Good day, everybody. I'll be getting my first straight razor soon, and I was wondering if any of you have any tips on how to use it so I can get a good shave while avoiding cutting myself as much as possible. What do you recommend I do? I'm a bit nervous about using a straight razor since it's my first time using one. Your help is appreciated.
First, the razor must be "shave ready". That means sharp enough to shave comfortably with. Contrary to what you might think, even a new straight razor is not shave ready. The new razor must be properly honed to become shave ready. There are a number of honemeisters on this forum who would be more than happy to help you. As far as shaving with it, keep the angle of the blade to face low, that is, keep the spine of the razor 1 to 1½ spine widths off your skin. The idea is to slice the whiskers off, not scrape them off and start off slowly until you get to know what you're doing. As far as cutting yourself, everyone does it occasionally. Keep an alum block handy. After a few shaves, you'll start to get the hang of it. They'll be plenty of others on the forum that will offer more suggestions; it's a very friendly place. Welcome to the brotherhood.
I'll answer this one. I started my straight razor journey about 15 months ago. Knowing what I know now, these are my suggestions. 1) Make sure you get a "shave-ready" razor from a REPUTABLE seller. I might suggest contacting Slash McCoy. He has a new store and sells inexpensive, shave ready razors. Tagging him @Slash McCoy 2) Get an INEXPENSIVE strop and learn how to use it properly. You WILL cut it. 3) Start on the flat parts of your face, cheeks. Do some WTG strokes and be finished. Clean up with a DE. 4) Learn how to stretch your skin. Learn to use you non-dominant hand, you'll need it. 5) Everyday, try to do just a little bit more. Don't rush it. You'll need 100 straight razor shaves before you will feel confident. Post your shave results here at TSD and you'll get really great advice. Welcome to The Dark Side.
I started with straights. Before that I used a beard trimmer without any guards. My advice is this first and foremost make sure your razor is truly shave ready. Second dont be scared. Shaving with a straight is not as hard as you think it is. Expect that for a little while you will have razor burn. If you have been using DE razors you may not have much. But this is simply because you have to learn how to shave properly with a straight. Ask all the questions you can. We will all give you advice. And best part is you will get multiple things to try. Pick one and try it. If it doesn't work pick another. Also keep in mind while something works for one person it may not work for everyone else. Most importantly have fun with it and dont buy a japanese blade unless you have a lot of disposable income.
Again, make sure you have a shave ready razor. Not just a razor that the seller says is shave ready, but a razor that is honed by someone acknowledged and respected on this and other forums. There are people who have never even shaved with a straight razor selling straight razors taht they claim to be shave ready. Some of them do not even shave their faces at all, being women. Pickers, scavengers, yard sale addicts, resellers of RSO's, and the like, people who could not possibly know what shave ready means or how to recognize it, let alone create it, all say "shave ready! shave ready!" on their fleabay and etsy listings. Know who you are buying from! And no, a brand new razor usually is NOT shave ready. Unless the seller is someone you have reason to trust, and he says that he has honed it to shave ready standards. If you buy a razor that is not shave ready, obviously you will need someone to make it so for you. Never let someone who does not shave with a straight razor, hone yours. The neighborhood knife sharpener guy most likely does not have a clue. Honing a razor is NOT the same as sharpening a knife. And if you think you can just "sharpen" your own razor and then learn to shave with it, you are very nearly as wrong as you could possibly be. It is no, not impossible exactly, but extremely difficult to try to teach yourself to shave with a razor that you are at the same time trying to teach yourself to hone. Learn to shave first, and then learn to hone. It is far, far easier than doing it the hard way. Most guys who try, give up. So, yeah, shave ready. Now... new, or vintage? If you are going with a new razor, and it costs under $80 or so, be very very certain that it is not what we call an "RSO", or Razor Shaped Object. Check on this or any other straight razor forum. A good vintage is a very good way to start. It has already done most of its depreciating. You can probably sell it for nearly what you paid for it, if you decide shaving in the manly fashion isn't for you. And you get your hand in the game for a LOT less money. You may even find it very satisfying to be getting a great shave from a razor that is over 100 years old. But a lot of guys only want new razors, or even expensive new razors. So... New, or vintage? You have to decide that for yourself. It isn't easy to pick a good vintage one, when you know nothing about them. So do your homework. Learn how to spot problems in those fleabay listings. Or even forum buy/sell/trade listings. Usually though if you buy from a forum member with a reputation, he won't risk it by selling you a lemon. But the really good deals get snapped up quick. You need a strop, too. You can't shave without a strop. No, don't use your belt. Trust me on that. The cheapest usable strop I know of is the 2-1/2" wide strop sold by ebay seller "thexbay", and it just went up in price to $9.88 I believe. That is still dirt cheap. Your first strop should be a cheap one since you will very likely butcher it up pretty bad while learning. But it does have to be usable. So no cheap chinese naugahyde specials. There are other good beginner strops out there, yeah. Get one, and upgrade later, after you have your stropping game in good tune. I am assuming you already have a decent brush and know how to prep and lather properly. If not, learn BEFORE you start trying to shave with a straight razor. Learn to hydrate, map your face, stretch your skin, all that, and even your cartridge shave will improve. When you are ready to go for it, first of all as I said, prep and especially your lather will make you or break you. Good slick lather is extremely important. Well hydrated and softened whiskers, too. The most common newbie shave mistake is using too high of a shaving angle. Here is how you find the correct angle. Lay the razor flat against your cheek. Now rotate the spine of the razor outward until the gap between the spine and your face equals the thickness of the spine. That is your standard shave angle. A dull razor might need a bit more angle. A very sharp razor will perform best with a shallower angle, even almost dragging the spine on the face. If your angle is higher than one and a half spine thicknesses, you are not shaving. You are scraping. That is hard on your face, and hard on your razor. If it won't shave, then it is dull, period. Don't try to scrape your whiskers off with a dull razor. Stretching the skin is the next most important thing. Tight, flat skin resists cuts. Loose flappy skin invites them. Stretch the skin "upstream" for best results. It helps to expose more of the hair from out of its follicle, and makes it stand up better. Next is pressure and shave direction. Don't try to pressure the razor into cutting. Don't even think cutting whiskers at first. Think scooping up all of the lather. If the razor is sharp, the whiskers will come. Most of them. And you should be going WTG, or With The Grain, on the first pass. Or as near to it as possible, anyway. Don't try to get it perfect in the first pass, or even in the first shave. You just want to survive unscathed. And you will be very scathed indeed, if you don't heed this. The first pass only reduces the beard, rather than eliminating it completely. So lather and do a full WTG pass. Then relather and do another WTG pass. Two WTG passes is a good newbie shave. After a dozen shaves with no ambulance rides, you might add a XTG or ATG pass, but I don't think all that is necessary. Lots of guys chase the "BBS" dragon and that can be entertaining, but also frustrating and even hard on your face. A good sharp razor can give you a very good shave with a single WTG pass. Two passes or even three, while learning, or if the razor is not crazy insane sharp. On some razors, the heel or toe or both might be very sharp and eager to cut you. Be careful not to dig the toe or heel into your face. You very likely will get some cuts while learning. Treat them with a styptic pencil from the drugstore. Drip a little water on the point and dab it right on your cut. It will burn a bit but it will disinfect and also stop the bleeding in short order. Read up on stropping, too. Watch some videos. You need to strop on a clean hanging leather strop before each shave. Don't start, if you don't have a strop yet.
