Thread: How long 'til you got a good shave?

It took me a few tries before I could get a smooth shave.
I still can't shave against the grain though.

Originally Posted by BeBerlin

Just for the record, took me about nine weeks. Stropping was the main problem, I dulled my razors faster than I could buy new ones.



Which is why we spent so much time putting together the beginners guide. I wish it had existed when I started

Thanks for those guides btw . Because of what I read online I jumped in with both feet and didn't really have any problems picking it up pretty quickly. My first shave I went against the grain (which I actually rarely do now) and I got a better shave than I did with my crappy mach 3. I do agree with some of the others that it takes longer to learn the contours of the face and a proper stropping technique. Now that I switched to a much larger razor I feel like I'm trying to relearn both.

First shave with a shave ready razor from SRD! It was not completely BBS, but my face was totally clear. just had issues with neck. I have not used a cartridge, not even for touch ups since. It has now been about 1 1/2 months.

Thank you to all the SRP members.

Lu

My learning curve was fairly shallow but I chalk that up to reading all the information I could get my hands on before taking the plunge.

I was getting pretty good shaves within a week. Within a month, my shaves were BBS

About 100 shaves before I consistently got BBS and never need a DE to clean up.

It took me about a month to get good shaves but I was tackling honing at the same time w/ 5 straights I purchased about 20 yrs ago. Thinking back it was quite funny but it was a rough road. Add another several weeks before I could shave w/o thinking about every stroke and getting consistent BBS shaves. At that time I was honing up to 8k. About a year ago I got a C12k and added a new level of sharpness to my razors and this past spring I got my Escher. Always learning new stuff. I finally got some expert honing lessons from 'THE' expert Lynn this past weekend and expect my honing to take another jump in quality once I find time to play with the hones. Maybe this weekend, I hope.

About 3-4 weeks of every day shaving, but the reason could be as well within this time I tried 3 straights before I found the one, which suited me the best

I got close and smooth shaves really early. The problem was that most times I was stinging and sore for at least a couple of hours, one time I remember being sore to the touch for almost a week.

So, since the question was how long to a good shave, I chose the longer time. Since close, smooth, and painless = good shave in my books.

I started getting an acceptable shave within the first week -- by "acceptable" I mean that I could walk out of the house without my face looking like it had been mauled by an angry cat, and with enough whiskers gone to where I could go to the office. But it took me at least a month to get a really decent shave. And, now, many, many months later, I'm getting consistently good shaves, but not BBS. Because of the nature of my facial growth, I'm not sure that I'll ever get BBS shaves, but that's OK, I don't have to get great shaves in order to enjoy using straight razors . Just "good" shaves are good enough. And, who knows, great shaves may eventually come.

Well, against what I thought was my better judgement, this morning I skipped my xtg pass, and tried an atg for the first time (aside from the one that left me with a major rash a week into learning how to shave,) and surprise surprise, it worked wonders. Parts of my face are actually BBS with no irritation for the first time ever. I even tempted fate by doing a fool's pass on my 'stache.

I start my new job on monday, and now I won't have a five o'clock shadow at noon!