Thread: Shaves one and two down....

Ok my razor and strop arrived this past Wednesday (thanks to Ken at RR!). I couldn't wait to try it out - even though I had some minor razor burn from A Gillette fusion the day before. Below are my findings, but first some things to clarify first. Prior to Wednesday I haven't used shaving cream/soap in over 15 years (been shaving since the age of 12-13 and I'm 35 now). I've always shaved in/during my shower and at most (also hardly ever) would use a very small amount of hair conditioner.

Razor: Gold Dollar - honed by Ken (sending my Beau Brummel #35 to Floppyshoes for honing tomorrow so I can compare)

Brush: Wilkinson & Sword - Wally mart mcjobby - (bought an Omega 10066 today)
Soap: Wilkinson & Sword Soap - Wally mart again - (will add or only use the new Proraso cream I bought today too)
Pre-shave: Proraso pre/post shave cream in a jar.
Post-shave: Kenneth Cole something or another (wife likes it and it does an ok job)


Shave 1: minor razor burn irritation (mainly aggravated what was there), maybe I should've waited another day . There seemed to be some hair that came off but not much. A couple of times the razor was at or greater than 45 degrees when shaving (thank goodness I have a leather face), but no blood. Showered before hand and used the proraso.

Shave 2: 3 days later the burn was mainly gone, so I figured I'd give it a go again. Stropped the razor about (15 laps) and did a pretty bad job (kept taking the razor off the strop at the end strokes and the blade would make a "shing" sound) which may not of helped. Did a warm towel, no shower this time. Paid more attention to skin pulling and noticed more hair was coming off. Shave felt a lot rougher but was prob due to poor prep and bad stropping. Some tugging, especially during ATG, could this be due to bad angles again on my part? Once again I think my leather face saved me!

Shave 3: That'll be tonight...stay tuned......

Tolo,

Try stropping your razor more than 15 laps, say 40-50 laps. See if that improves your shave at all.

If you're just starting out then I'd hold off on the ATG until you're getting a good, comfortable shave WTG.

When you strop, try to keep the spine on the leather the whole time and just flip. Also, if you're not doing this already, go slow when stropping and focus on your technique. Once you get the hang of it you'll find that the speed comes naturally.

Cheers, good luck, and let us know how future shaves go -- especially when you get that Brummel back. I have a 35 and love it.

+1 on holding off the ATG pass. Personally, I cant do the ATG pass at all, my skin doesnt like it and it gives me razor burn galore. You dont have to do the full three pass shave to get a BBS result.

Do also increase your stropping to 40 or 50 laps on leather, and try doing some passes on the material side as well (15-20) as this also really helps get the edge ready. At least in my experience anyway!

Good luck and keep us posted!

+1 on the stropping 40-50 laps and holding off on the ATG pass. I would get you XTG pass down before moving to the ATG pass.

Also, it it very possible that you have more coarse whiskers on your chin. Try dropping your blade angle slightly. I think I had a propensity to have too steep a angle when I started. This causes more pulling, which makes you use more pressure. More pressure=rough shave.

Thanks all. Stropping helped, but I still got a some small areas of razor burn. Mainly due to bad angles and still learning to offhand the razor.

Going only with the grain is really hard for anything below the chin as the hair doesn't flow in the same direction for the majority of it.....

Originally Posted by Tolo

Thanks all. Stropping helped, but I still got a some small areas of razor burn. Mainly due to bad angles and still learning to offhand the razor.

Going only with the grain is really hard for anything below the chin as the hair doesn't flow in the same direction for the majority of it.....

Just about everybody has neck hair that grows all weird. One of the more difficult and often-overlooked aspects of learning straight shaving is mapping out your growth patterns. As you've noted, this is typically fairly easy on the cheeks and around the lips as hair tends to grow in a uniform pattern. Underneath the jaw line is where you'll get hair growing upwards or sideways or whatever.

You might find that there are a few angles where you can get both WTG and XTG cuts. That's what I do personally as XTG doesn't irritate my skin (ATG does), so on my neck I shave from my Adam's apple towards my ear.

Ok a couple of more shaves down. I think because of how fast my hair grows I can't go more than 2 days or things start to get tough.....as I waited 3 days and the nicks (and one small gash) were bad with a bit of tugging.

Over the last 3 shaves the only way I've been able to get the baby smooth shave is to use a Gillette Fusion ATG right at the end....I'm thinking the stretch and angles still need some work...

Got my Beau Brummel newly honed by Floppyshoes (outstanding job and tightened pins for me too!) and WOW what a difference from the Gold Dollar!!

Shave was real easy and way less irritation.....but still having issues with the neck where I need to use a Gillette Fusion still to get anywhere near a baby smooth feel....