickier spots for me too. You will get there with perseverance.

As for the sound of the razor, you probably have a full hollow grind and they are always louder. It's nothing to worry about though, some people like them for that very reason, the sound is another metric as to how the shave is going. I personally prefer a thicker grind as I am not a fan of the scraping sound. I do have a full hollow and it shaves just as well as the other razors it's just louder.

The soap drying out could be any number of things. You may need to mix it a little wetter, it could be the time that you are taking with the shave or it could be the soap that you are using. They all act differently to each other and even the same soap can act differently depending on the hardness of your water. I have used one of my favourite soaps when travelling in the past and found that it performed very differently than it does at home.

As you progress you will try different things and discover what works best for you. Starting with Lynn's videos was a very good idea.

Good luck with your journey and enjoy.

Congrats on the first shave!

I too had lather drying issues in the beginning. It was because I was so slow. This is not intended to tell you to hurry. But over time, you'll naturally shorten the time of every pass. Lather will start to wimp out on you the closer you get to the ten minute mark on your pass.

Again, congrats and enjoy the ride.

Congratulations.
The journey has begun...

You may find at times that the results are not up to expectations, maybe even so painful that you ask yourself why you are doing this, but remember we all had to go through this.

Conventional wisdom has it that after about 100 shaves you will be proficient, but in effect you never give up learning; new discoveries will just become less momentous, and even after years of straight shaving I experiment with slightly different variations once in a while.

My first goal was to get shaves that were as good as my shaves with a safety razor, but now I have arrived at the point where my straight shaves surpass even shaves on my Mühle R41 - something that in the beginning I would have thought impossible.

Enjoy the journey, it becomes even more fun over time.


B.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Way to go on the first shave

As to the soap, in the beginning, as said, we all went through that as we're taking our time to get it right and not cut ourselves up.
Try just lathering 1/2 your fave at a time. No point in hurrying, or trying to shave with a less than perfect lather.
When the lather is wet, your shave is much more smooth and enjoyable.

Keep at it, it only gets better

congrats! You are on your way

Congrats on your first straight shave. Can't give any advice on the upper lip as I have not shaved there in over 40 years.

Try this technique called the coup de maitre. Line the blade up resting on your nose and scoop it out. Video here:

https://youtu.be/xUVIplqkzdk

I too am new and my soap gets dried out if I'm moving to slow but do what dieseld said just do half at a time but don't try to move quicker to try and beat the soap drying you will get hurt ( I know )

Way to go! I also had lather drying issue due to length of time shaving. You can either lather half of your face or just re-wet the brush and moisten up the lather before you tackle the second half of your shave.

The chin/mustache areas take time to get down, especially if you need to go ATG to get a smooth shave. With practice, those areas become manageable before you know it.