Thread: Nicks, Cuts & Beheadings (missing ear parts count too)

Waiting for my first razor and strop to arrive (see beginners intro). I keep reading where an occasional nick here and there is basically all that there is to concern oneself with (I'm assuming that we're not talking about total idiots but mature people who have bothered to "research" the tools, techniques etc to "try" to do things the right way. So.... with no further ado ....... how bad is it "actually" when you began. I know everyone's learning curve will be different but ........ Has anyone heard or seen anyone actually "gash" their face or take a "chunk" of skin out! I know it "can" happen but then again .... someone "can" be run over in their living room eating popcorn watching a movie by an 18 wheeler with no brakes and bad steering running through their house out of control. It "could" happen but ...... what are the chances.
Guess what I'm asking is that I'm going to be an absolute "wreck" with nervousness till I get the hang of things. I can handle the normal "wear and tear" ........ well....... let's not use "tear". I can handle a few "nicks" here or there (anything septic can handle will be fine ..... I'll stop if the septic stick gets too small to hold). I like hearing about how much fun it was and that it was much easier than ya'll thought lmao. Thanks.

my experience has been that a) its not bad at all, b) it looks worse than it is, and c) go slowly and gently. If you havent seen it I would reccomend that you look at this www.shavemyface.com/downloads/The-Straight-Razor-Shave.pdf.

Even at the beginning, I was sold from the very first shave. The nicks I found a little embarrasing when they occured, but more often than not there were none.

well only once i got a nick that wasnt just a thin red line.
due to a dull blade i was buffing a bit much and finally pulled the blade along a bit
It took quite a bit of force and, well it hasnt left a scar

now im supposed to tell you these things dont happen?

The worst cut I ever got whilst learning was about 8mm long on my chin. It bled for a bit but it stopped after about 10 minutes or so.

Really the best advice I can give to avoid a cut is make sure your razor is truly shave ready, keep your touch light and dont force the razor if it snags.

If the razor is sharp enough you wont need any pressure or force to get a good shave. Its the sharpness of the blade that does it, not the pressure you use..!

Dont ever make a slicing motion with the blade, that will open you up so fast you wont know what happened! Its a scraping motion with the blade you want to go for.

If you're not sure about what you're doing, then go check out the shaving videos on this site. Jockeys has done some brilliant ones that show all the different passes and trouble spots.

I watched loads of videos before I tried it for the first time and that really helped me.

But if you follow the advice given here then you wont have any problems! The worst you may get is a few small nicks, but you can clean these up with a styptic pencil in a flash!

When you first start, just shave the sideburn area on one side at the beginning. Then next time do the sideburn area on both sides and then just add more areas as you go, leaving the chin and lip area for last.

I didnt actually follow this advice myself, I got carried away...! Hehe!

But really it just comes down to being careful and treating the blade with respect! You're in the right place here, and if you want any advice you can check the wiki and ask here in the forums!

Good luck!

hate the beheadings though--can't tupe wprth a damn afterwards

Riucg

Well the worst cut I got was entirely my own fault, I shave my sideburns quite high, and whilst not really paying attention I managed to put the razor far back into my ear and cut the inside of my ear and my earlobe.

It happens, but as long as you're careful you'll probably get little nicks and not much else.

Geek

Read my sig below and follow the advice the old barber gave to me and you should be fine. Works for me.

I've not beheaded myself, yet, but have gotten myself a couple times pretty good. The first was when I was making a transition from the cheek to go behind the ear...the square point hooked my earlobe and got me pretty good. The second time was with a Dovo Bismarck, again, making the transition from cheek to neck and I changed the angle on the blade too soon and it ended up giving my about an 18mm reminder not to do something like that without paying closer attention.

Having said all that, the nicks and cuts I've gotten were never too deep...heck, they never even bled too much. The deepest mine go is only as deep as a M3 would give me.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Read my sig below and follow the advice the old barber gave to me and you should be fine. Works for me.

+ 1 on that, there really aint nothing much to it besides that.

When first starting out, I was very cautious and a little nervous around the blade. Then I realized that it wasn't as dangerous as I thought and then I started to get over confident and gave myself little cuts. But that smartened me up a bit and I have had not had issues since.

Just go easy and follow the basics as advised by everyone and SRP Wiki.

Good Luck,

Pabster