Thread: 1st Straight Razor shave today

Thanks everyone for all the encouragement and info. I guess I'm the type to dive in. Likely, I'll resort to DE for any AM shaves prior to work due to time constraints for now but I may just double dip at some point soon heh.

I can say I'm glad I spent time working on bettering my lather before straights. That has helped in prep area. I think the advice about not pulling holds very true from what I experienced yesterday. Hopefully in a short while I can get in the shaveden for a second go. I must say I spent some time in the wiki earlier but it's a great tool to refresh your memory as your attacking your shave.

Thanks again all and can't wait to hear more.

The problem I was having was the radius of my chin and my left cheek with my right hand... still working on it.

As far as the chin goes, there have been a few posts about holding the razor stationary and moving your chin and lip across it. That description sounds very very bad, so do a search for a more detailed discussion of the technique, as it works pretty well.

Having trouble shaving your left cheek with your right hand, eh? SWAP HANDS. Go ahead and get it over with early, before you get the feel of using one hand for your whole face. Since you have to teach yourself a set of motions to go through from scratch, they may as well be the correct ones. No need to go through it twice IMO.

Stay encouraged! It gets better, from what they say!

Well, I have tried that once, and will try it again...

When it comes to shaving the chin, the best thing to do IMO is to look at the contours of your chin and imagine them as smaller flat planes and then adjust your stroke accordingly.

Originally Posted by Tbucket

Well, I have tried that once, and will try it again...

Swapping hands, you mean? I was pretty apprehensive about doing it, but read a thread where someone advised brushing your teeth with you left hand to get used to it. So I started doing EVERYTHING that I could with my left hand. Anythinig that took one hand at home, at work, at the grocery store, etc. I did with my left hand. By the time I got ready to start shaving with a straight, it felt considerably less foreign than I had anticipated. It also made stretching much easier, as I did not have to contort quite as much to get plenty of room to shave.