Thread: I had my first straight razor shave (partial) last night. Any advice?

I received my first straight razor yesterday. It is professionally sharpened and shave ready. I only did the cheeks to start off with so I can get used to using it and how it functions. What I noticed was that it seemed that my shaving cream wasnt necessarily drying out but thickening up to the point where the blade wouldn't glide easily. I had to keep applying water from my brush.
I used Dermalogica pre-shave oil and TOBS Almond cream and had not previously had this problem.
Thank you in advance!

Happy Shaving!

Grats on your first straight shave!
I'll have to advice adding more water to your lather. When I get a new soap I like to try out, I aim to start out as normal and then keep adding water little by little, until the lather is too thin, so that later I will know when to stop. It often is my experience the lather will hold more water than I'd originally think.
Best of luck.

I thought I had added quite a bit. I will try it and let you know how it worked out.

Congrats on your first shave. I don't have any advise for your observations, just a big keep at it. It gets better as you go.

Just wanted to update on the lather. I tried lathering and using more water and it helped quite a bit. I only did WTG 2x and I did do a complete shave last night.

Originally Posted by BigOregon

Just wanted to update on the lather. I tried lathering and using more water and it helped quite a bit. I only did WTG 2x and I did do a complete shave last night.

Complete shave already ?! If it went well, straight razor's are definitely for you.

Keep at it, and you'll have a great support group here if ever you devellop any kind of AD.

Originally Posted by Glenn24

Complete shave already ?! If it went well, straight razor's are definitely for you.

Well, he didn't complain of hacking his face off, so all-in-all things must have gone alright!

I see your update re: lather but I just wanted to support the advice because I am new and I saw the same issue. I didn't add enough water because I thought my lather would break and so the razor would't glide across my face, so I added more water and continued whipping the lather and it took up the water nicely and continued to thicken. Yes, there is a breaking point, but it is way beyond what you think. if you add what you think is too much water and the lather thins out, keep beating the $hit out of it and pumping it to get back the thickness.