So I just tried my hand at straight razor shaving and it went as I expected. I nicked my face, got razor burn, and didn't get a very close shave. Reading other posts on the forum, I know I'm not the only one going through this. I know I'm still getting use to the angle, holding the blade, and confidence when shaving. I would like to share my experience and see if any of you had any suggestions.

First off, I have an extremely thick beard that proves difficult for even my proglide on some days. I also have extremely sensitive skin on my neck. I picked up a Dovo from classicshaving.com and had it professionally honed. I use The Art of Shaving products - sandalwood pre-shave oil, soap, and after shave balm. I have a badger brush and scuttle for lather, and I have a roo strop from straight razor designs with cloth and leather. And of course, I have my trusty and now much used styptic pen. So here's how day 1 went:

I let my beard go for about 2 days. I started by stropping my razor, 15 times on the cloth side and 40 on the leather. Set it aside and jumped in the shower. I washed my face and even put some of my wife's conditioner on my beard for the remainder of the shower. When I got out I lathered my soap in a nice hot scuttle and set it aside. I put the pre-shave oil on with a hot towel over it for about 30 seconds to soften up my beard a little more. I added a little more water to my brush to hydrate the soap a little more and then lathered my face up. I let the lather sit for about a minute, lathered a little more and the started the shave.

Right of the bat, the razor pulled. I know this was from my inexperience. I'm pretty sure my angle wasn't right. I shaved my right cheek with my dominant hand. I was a little hesitant with the blade which resulted in a few nicks and one straight up cut. I know the beginner post suggested only doing side burns but I let the excitement get to me. I did my entire cheek, and then jumped to my left side with my left hand…. same results. I was actually a little more steady with my left than right which I wasn't expecting. It wasn't going as I had hoped but like I said, I had expected to suck my first time. So I finished up with my proglide and walked away with some cuts and razor burn.

I followed the same procedures for my second shave but my cheeks went a lot smoother. I was curious how the razor would perform on my neck and chin so I did a test spot on each. My neck was difficult, I was just scraping off lather. My chin is going to be my everest. The blade didn't even want to budge. This discouraged me a little but it's definitely not stopping me.

So far, I feel like I'm getting use to holding the razor in my dominant hand and the angle I have to use on my cheek. The rest is still shaky. I would really like to hear any suggestions or feedback. My main concern is that I have such a thick beard, I can't tell if the razor is tugging and pulling because of that, the razor isn't as sharp as it should be (had it professionally honed), or my angle is wrong.

Will repost after my next shave on Monday… Looking forward to it, the only place to go from the bottom is up!