180 Days, 360 Shaves

[LawsonStone]

Well friends, I have been straight shaving now for 6 months. I have made a point of shaving twice a day--just a light single pass in the evening--to build up experience, practice, and increasingly, to enjoy using different razors.

What a journey it has been! My first attempt with an unhoned, unstropped Kriegar that had me running from the bathroom screaming though fortunately it was SO dull it didn't even cut my face, just attempted to pull the whiskers out by force! That was because my memory of straights was my dad just handing me the straight and saying "Clean up that peach fuzz." He did the stropping, etc.

Next was a Dovo Astrale Ebony from West Coast Shaving, hand-honed, the ideal starter…which I totally screwed up. Canned shave cream. Tried a full-face shave, lotsa cuts, lotsa unshaved whiskers. The weird thing about really epic bad technique is that you will cut everything on your face except hair. Emerging from the raw, abraded, bleeding surface of your skin will be whiskers, mocking your ineptitude. Assumed the razor was dull, stropped it HARD, fast, and loose…bye-bye pro-honed edge! Tried again…wisely quit early.

Then (choruses of "Just As I Am" and "Amazing Grace" played on cheesy organ should be playing now) I discovered SRP! Read the "first shave" wiki. Learned what to do, how to do it, how to start small. How to do prep for the shave. How to strop. By then my NEXT hand-honed razor arrived and I began anew, the right way.

I've had my ups and downs. I do NOT like spike-points-which is almost as well known as Sham's dislike of ATG shaving and Glen's passion for bevel setting But I was launched. My next mistake was barber hones. You know, you don't need 40 strokes on a barber hone to touch up a razor you've used 4 times! Sent razors off to be re-honed---thanks Bob Keyes for undoing my messes!

By now I was actually doing super at stropping--thanks Sham for a great video lesson on stropping! I also had a set of Norton hones and launched into the adventure. I wanted a lot of razors, I'm a collector by nature, and eBay beckoned. My first honing efforts merely adjusted the gross geometry of some mediocre razors! But many of you--Bob Keyes, Utopian, Dylan, Glen, and of course, Lynn and others--patiently advised and counseled on honing. Now I have a collection of about 50 razors, some new, most eBay finds, all very nice shavers, about 40+ honed by me, with lots of hand-holding. Hats off especially to Utopian and Glen for a private lessons via e-Mail and even telephone. Utopian took me step by step on a razor from bevel setting through finishing, all on e-mail.

So this morning I realized it has been well over 2 weeks since I used my styptic pencil. I expect nicks from time to time, but my morning 3 pass straight shave, which now takes about 20 minutes from strop to strop, is a step back into a world of restorative magic.

I love the way my face feels, and now that some rather nasty cuts have healed (tuition in the school of spike points and general focus) I like the way my face looks. I like that taut and tart feeling of my skin after applying the alum block. I like the feel and smell of a nice bay rum AS. I like my little tribe of new and vintage razors.

And most of all, I like you guys, my new friends in this unique hobby that takes an everyday, mundane, necessary chore and turns it into a sparkling little gem of manly elegance and refinement.

Hats off to you all, the managers, moderators, conversationalists, debaters, detractors, pros and poseurs, leaders and lurkers, the old-schooled and tattooed/head-shaven, the lawyers and truck-drivers, preachers and pimps, the brotherhood of the blade, the community of the carbon steel.

You band of brothers, you straight shaving gentlemen, I salute you!