Thread: My Straight Shave Log - A noobs eye view

Greetings all,

I've recently (within the last 3 months) converted to the wonderful world of DE and Straight shaving. I've been lurking here for quite a while however, and I figured I would finally say hello to everyone, and post my shave experiences. So, the following will be my Shave Log, as it were.

Currently, I have 5 straight shaves under my belt (take that how you will ), and I will post those experiences in the first 5 replies, then henceforth, keep my Shave Log in this thread.


Advice, comments, questions, and general discussion are greatly appreciated,

Blazed




This is my razor by the way:
26053


Thanks to Billy for the great price, and excellent hone!



And, a small sampling of my "gear":

6/12/08 - First Straight Razor Shave



Shouldn't have tried the straight yet


Good news:
-didn't cut my face once
-pretty much took every bit of hair off in one pass
-amazingly sharp (thanks Billy!)


Bad news:
-I sliced my finger open being careless, it was a gusher
-amazingly sharp
-I am having serious problems figuring out the right angle to attack my face (by that I mean how to get the blade in the pockets of my neck and cheeks, not the angle I hold the blade against my face)
-took me over an hour to shave 3/4 of my face (I gave up for the day when I sliced my finger open)




I will keep at it, but this is gonna take some serious commitment

6/23/08

Straight Razor Shave #2:

I'm getting better, oh yes. Still took me a ton of time to shave this time (still figuring out the attack angles), but my shave is much cleaner this time. I've about had it with the SCS shave creams however For the life of me, I CAN NOT get this stuff to thicken up properly. I have tried almost no water, all the way up to a ridiculous amount of water, and still no dice. The very first lather up I make is ok at best (on the right side of my face, jawline), but every part after that is thin, and dries out waaaay too quick. I finally said the heck with it after making a second bowl and still getting a worthless lather, so I dumped it out and finished with Proraso


I toed myself 3 times with the blade, once on my left ear, once right next to my left ear (my left hand is not much good for anything except decoration) and once on my right cheek where I messed up. Thank god for the styptic pen I picked up. They weren't too bad, and I learned something from each cut, so it was worth it. I'm still having problems with the pockets on either side of my esophagus, but I'm slowly figuring that out. I stropped the blade again between my first and second pass because it was feeling a little dull (I had a weeks worth of growth that I hacked through on my first pass, and my beard is THICK like copper), and it seemed to make the second pass much better. I love that I can do that with a straight.


Shaved my head with the DE, feels like sexy time. If I could make love to my own skull, I would.


I managed to shave half my face (single pass) and my entire head (two passes) with 1/4tsp. of Proraso, and I still had some left over



CLIFFS:
1. I'm done with SCS cream, Proraso for the win!
2. Straight razors are wicked sharp
3. I can't stop molesting my skull

6/28/08

Captains Log, Stardate 3.14159


Straight Razor Shave #3:

Total shave time: 55 minutes (this includes moving all unnecessary junk off of my sink, prepping my area, towel, moving strop into bathroom and securing, clean up afterward, etc.)

Each time I have shaved, I have reduced my shave time with the straight by ~30 minutes.


Notes: Good GOD my face feels good. I am getting a better feel for the proper angle, and I'm learning all the little curves in my face. I have noticed, because I have started to use my left hand as well as my right, that I get a much smoother, controlled shave if I use my fingers to manipulate the razor in a downward arc, moving the tip of the razor and sweeping it down while the butt stays relatively stationary, rather than keeping the blade straight and doing a downward sweep with the whole blade remaining at the same angle. I use both methods, but primarily the first. The second 'full sweep' method I use only on the larger portions of my face like my cheeks. Interesting. Also, I am gaining control with my left hand: it is no longer solely for decoration

Only 1 cut this time, didn't even feel it at all and it only produced the tiniest blip of blood on my mustache area. Didn't even sting when I hit it with the styptic.

Great lather this time. I said to hell with the SCS cream and just went straight for the Proraso this time, perfect lather as usual.



Overall notes:
1. I am a straight razor convert. DE will now be reserved solely for speed shaving when necessary, out of town trips, and head shaving
2. One Proraso to rule them all, One Proraso to find them. One Proraso to shave them all, and in the slickness, bind them
3. I don't have a #3, but it just didn't seem right without it

7/2/08

Straight shave #4

Total shave time, 2 passes, ~30 minutes

I learned a few interesting things from my shave tonight:
1. Maintaining an extremely secure (read: tight) finger grip on the jimps of the razor yields a much smoother cutting pass through the beard hairs, with MUCH less resistance. I can still do a toe sweep, but now that I am maintaining a tighter grip on the jimps, the blade is passing through the hairs much smoother, with no 'pullback'. I still feel it cut through the hair in swaths, but it isn't giving me the rubberband-like pullback that I was feeling before. This made a tremendous difference in the quality and closeness I got in my mustache area.
2. I have discovered that opening up the blade to my 270 degree shaving position while I am doing my pre-shave stopping yields better results, with a more consistent contact with the strop, as well as a better feel. Before, I was having slight issues keeping contact with the strop when I had my razor fully open at 180 degrees, I only occasionally got the 'suction cup' feeling from the strop, and I was having a ton of problems with my return pass keeping contact. Opening up the blade to a shave position created a much more consistent stopping, with almost 100% 'suction cup' qualities.
3. I finally, really, figured out how to get that section under my ear, at the back side of my jawbone. It took some deft manipulation of the blade, but once I got it figured out on the first pass, it came easily when I came around for my second pass.




Overall notes:
-Not a SINGLE nick or cut this time, the only minescule spot of blood I ended up with was where I shaved over a tiny whitehead
-Proraso rules! I am patiently awaiting my Mama Bear order though, and I am strongly considering ordering some Tabac
-Confidence is getting much higher, and I am getting much more adept with my left hand
-I am hopelessly addicted to my straight razor, and after only 4 shaves, I know I'm a lifetime convert. In fact, I'm already eyeballing a gorgeous 6/8 Bengall, even though it's got a $190 price tag.

7/4/08


Back once again wit the ill behavior


Straight Razor Shave #5


Gear: Grapeseed Oil preshave, AoS cream for the face, Proraso for the head, C&E brush, Wilbert 5/8 spike for face, merkur HD for the head



I wanted to try out the Art of Shaving cream that my dad picked up for me in Vegas, because I figured, being unscented and touted as 'all natural', it might help eliminate some of the bumps on my neck that turn into whiteheads after the second day. We will see how that goes. However, as far as the lather is concerned, I found it to be......lacking? I couldn't get quite as dense of a lather as I am used to with the proraso, and it wasn't quite as slick. All in all, I would probably use it again, but I still prefer the proraso, both for the scent as well as the superior lather and slickness. I won't base my final decision on 1 shave though, it will be back for a few more rounds.


Face shave:
I'm (forgive the pun) honing my skills with the straight. Every shave gets a couple minutes quicker as I learn the angles of my face. Unfortunately, I got a little overconfident and took a sliver of skin about 2 layers deep out of either side of my cheek with the tip of my spike. It wasn't so bad that it bled, but there was a thin red line that was taunting me, teasing like it was going to bleed, but it never did. Other than that, no nicks or cuts overall. I find that the smaller degree I can keep my blade angle at, the easier it is cutting the hair, and the smoother the shave is overall. My stropping is getting better, and quicker, and I can feel the improvement in my shave. I am a little disappointed in retrospect: I missed the very edges of my neck, and somehow didn't notice until I sat down to write this. It feels like I reduced them, but didn't get them completely, and now it's picking at my OCD


Head shave:
What can I say, smooth as butter, every time. I've got this part down to a science now, and it feels great.




Overall notes:
1. Overconfidence = a few less layers of skin
2. AoS shave cream is on the approved list, but not at the top. Complete ranking pending results of neck bumps
3. My head feels like sexy time

Sounds like your doing great! I would love to be able to make love to my own skull...if you tape it you can get lots of money. I was thinking of getting porrasso, but i heard noxzema is more "menthely". Maybe both, they aint as expensive as castle forbes...

Sounds like your getting the hang of it. These are great posts btw. I enjoyed reading them.

Originally Posted by tjiscooler

Sounds like your doing great! I would love to be able to make love to my own skull...if you tape it you can get lots of money. I was thinking of getting porrasso, but i heard noxzema is more "menthely". Maybe both, they aint as expensive as castle forbes...

I already have a tube of proraso, 2 tubs of SCS, 5 tubs of Mama Bears (just came in today) and a tub of AoS cream my parents picked up for me in Vegas.


I'm a dirty dirty addict, and I love every minute of it

Originally Posted by psdarby

Sounds like your getting the hang of it. These are great posts btw. I enjoyed reading them.

Thanks, I enjoy writing them. Hopefully, someone else will get a little value out of them, but if nothing else, it allows me to go back and review my progress, as well as my mistakes so I don't repeat them