Thread: First straight shave

Congrats! It will get more addicting as you go. I use mineral oil, i dry the blade and let it sit for a day to make sure its dry. Dont know it that is needed but thats what it do. Then in the am i put on the oil.

Soon you will be wanting your hair to grow faster.

I usually go 30ish degrees on the WTG, a little flatter on the XTG, and a little flatter again on the ATG. Just me though.

Also, I recently tried a little plain old hair conditioner on the beard region after hearing a lot about how much it can help. Basically it works wonders. I highly recommend at least giving it a try.

On a slightly (in my opinion) more disgusting note, some people around here have had great luck using olive oil as a kind of pre shave oil.

Congrats. I can hardly imagine that I actually had difficulty my first shave. It becomes second nature so quickly, the only thing now is a tug every now and then with ATG. Of course I did grow a goatee to avoid mustache shaving.

Originally Posted by IanS

Congrats. I can hardly imagine that I actually had difficulty my first shave. It becomes second nature so quickly, the only thing now is a tug every now and then with ATG. Of course I did grow a goatee to avoid mustache shaving.

Me too on the goatee

Welcome aboard!!

I use a quick spray of Inox after I dry off the blade.

Hi guys,

Well I'm now 3 days into shaving with my straight. I've graduated from my cheeks and moved to my neck. Yesterday was very ordinary, the blade keep gettign stuck and would pull and tug. I struggled with working out a comfortable grip.

Today was a lot better, managed one WTG pass on my neck, whciih I was proud of. No cuts, but some razor burn.

I'm finding trouble with my first pass, it seems to be very 'skippy', and I really struggle to generate any momentum as the blade gets stuck. I reduce the angle and sometime that makes it worse, so I increase the angle to almost 90 degree and then try to work it back to an acceptable angle. However the second pass is GREAT.

Any advice on what it is?

Congrats on your progress. Blade getting stuck can be any number of things eg poor lather, spine raised too high, inadequate stretching etc but commonly, newb stropping can reduce the best edge to a butter knife, no offence. Possible that your stroke may even be too tentative. Early days yet. You'll sort it out.

If you want Camellia oil you can get it from any Carba-Tec store but I always recommend Inox.

something that helped me tremendously when I was in the early stages of shaving was making the blades angle "shallower," i.e. slightly less than what I thought was 30 degrees. When you think about it, 30 degrees is the spine pretty close to your face. I had the same "skipping problem" (sort of). This made my shaves much smoother. Making the blade closer to 45 degrees results in a much more aggressive shave, which can (and did for me) result in irritation. try making the angle shallower

it will come with time, patience, and confidence. it will come.

Originally Posted by Aza

Well, yesterday in what seemed a torturous wait my Dovo 5/8 tortoiseshell imitation arrived from straight razor designs, honed and ready to rock and roll

After reading as much info, and watching as many videos as I could, I decided I would try shaving my cheeks on both sides to get a feel for the blade, and work on establishing my grip and technique.

Had a shower, and while doing that soaked the Rooney 1/2 in my lather bowl with hot water as per usual, CADE soap and lathered myself up.

Drum roll please..............

I did pretty well. No corrective plastic surgery required, no call to the emergency ward. I got some confidence from shaving my cheeks, and then decided to give my neck a run WTG. That was more difficult and nerve racking, I wouldn't say it was a thorough pass, but gave me an idea of what its like. One very small nick which stopped with the cold water rinse, and no irritation.

I only managed one WTG pass, before reverting to my DE to finish off the shave. I'm going to continue with the cheek routine for the rest of the week and build up my confidence and comfort level. I will wait for the W/E before doing a whole shave with the straight, that way if any disaster occurs I can lock myself in my apartment until my face heals.

I have a few questions - with the neck pass the blade seemed to get stuck, is that angle, lather, blade or all?

Secondly, the noise the blade makes is off putting don't you think? It sounds as though your shaving your face with a cut Coke can?

Lastly the razor came exquisitely packaged (well done to the guys at straight razor designs) with a note inside saying the blade had been honed and coated in Camellia oil? I can't find that stuff locally here in Australia, for all you Aussies, what do you use, if you use anything at all?

First of all, congratulations on your first shave. Note it down so that you can celebrate your anniverary a year from now. Second, the noise that the blade makes (like scraping dry toast) it is ok. you problably have a full hollow blade and that is the noise it makes when cutting the stubble. Third: You are getting stuck shaving the neck...this is probable a technique problem. You need to strech and watch the angle of the blade...may I suggest the Wiki...the videos on shaving by Jockeys. Good Luck.

First, welcome to the straight razor shaving club. It's good to have you.

With your neck, it sounds like you have identified your problem. If you are not getting a comfortable grip on the razor how can you have a comfortable shave? It is impossible. Practice/experiment with the way that you are holding the razor. Switch hands if needed. I did find that with the neck particularly the grip can make a big difference.

With the sound. I went to my barber and they shaved me with their feather, and then I pulled out my real razor and finished the job right there in the barber shop. They complained a lot about the sound. Like was said before a full hollow razor makes a lot of noise. It seems to me that it amplifies the noise like a tuning fork and you really hear each hair sheared. But that is good feedback from the razor.

Will--