I'm keeping the beard!

I'm looking into straight razors for a few reasons:

1) Obviously way cooler than any other way of removing facial hair.
2) I love tools and any kind of gear (my other activities are rock climbing, archery, cycling, and I am pursuing a PhD in biology...it's nothing but cool equipment!)
3) If it really does provide a closer shave, then I'm in. I've had more than one lady comment on scratchiness even when it looks okay.


Here's the catch though...I have a beard and intend to keep it for the foreseeable future. Everyone says to start with the sideburns and cheek...that constitutes a large part of my beard! :thinking:

Does anyone have some tips for starting out shaving just my neck?

One suggestion would be to just shave the neck area, I suppose...In all seriousness, go for it, just do the same as people have suggested and do a North to South pass on your neck instead of on one side of the face. I shave around a goatee everyday and for keeping a nice shape to a goatee (and a beard too I suppose) you can't go past a straight. I can define the edges, get into those funny little places around the mouth where only a few stray whiskers grow and shave them without harm to any other part of my goatee. Just go for it, mate. You'll have much success if you take it slow and careful and only move forward when you feel comfortable.


Mick

or you could even do like those tattooers that start out on fruit.. either way.. just shave the hairs you don't want and leave the ones you do.. no matter how bad the first shaves are.. they get better.

Good news
The words from my Barber in 1981 "Glen if yer gonna keep that crap on your face, let's at least get it straight"
"Want straight lines learn to use a Straight Razor"

I did !!!

Bad news

The bad angles that we have to use to get those straight lines are rather hard on the edges, so cutting less hair doesn't mean you get longer lasting edges :confused:

You are going to need to learn to use a spike point and you are going to need stupid sharp edges, so think extreme hollow grinds...


YMMV of course, but this is what I have learned...


Welcome to SRP let me know if I can help in anyway with shaving with a beard tips...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Good news
The words from my Barber in 1981 "Glen if yer gonna keep that crap on your face, let's at least get it straight"
"Want straight lines learn to use a Straight Razor"

I did !!!

Bad news

The bad angles that we have to use to get those straight lines are rather hard on the edges, so cutting less hair doesn't mean you get longer lasting edges :confused:

You are going to need to learn to use a spike point and you are going to need stupid sharp edges, so think extreme hollow grinds...


YMMV of course, but this is what I have learned...


Welcome to SRP let me know if I can help in anyway with shaving with a beard tips...

---

Thanks for the tips, I was leaning away from a round toe anyway...not for a go0d reason, I just think they look dumb.

I was looking at this razor in the classifieds, any thoughts?

Joseph Rodgers & Sons 11/16 Square Point L@@K - Straight Razor Place Classifieds

I hear that Rodgers are good blades and, again not a good reason here, but this one is really "sharp" looking (pun way intended).

You may find you end up with a goatee.
The shaving becomes addictive and you'll want to do more than just your neck. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nzFuzzy

You may find you end up with a goatee.
The shaving becomes addictive and you'll want to do more than just your neck. :)

---

It probably would want to...if I didn't look so damn good already. :)

I keep a "Hollywoodian" and a str8 is definately needed to keep those sides and corners perfectly straight. I used to have a Fusion and even with the puny single back blade I couldn't make perfect lines.

I find that I can keep my neck relatively clean for up to 3 days after a good shave, and my checks stay clean for up to 2 days. It's definately worth the time to shave with a str8, you won't be disappointed!

Here's a pic from when I used to keep my beard longer down my neck :-)

I have tried to grow a beard few years ago..im 31 now...I have a heavy coarse n sensitive skin...I recalled me wanting to scratch my face off with my fingers..;-)..I feel im not genetically designed for a beard even if I trim it few times a week..a goat tee also drove me mostly nuts too...hmm :boohoo:

pcdad

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nzFuzzy

You may find you end up with a goatee.
The shaving becomes addictive and you'll want to do more than just your neck. :)

---

I agree. I've been trying to shave just my neck for two years now. Everty day, I think, "Maybe today I'll shave it off." So far I haven't but, damn it's tempting.

Welcome. I too have a goatee, and I also keep some pretty good mutton chops. When I was first learning, I sacrificed the chops-- now when I look back on it, it was probably uneccessary, because I ended up doing two full passes on my first try anyway. So, go for it. Just be prepared, because once you get the hang of straight shaving, you'll love it so much that you'll contemplate losing that beard almost every day (I know I do). But if you keep it, you'll have the most well-trimmed beard of anyone you know. And don't hesitate to ask any questions, the guys on here are the best.

I have a beard also. I started straight shaving a couple of weeks ago and found that my neck wasn't really that bad of a place to start. The grain changes right where my beard ends so it actually clears up a lot of the confusion over the parts of my face I would have to change direction. Part of the reason I have a beard is that I hate shaving. The close shave from the straight ensures that I don't have to touch up my neck near as often.

Good luck

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bmcwil

I have a beard also. I started straight shaving a couple of weeks ago and found that my neck wasn't really that bad of a place to start. The grain changes right where my beard ends so it actually clears up a lot of the confusion over the parts of my face I would have to change direction. Part of the reason I have a beard is that I hate shaving. The close shave from the straight ensures that I don't have to touch up my neck near as often.

Good luck

---

+1. The neck is a great place to start just with down strokes. Then stretch the skin as you need to. For me it's side ways. When you get comfortable you can go up the side of the neck until you feel OK with it and start increasing the area to the rest of the neck.

Have fun,

Lynn

I had a beard for years, until I got into str8s. This summer I shaved off the whole shebang on the last day of school (I'm a teacher). But because part of my image of myself is that of a guy with at least some facial hair, I am growing back a goatee. It sort of gives me the best of both worlds, and lets me fudge on shaving the two biggest problem areas, the moustache and chin.

I posted another thread about how unbelievably close and smooth my str8 shaves are now after a summer to learn. I never would have believed I could get shaves this smooth! I just finished up a wicked good shave, my best yet, after giving my son's Dovo 5/8" the CrOx and newspaper treatment.

In doing so I discovered another new favorite cream in our seemingly bottomless basket of samples: TABAC! The scent grows on me, and the performance is hard to beat!

Do ALL PhD biologists have to have the Charles Darwin beards? Seems like most do.

I had a nice full beard until I bought a straight razor and now it's hard to keep it. I miss the look of a beard but I really like to shave now. I've tried all kinds of beard styles. The aforementioned hollywoodian is probably the best between having a beard and straight razor shaving. I lost mine because I kept taking the sides to low and then I had a goatee that was real nice, thick and long (I know, "that's what she said"). Then what happened to the sides of my hollywoodian started happening to my goatee. Now it's gone and I'm starting over with just shaving the neck.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pcdad

I have tried to grow a beard few years ago..im 31 now...I have a heavy coarse n sensitive skin...I recalled me wanting to scratch my face off with my fingers..;-)..I feel im not genetically designed for a beard even if I trim it few times a week..a goat tee also drove me mostly nuts too...hmm :boohoo:

pcdad

---

I also have soft, easily irritated skin (mine's partly due to mild rosacea) and a wiry beard as you do, so I'm familiar with the discomfort. I've worn a full but "groomed" beard since I was 18 (40 years next week), and honestly - it's a bit more work to keep right than a full shave or just a moustache but I prefer it. I have shaved a few times during those years and kept smooth-faced for a couple of months - and when it first starts growing back I at first feel grubby, then itchy, then grubby again. A good shampoo/conditioner on the fledgling beard helps at this stage. Then I appear, to myself, at least, like I just crawled out of a dumpster until the thinner places catch up and I can shape it properly, and at that point it feels natural again. I'd add that unless I shave my neck every day (all the way around, I don't leave the back for the barber) I still feel grubby, but a neck and upper cheek shave with nice, crisp edges and careful shaping and scissoring of stray hairs makes me a lot better groomed than a beardless guy with a 5 o'clock shadow. I may be just a little bit vain about it though. Nawww.

As far as edging is concerned, the spike point and super-sharp edge advice is spot on. If you're like Gallagher the comic and I, one hand works great and the other ain't fer shit, so you may find that you tend to blind yourself when shaving the offhand cheek if you're the least bit farsighted, especially with wider razors. When I started with a straight I had inherited a nice little 4/8 from my grand-uncle, and I liked the narrow blade - in fact, I need to find another soon as the skinny blade works better for me than the 11/16 I have now. I also prefer the 4/8 for that tight curve where neck meets jowl, as that's where I mark my lower boundary of beard. I can do it with a wider blade but I'd rather not shave against-the-grain (south to north) in an inside curve. I do it anyway, but not when I have hiccups.

You may as well get ready to have to "start over" occasionally, or at least to feel grubby until your beardline fills itself in again. You will gradually encroach if you insist on that crisp, neat line. Some guys start over by shaving completely (I can almost hear my wife yelling now, "NOT THE MOUSTACHE!"), others just put up with looking like they're out of blades until things catch up. I prefer the look of the former as it quickly conveys intent to grow a new beard to observers, but I usually choose the latter, as I don't like going through the dirty - itchy - grubby stages again.

One final point - on my cheeks I like a fairly thin lather and I wipe off the excess so I can easily see the beardline. As soon as the lather starts I use it for that purpose, then finish whipping it into a full lather for the neck. It means that I use a little bit more water (or, less soap) than is ideal at first, but it's easy to pause and crank it up into something more cushioning for the rest of the shave.

I hope one of the Straight Razor Mavens who live here will chime in with an improvement in technique to solve that "self-blinding" problem that doesn't involve using the off-side hand.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

Do ALL PhD biologists have to have the Charles Darwin beards? Seems like most do.

---

Well if we do then I'm out of luck. My mustache and beard don't connect and I have very soft hair in all regards so my beard will never be really bristly and huge...good thing? I think so.

growing a beard is the reason I got started useing a straight razor. one winter about ten years ago I decided I really didn't like a sub-zero wind hitting my face first thing in the morning, so I started a beard to try to get a little insulation. when summer came around again I decided the beard wasn't as good an idea as it was in the winter so it had to go. after getting a quarter inch shaved with an injector that got cloged 5 times in the process I decided to ask an uncle if he still had any straights from back when he was a barber. I knew it would be pretty dang hard to clog one of those! since he only lived about a block away he brought one over for me (along with some good advice on how to use it), and I've been hooked ever since. my yearly routine from that year forward is when it stays below 40 the beard starts growing and when it gets back up to 50 the beard goes bye bye.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nickedNsliced

one winter about ten years ago I decided I really didn't like a sub-zero wind hitting my face first thing in the morning, so I started a beard to try to get a little insulation. when summer came around again I decided the beard wasn't as good an idea as it was in the winter so it had to go. my yearly routine from that year forward is when it stays below 40 the beard starts growing and when it gets back up to 50 the beard goes bye bye.

---

You wouldn't happen to be Canadian by any chance?

Until I was a SR shaver I had a beard/facial hair of some sort ever since I could grow it. After high school I found successive jobs which involved working outside during Canadian winters, and I can tell every one here that a beard does help. Freshly shaved skin does not feel great when it's -30!

The last couple winters were, IIRC, the first that I didn't grow my winter beard. I just sucked it up, I guess.

Ah, the things we do for straight razor shaving.....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by leadduck

I agree. I've been trying to shave just my neck for two years now. Everty day, I think, "Maybe today I'll shave it off." So far I haven't but, damn it's tempting.

---

FWIW --

I recently switched from beard to goatee. That happened before I started experimenting with straight razors.

I've found that I _like_ having "skin cheeks" again, after 40 years keeping them covered in hair. And people haven't noticed (much) that my style has changed, since my frontal view still has lots of hair.

I have enough shaving challenges with a goatee; keeping a beard, and using a straight razor, would be beyond me. As it is, I use a Gillette cartridge razor for a lot of my face.

Charles

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ryan82

You wouldn't happen to be Canadian by any chance?

Until I was a SR shaver I had a beard/facial hair of some sort ever since I could grow it. After high school I found successive jobs which involved working outside during Canadian winters, and I can tell every one here that a beard does help. Freshly shaved skin does not feel great when it's -30!

The last couple winters were, IIRC, the first that I didn't grow my winter beard. I just sucked it up, I guess.

Ah, the things we do for straight razor shaving.....

---

well...I'm not canadian, but I've had outdoor jobs myself. it may not get as cold here or stay cold as long, but it's cold enough for me. I did get as far north as michigan once. it was the only time I remember haveing to wear a coat in july.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nickedNsliced

well...I'm not canadian, but I've had outdoor jobs myself. it may not get as cold here or stay cold as long, but it's cold enough for me. I did get as far north as michigan once. it was the only time I remember haveing to wear a coat in july.

---

Just for the record as far North as I am, July is still nice enough that we don't have to wear coats.... unless you get a crappy rain soaked one like we did this year :rant:

I rekon once you started with a straight its only a matter of time an you'll loose the beard :cry: due to wantin more real estate to shave on ..hehe ! goodluck

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bred

I'm looking into straight razors for a few reasons:

1) Obviously way cooler than any other way of removing facial hair.
2) I love tools and any kind of gear (my other activities are rock climbing, archery, cycling, and I am pursuing a PhD in biology...it's nothing but cool equipment!)
3) If it really does provide a closer shave, then I'm in. I've had more than one lady comment on scratchiness even when it looks okay.


Here's the catch though...I have a beard and intend to keep it for the foreseeable future. Everyone says to start with the sideburns and cheek...that constitutes a large part of my beard! :thinking:

Does anyone have some tips for starting out shaving just my neck?

---

how does everyone line up thier jaw? im running into a problem when im going top down on my neck i still cut the longer beard hairs.. also when going ATG and XTG any tips for keeping a straight line??

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ANGELO

how does everyone line up thier jaw? im running into a problem when im going top down on my neck i still cut the longer beard hairs.. also when going ATG and XTG any tips for keeping a straight line??

---

After a few months experience doing this I would recommend the following:

1) I have a $10 electric trimmer that I got from WalMart. It's battery powered. I just take the guard off and trim the line that I want first to better define the difference between stubble and beard. Also, regularly trim your beard around the line you want so that there aren't too many hairs that extend to where you shave with the straight. Then you can just carefully go under the long beard hair and stop where that line was and shave the line. The key is to not be too hasty and make lots of short strokes.

2) ATG and XTG...shave more or less normally for all parts away from your beard line and for the part right at your beard line just take a little extra time. Again, only do 1/2" to 3/4" at a time and go over that with short strokes, then move on.

Good luck!

i have been using a trimmer to line up first.. just wondering if anyone uses a straight only would like to ditch all electrics if possible

So I have had a beard in various forms and am now currently in the moustache mode . I came across this website.If you like beards and such and wanna challenge your blade skills,then check this guy out.The Quest For Every Beard Type | Jon Dyer's Blog . I'm rather fond of the klingon look as my beard was pretty close to that for a while. This guy has the hair type I wish I had.He can be real versatile .:):)

i cant swing a lot of those but i have tried quite a few. getting those shapes with a straight is gunna take a bit of practice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ANGELO

i cant swing a lot of those but i have tried quite a few. getting those shapes with a straight is gunna take a bit of practice.

---

Indeed...and that my good fellow ,is what separates us straight shavers from the cartridge kids.No one ever said is was necessarily easy,but the reward is oh so much more fulfilling . I should also point out that I myself have not mastered all of these styles,but It does give a nice challenge to look forward to. Most folks don't even think about it when cartridge shaving. Hmmm makes me wonder.Do you suppose straight shavers on a whole are a more conscious type of folk than their cartridge counterparts whom I suspect are more just go,go,go, and damn the consequences ? :hmmm: :):)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nightblade

So I have had a beard in various forms and am now currently in the moustache mode . I came across this website.If you like beards and such and wanna challenge your blade skills,then check this guy out.The Quest For Every Beard Type | Jon Dyer's Blog . I'm rather fond of the klingon look as my beard was pretty close to that for a while. This guy has the hair type I wish I had.He can be real versatile .:):)

---

lol Interesting page, not sure how you found it, but mildly amusing all the same. I thought I'd had many styles over the years.... man, I don't even come close.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ryan82

lol Interesting page, not sure how you found it, but mildly amusing all the same. I thought I'd had many styles over the years.... man, I don't even come close.

---

I was looking up Hollywoodian beard and came across this fellow. Yeah...he's got it goin on in the beard Dept. for sure ha !:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nightblade

Indeed...and that my good fellow ,is what separates us straight shavers from the cartridge kids.No one ever said is was necessarily easy,but the reward is oh so much more fulfilling . I should also point out that I myself have not mastered all of these styles,but It does give a nice challenge to look forward to. Most folks don't even think about it when cartridge shaving. Hmmm makes me wonder.Do you suppose straight shavers on a whole are a more conscious type of folk than their cartridge counterparts whom I suspect are more just go,go,go, and damn the consequences ? :hmmm: :):)

---

so much more fulfilling.. makes shaping a beard an art form.

well right now i have a beard it starts from the bottom of my ear and runs down my jaw line so a shave my neck and my side burns lol no hair from the bottom of my ear and up !

my beard is already getting smaller

I had a goatee for the longest time and would go a week sometimes between shaves until I started straight shaving. I kept the goatee for a bit after I started and then the urge hit me to shave my whole face even at times it makes me feel like a kid. Well after a while being clean shaven I'm bringing back the goatee because SWMBO said she'd liked it. So even though I still like the clean shave a happy wife makes a happy life, right.