Thread: My first week of SR shaving.

Well the title says it all so here we go.

Tues, Aug. 11th.
Got home with my new equipment.
I had a 10 days worth of growth on my face so I used my generic beard trimmer to try and get it down as much as possible. Wasn't as short as I would have liked it, but decided to use my new Dovo anyway.
showered
Created a lather.
Stropped. My practicing with combs and butter knives didn't seem to transfer over to the real thing as much as I was expecting, (I put a decent gash in the strop).
Applied the lather to face. Realized I should have stropped then made the lather. My lather seemed to fall apart as I was applying it.
Attempted to shave. My bathroom is decent size, but the sink area is quite confining, it took me about three minutes just to figure out the angles.
Shaved. I shaved the back half of right cheek, right sideburn, back half of left check, left side burn, WTG and ATG.
Assessment Certainly wasn't the closest shave but not to bad. Nicked my ear once.

Wed., Aug. 12
Showered From here on out everything happens after the shower.
Stropped. Changed my stropping technique, seem to work out quite well.
Lather My lather is still subpar, but at least it lasted through the whole shave.
Attempted to Shave Still having trouble working out the confined sink area.
Shave Shaved, both sideburns, both cheeks, a little bit of the right neck, all WTG and ATG
Assessment Had major razor burn, right cheek looked like a cat attacked me. Not Impressed with the closeness of the shave, I thought it will come in time.

Thur., Aug. 13
Stropped Feel very comfortable with the way I am stropping, but wondering if it may be wrong.
Lather I almost have it, but not a cream just yet there are noticeable air bubbles.
Attempted to shave Being ****ed off about the confined sink space, I complained about it to the lady. She suggested I move the shaving part to the bedroom why didn't I think of that. Now I can move my elbows out where I need them.
Shave Shaved same areas as the previous day.
Assessment Put an inch by a centimeter gash in my right cheek, it wasn't very deep, just enough for a good bleeding. Wondering why the heck I'm even doing this for, the closeness is still not up to my standereds.

Fri., Aug. 14
Stropped Feeling very confident about the stropping, but realize over confidence is when you start making mistakes.
Lather Now that's the kind of lather a man needs, nice and creamy.
Shave Shaved the whole thing excluding chin and upper lip.
Assessment Neck is all ripped up. Side burns and cheeks smooth, if I could do that all over with no burn it would be heaven. Some spots needed going over with Fusion.

Sat., Aug. 15
Stropped Changed the way I stropped again, I think this was more what I need to do. Spent the next few days making slight alterations.
Lather
Shave Attempted the whole face.
Assessment Killed the neck AGAIN!!! Chin and upper lip needed going over with the fusion. Every thing else was very nice.

Sun., Aug. 16
Not much different from Sat.

Mon., Aug 17
I need a break.
After my drink I realized that I should go back to square one and go a little bit slower in my progression.

Haha! Brilliant. A shave diary, what a good idea. I can see how a confined area would be a bitch. The mirrors are all over the place in my bathroom, so it's a bugger to get the right angle, too. Do keep us updated!

dude.... stick with it... i've only been shaving for about a month and it's gotten immensely better over time... my first shave went great, my second shave went great... then i got over-confident, and on my third shave i cut the s*** out of my lip... TWICE... the fact that you are taking a step back is a good thing, reassess and really focus on your angle... once i had the angle right, the cuts and razor burn were minimized and the enjoyment was maximized... good luck

I was planning on creating this thread, for a day or two. For some reason I decided to create it when I was on the verge of a drunken stupor, so it didn't come out the way I would have wanted it. Oh well, I'm too lazy to edit so it will have to stay how it is.
I'll add more to my experience if people are interested, but I was not my intent to make this a shaving blog type thread.
I do plan on staying with SR shaving, at least until I feel like I got my monies worth out of it. If I feel like it is worth it, I might just get rid of my Fusion and stick strictly to the SR, which was my plan before I started.

I'm not that far ahead of you, I've been shaving with a straight for about 3 weeks now, but I've followed this forum for a little longer.
A few things I've found to help me out (and you'll find them all over the forum, but these especially worked for me)
1. Pressure - not too much. Hold the blade right and let it do the work, don't try to force it.
2. Angle - When my shave doesn't turn out well, it's almost always because I've got the blade at some funny angle... I'm hoping to build this into more of a habit, but I still find around my chin I tend to make the angle way too large.
3. Don't over-shave. Going over the same place multiple times can cause a lot of irritation. Do your best with one or two passes... if you still aren't happy with the results, do some touch up with your cartridge razor.
4. Patience - the more you work at it, the better the shave will be. Take your time.

I've found that, though my shave is still not perfect, I get a reasonably close shave, with little to no irritation, and no blood for over a week. (knock on wood)

Keep going. Just make sure there is no drunken stupors just before or during shaving. Take your time go slow and learn, your shaves will get better as you get more accustom a str8. You will get there.

Originally Posted by natepaint

I need a break.
After my drink I realized that I should go back to square one and go a little bit slower in my progression.

You get points for determination!

If you're still having irritation or discomfort you might want to try shaving every other day or so, and leave out ATG until your WTG strokes are down pat.

When I started, I found that after a really rough shave I should wait 2 days before going at it again. Irritated skin gets razor burn much more easily than normal skin.