Thread: First Shave of a Man's Face by Viola

Well, I decided it was time to cut my teeth on a man's face...but with a straight razor. My friend so graciously donated his face, which I have to say had a good three to four days growth on it... and he has very coase, thick hair. I made sure all of my implements were freshly stropped, and I had all three of them set out in case I really didn't like how it was going with one. He was given the royal treatment of a few hot towels before I turned to my lather-filled mug with a Williams puck of soap in the bottom. Down to the nitty gritty: The three razors were a 5/8 Wapi french tip, a Wade & Butcher BOW razor spike point, and a Curtin & Clark round point. I lathered him up and went with the grain first. Geez, it felt like it took me FOREVER. And I felt like I had to keep going over it - lather him up, go over it, and repeat. I ended up doing With, Across, and then Against the grain. I felt much more comfortable with the french and round points on his neck. I was just scared I was going to nick him with the spike. But I loved the spike for shaping up his moustache. I found myself actually holding the razor like a Japanese straight at times... but I didn't have a problem with it. I stropped halfway through the process. He said it was hurting when I was shaving his neck. I wasn't applying any pressure to the blade, but he said it felt like it was pulling. I'm thinking I didn't have the skin stretched enough because he didn't seem to complain when I was in areas where I could really stretch the skin. It's going to take awhile before I get the skin stretching down on the neck.

Well, I didn't cut him. His face is pretty darn smooth, but I finally stopped on his neck. You can't see the hairs, but you can feel them in places. His poor neck was finally tired of being tilted back. Oops!

The leg shaving is going well. I bought my friend a Merkur DE. I made the misake of allowing her to be my guinea pig when learning to shave with a straight and I created a monster!

Thanks for everyone's support! Please feel free to give me pointers!