Thread: Anticipation!

Howdy,

After reading many posts about some of the problems new folks have with their first shaves, I thought it would be advantageous to present a few thoughts.

First off, there is no experienced member here who is not on a quest for the absolute perfect shave and perfect razor. Every one of us continues to enjoy the wonderful baby butt smooth shaves we get from the straight razor and that unbelievable smooth feeling after shaving with the straight razor. It is what we expect and what new people expect after reading all the wonderful information in the forums.

There are many things that go into a successful straight razor shave including good beard preparation with lots of hot water and a good soap, prepared and applied with a nice brush really working the lather into the whiskers. There is also much to be said for proper stropping, making sure the blade remains flat on the strop in a nice and even stroke with little pressure and of course not rolling the edge up at the end of the stroke. The angle of the blade when shaving is also very important. I have always found that an angle of 30 degrees or less works best for me.

Learning to shave with a straight razor however is not always as easy as some people expect. I would never recommend that someone who has never shaved with a straight razor attempt to shave their entire face the on their first attempt. There are many things to take into consideration like the type of razor you are using, the width and shape of the blade and of course the shape of every individual face. No matter what anyone thinks of their tactile ability, there is a learning process that should go on here in order to develop the skills to be able to enjoy straight razor shaving for life.

Obviously you will need a razor that has been honed. You can buy pre-sharpened razors or have one that you have bought sharpened by someone. Virtually all of the people I know who hone razors test shave with them to ensure that you will get a comfortable shave. Virtually all the people I know who hone razors are willing to re-hone a razor for you if you have a hard time at first and think it might be the razor. For the overwhelming amount of people who have difficulty with their first shave, the razor is typically not the problem. It is usually either one or a combination of several things including preparation, stropping or skill level.

For your first shave, I would again recommend that you use a 30 degree or less angle with your razor and for the first time only shave from one sideburn down to the jaw. That's it. You want to develop a sense of how the razor cuts and work to perfect that feeling and the feeling of using a straight razor. After a couple of days, you can then move over into the cheek and work on that side of the face for the next couple days. When comfortable with this, you can then experiment with crossing to the other side of the face using the same hand or try the other hand which is easy for some and not so easy for others. From here, I normally recommend trying the down stroke on both sides of the neck and then trying the chin and then under the nose. When you start to feel comfortable with the process, you can then try going across grain from the jaw to the chin and then finally going up underneath the neck. By taking the time to learn to use the straight razor with this approach, you will be able to determine where and when to stretch the skin and to find out which areas you will need to go back and touch up.

I can't emphasize enough that if you feel uncomfortable at any time in the process, don't go any further. There is no reason to repeatedly nick yourself or shave your face until it is red and uncomfortable. Having said this, there can normally be a little reddening for the first couple of days until your face adapts to using the straight razor.

I normally strop a razor both before and after a shave out of habit. Some people strop just before every shave (minimum recommendtion) and some people strop before and during a shave as they find this helps with shave. Everyone develops their own personal style of not only stropping, but of beard preparation and shaving itself.

This brief write up is not the end all, be all for first timers, but is purely written to give you optimal opportunity at successful straight razor shaving. I truly do understand the anticipation associated with those of you who try straight razor shaving and can tell you that I have this anticipation every time I shave. It has never gone away for me.

Straight Razor Place is here to help you to learn to shave with a straight razor and the members here will try to assist you in any way they can. It has always been that way here and we hope that you will continue to take advantage of the wealth of information and one of the greatest groups of people around.

Have fun,

Lynn

WOW LYNN,,,,,,That couldn't have been expressed any better.

I would like to echo what Lynn wrote above. Starting out there is a big learning curve and there are many factors that have to align in order for the shave to come off right. In short you need to acquire the right skills and the right equipment.

There is also the factor of the razor quality itself. Many times this is overlooked when a newbie complains. Some brands are not worth your time or consideration because they can't be keened and they just won't shave. It breaks my heart every time I see one of these no quality razors come across my bench. I have to return it with a sad note explaining why it can't be keened.

I think many times "dud" blade brands sour many people to straight shaving, causing them to think the blade can't be made keen enough. It behooves everyone to check with the forums and get guidance first when considering your first purchase. A lot of people seem to do it the opposite way around which wastes time and money and can leave a negative impression.

So in summary; before you buy - check with knowledgable people first about what is quality. This way even if you decide straight shaving is not for you your decision will have been based on sound experience with quality instruments. Secondly, it will be possible to pass on the implements to another newbie either as a gift or a resale. You can recoup some at that point if you decide to because you invested in quality.

I hope this helps and continues to be part of the message that we present to others interested in our custom.

Regards,
EL

Thanks Lynn! Now I don't feel so bad about my first shave I tried last night. I did ok on the sideburns and cheeks but was too scared to really shave the jawline and chin well. Appreciate the wonderful site you've created.

Thanks Lynn. As a newbie response can I just endorse all that Lynn and others have said. I have been fortunate in that in the space of less than a month, I have been able to practice a technique with just the right amount of patience, based on good research. It would have been all too easy for me to literally 'throw in the towel' when things weren't developing along at the pace I would have liked.

I have found that the early days were spent in making mistakes in preparation, discovered through Lynn's 'one-pass' approach. It would have been so easy to perpetuate the mistakes and worsen an already poor job by pressing on into the unknown! In the light of a little experience I think it's important to temper the pace of progress carefully.

Later on I was able to consolidate my learning and start to put it together to produce a half-decent shave. Now I am exploring subtleties of technique. Later I will be starting on the road to honing and trying out a few soaps and creams (though Truefitts 1805 will probably not lose its appeal)!

As I've mentioned elsewhere, the rewards are worth the effort and I would imagine that straight razor shaving can be adopted by just about every determined devotee. It is really not difficult, just a new challenge there to be mastered. I have a l o o o n g way to go but I'm certainly glad that I've prepared for the journey!

Read, practice, adjust, read, practice, adjust, read, practice..... - you get the idea!

Yes, good job Lynn. I've been shaving straight for a few months now (old pic) and still have trouble on my chin, I have a very deep cleft and cut inside of it almost every time, but you just got to keep with it.


And remember, practice doesn't make perfect, Perfect practice makes perfect.

I tried to shave for the second time using my straight razor (recently honed by L. Abrams) yesterday afternoon. I think I managed to ignore almost every suggestion that Lynn made in his post titled "Anticipation". I wish I had read the post earlier!

After successfully shaving both my left and right sideburns and with a false sense of confidence, I decided to tackle those usually tough areas: underneath the nose, the chin area and around the mouth. Things went badly immediately. Determined not to be a "quitter", I kept at it for about 45 minutes until I decided I must be doing something wrong or my razor was "broken". I stopped to lick my many knicks, so to speak. Later my wife asked me if I had been in a barroom knife fight.

I encountered two problems which perhaps someone in the forums can help me with.

1. I could not seem to get the razor blade "moving" on my face in these areas at anywhere near the generally desired 30-degree angle. I was frankly afraid to push too hard on the blade in this area of my face for fear of cutting myself (which I did anyway). What I did was give my self a good case of razor burn.

2. The razor just seemed to stop cutting hair when I moved to this area of my face. My fear is/was that I managed to damage the edge when I stropped the razor before and during this shave.

In my "postmortem" this morning, I used the blade to cut some of the hairs on my arm. While they did not fly off in great clouds, the blade did cut hairs with no noticeable effort on my part other than to push the blade up my arm. My razor is an old one, probably early 1900s vintage (Griffon) and while the blade may been sharp enough to cut the hair in my sideburn area down to the jawline, it may not be sharp enough to cut the hair around my mouth area.

At this point I am wounded, but not yet ready to quit by any means. If anyone can help me with comments or suggestions, I would appreciate it

I did lather frequently during this episode using a good, glycerin-based shaving cream.

First of all, I want to thank Lynn for all of his posts adn thank everyone for the wealth of knowledge this forum provides. I have only been straight shaving for about 2 and a half weeks, so I'm around shave 15ish. I did ignore some of the recommendations and shaved my whole face the first time. However, I had a very positive experience, due to the fact that i creeped the forum for about a month and a half prior to attempting the shave to aquire proper knowledge first, so I felt confident in 'knowing' the correct way to proceed, even if I could not physically perform it well yet.

Secondly, nelsonkent, I wouldn't be too discouraged about your razor not being able to move in certain areas as this is only your second shave. My first and second shave were not even as smooth as I would get with an electric in some places, and sometimes I could not get the razor to move at all. However, after about a week I was able to shave those same places with two passes and get very close to BBS. From what I have read most newbies to straight shaving take longer than that so I guess I was just lucky. But the thing to note is that as you become more confident, your stroke gets more purposeful, your stropping gets better (even if it doesn't seem like it your shave will tell you that it does), and your face gets use to the razor, so as long as you keep at it and follow the advice of the experienced people on this forum, those 'stopping' points on your face will soon not be as much of a problem.

I think one of the most valuable bits of Lynn's post is:

"if you feel uncomfortable at any time in the process, don't go any further".

There's nothing to be gained from just "pushing through". It's a learning process, and there's no shame in stopping and coming back another day. I have certainly benefited from that wisdom.

And if anyone thinks you're a wuss, just shake your razor at 'em!

Originally Posted by kenneyty

I think one of the most valuable bits of Lynn's post is:

"if you feel uncomfortable at any time in the process, don't go any further".

There's nothing to be gained from just "pushing through". It's a learning process, and there's no shame in stopping and coming back another day. I have certainly benefited from that wisdom.

And if anyone thinks you're a wuss, just shake your razor at 'em!

I don't think anyone will get too many wuss comments. Especially since no one on this forum would say that I don't think, and any friends that do probably aren't holding ridiculously sharp open blades to their throat every morning.