Thread: Change hands or not?

Hey all, i'm new to SRP but not to straight razor shaving,
Used a shavette for 5-6 years up untill last autumn when i finally sent my dovo away to be honed by a pro (i'd had it 4 years by that point, fantastic 21st birthday pressie from my mum).

Its recently lost its edge a little and i think thats partly due to poor stropping technique.
Anyway, instead of paying for it to be honed again i fancied spending a bit extra and moving into doing it myself. This prompted a lot of research and led me here!

This site has given me more enthusiasm for straight shaving than i had before and has inspired me to make more effort in my shaving, one area is the aforementioned poor stropping, another is poor technique.

Don't get me wrong, i've had perfectly reasonable shaves untill now but have low standards and quite slow growing facial hair anyway, so i'd been purely doing WTG passes.

As of yesterday i've modified the way i hold the razor, which made thing s a little easier!

But i've also seen mention of using either the left or right hand for the respective side of the face.

How many of you guys do that?

Now that i'm not a newbie at straight shaving i don't like my chances of trying to coax my left hand in to help with the job!

You don't have to do the switch hands thing. It does make it easier to get at some places though. Even after a couple of years of practice with my non dominant hand it still doesn't feel as easy as using my dominant one, but the shave is just as good with either and using it is far easier than the hand positions I used to have to get into to stretch and cut some of the offside corners of my face.

I find it relatively difficult to use my left hand, but I just started and I think that it's easier to start out the right way, even if it takes longer to master, than starting out the easy way, and once you've mastered that, try to change.

Using the left hand on the left side really helps with the stretching.

Stretching with your left hand on the left side all the while holding your razor with the right hand looks very strange!

I primarily use just my dominant hand. This is a bit awkward and blocks my vision some but I got used to it years ago. When I switch hands I always say to myself "I need to learn to use both hands." I don't have blocked vision or perform any cirque de soleil acrobatics moving the blade around.

The next day I am back to using only my right hand.

thanks guys, i've had reasonable success with just my dominant hand until now but then i've not been doing much stretching

Originally Posted by Greenbeast

thanks guys, i've had reasonable success with just my dominant hand until now but then i've not been doing much stretching

Give it a try; I've noticed that I get a closer shave and less irritation on the skin, especially on the neck, where the skin is not as flat as on the cheeks. It's also very helpful to shave your chin: you're pulling the skin that's in a hard to reach spot onto a flat(ter), easily shavable area.

When I began straight razor shaving in late 2007, I used only my dominant right hand. I gave it up for a few months as I was not satisfied with my technique and reverted back to using my Merkur 38C. Around June of last year I began again and trained my left hand and I for whatever reason caught on very quickly with MUCH improved technique. Now either hand is as strong as the other and my shaves have been 1000% better. Many members have no trouble whatsoever using only a one handed technique.... I say if you can try it (using both hands), it might improve your results as I did. My personal goal is to shave every day of 2009 with a straight razor. Hopefully my two remaining double edge razors will not see any action in '09!

i feel another shave coming on tonight, that makes 3 days in a row and i never usually shave every day

just gutted i have to wait another month to get a norton 4k/8k stone to start the honing practise

shavette it is until then!

I have tried the left (non dominant) hand but I do well enough with my right to be satisfied with the dominant hand alone. I have the stretching with the left down to a science for my mug. I have tried the two handed approach and may again but I find it so weird to look at myself in the mirror with it in the left hand and compute which direction I'm going........

I have been shaving with my right hand (dominant) since I started I use the left to strech the skin. No problem so far. I may try 2 handed shaving at some point.