My Straight Shave Saga (continues...)

I'm not even going to call this my first straight-razor shave, 'cause I barely removed any hairs from my neck.

I kept sticking my elbow in my eye trying to find a blade angle on my face that would actually cut hair without carving a hole in my cheek. And I couldn't figure out where to grab my face to pull it "taut" - either everything was covered in well-lathered shave soap, or my fingers were in my eyes.

This straight-razor shaving is tricky business!

But my cheeks went pretty well. Even under the nose wasn't horrible, except for the half-centimeter gash. (just a flesh wound)

Buy my neck... oy, I kept running the blade over it over and over again, and nothing would happen. "light" pressure, no pressure, nuthin. I found myself wanting to go over and over the same spot, but knew that wasn't the good thing... I briefly debated shaving ATG, but that stopped real quick when the blade threatened to dig in instead of gliding over... plus, I know from my brief DE experience that if I don't get the majority of the hair off with a WTG shave, the rest just plain doesn't work. And because the terrain wasn't smooth like my cheeks, I found myself digging the point (mine is a squared barber razor) into my neck and being unable to navigate a flat surface to shave over.

But, I will say this: my straight razor, honed by a man with experience, is still much duller than a new DE blade. Which is good - I bled much LESS today than with my DE.

'Course, I didn't get a full shave, but hey - live to shave another day!!

Thoughts?

 

Haha that sounds about right, it reminds me of my first shave. How clumsy and awkward it felt. I have found it easy to start shaving high (sideburns) and work my way down - it keeps the lather out of the way of where you want to pull the skin tight and if you keep your hand dry it should make it easier

The sharpness of a straight is difficult to gauge in a shave without experienced and practiced technique because keeping a consistently efficient angle is a learned skill

You'll get there with practice! Keep practicing and watching shave videos for ideas on where to stretch and getting a better grip on the razor. In addition to a sharp razor, it takes time

 

That square tip will take some getting familiar with.

 

Keep working at it. Adjusting to a straight definitely takes a good deal of practice. It took me at least a couple of months before I finished a whole shave with a straight.

 

Now THAT makes me feel better. I felt like a big dork going to work with my face all cut up yesterday, like I should have learned how to do this back when I was 16 years old.

I tell you what, learning this skill has nothing to do with the fear of the blade. Nothing the blade has done to me is all that bad. It's the fear of failing, the fear of looking stupid while I'm learning, and looking stupid for WEEKS, that looms large.

It takes a REAL man to go to work looking like a cut-up teenager.

 

I can't say I've been "lucky" for my first few straight shaves, but definitely cautious. I've had no nicks/cuts, and only very minor irritation from my shaves.

That being said, I've only gone WTG/XTG and only tried ATG once. Going against the grain was something I hadn't researched but wanted to try for those BBS shaves. It felt way to awkward and it seemed like I was going to slice something off so I stopped.

But even with a half ass shave my face (remaining stubble not withstanding) has never felt so great/alive/refreshed. I can't wait to master this!

 

If you have a cat, you can blame the cuts on being scratched! :happy102

But seriously, hang in there and keep it up. You my even need to alternate between a DE razor on work days and a straight on the weekend. But just keep at it. It won't take long before you get a feel for how to hold the straight at different angles, the best approach, and gain more confidence.

 

sounds much like my first shave with a straight.... I took a few days break from it and will pick it back up for tomorrow's shave...

 

Day 4:

a. Palmolive Shave Soap
b. shave
c. warm water
d. cool water
e. L'Occitane Cade aftershave
f. cool water
g. Thayer's Lavender witch hazel


My thoughts o' the day:

1. I finally got "down to the skin" on my cheeks today, but had to do FIVE PASSES to get it. DAMMIT.

2. I improvised a modified hold on the razor to stabilize the blade, that seemed to help some... but found myself going over the same area OVER, and OVER, and OVER again trying ANYTHING I could to cut some of these damned long, flat-to-the-face hairs on my neck. And STILL only got half of them. STUPID NECK!

3. Cut myself in two places - left mid-neck, and left under nose. In almost EXACTLY the same two places as yesterday. Hmmm... a pattern forming here? (duh)

4. Thayer's Lavender smells girly. Sorry, fellas.

5. Palmolive SUCKS! About three minutes into my shave, my whole face dried into one giant shave-soap cake, and literally FLAKED OFF into a cloud of dry Palmolive bits flying all around my head as I fouched the blade to my face. WTF?!

6. The aftershave/rinse/witch hazel protocol left my face kind of oddly sticky. Don't know if I'm a big fan... witch hazel seems to me an unnecessary step in this whole thing. "If you buy a good enough aftershave...." I would think one could skip the witch hazel step.

Face is sore, sore, sore today. Warm to the touch, then if I "caress" my cheek or neck to test smoothness, it kind of stings a few seconds later.

Weird, and unpleasant. Makes me long for the simple electric shave BBS pain-free shaves I was getting two weeks ago.....

MUST. PERSIST.

 

Sorry to hear it is not going as well as you'd hoped. If I were you I would leave off shaving for a few days to give your face some time to heal, if that is possible.

You mention above that your razor was honed by an experienced person, and that is good. I am wondering if you have tested the edge recently? Waft it through your arm hairs a mm or two above the skin. Does it pop hairs? Do you know the Hanging Hair Test (HHT)? Try that one too - just grab a longish hair from your head, or your partner's head/hair brush/whatever, and gently touch it to the edge. What happens? (Actually, you can even use coarser hair like chest hair to do this one.)

Sometimes, particularly when you are first starting out, a good edge can become dull. This can happen for a number of reasons - sometimes stropping is not quite right, etc. There are so many things to master with a straight initially.

Could be other things, of course, particularly as you mention the flat hairs on your neck being problematic. But determining the sharpness is the easiest to diagnose without actually watching you shave in person. So check that one out, and if it is OK we can eliminate it and go from there.

James.

 

The way I do it....warm rinse, cold rinse, pat dry (but still a little damp), witch hazel, aftershave. With a long drying in between the WH and A/S....(well, about 15 minutes...)

Also, maybe give the straight a rest for a few days. I did, and I'm going to shave with it again tomorrow...

 

Have you watched Lynn Abrams DVD/Video (I think it's on Youtube now)? Lots of great info and seeing how others do it helps. There are actually a fair number of good videos out now.

Jordan

 

James - thank you for caring!!! I tried your Hanging Hair Test, and not a darn thing happened. Pushed past the hair. Also tried "wafting" - it caught a few hairs, but only really cut two of them, mostly passed right by the rest.

So perhaps not so sharp?

I've got a set of Norton 200/1000 and 4000/8000 that I just bought off Amazon, and am happy to give them a whirl, but really have never done it before. Honestly, I haven't even stropped yet - I just got my strop, and was instructed to "prepare" it with mink oil, and am just at the end of the 48 hour post-oil resting period.

I figured hell, I've only shaved four times - today would be a good first stropping day. Perhaps attempt honing first?!??

I just know I'm going to look back on all this in a year and laugh at my own inexperience. Live and learn...

 

Ah, you have plenty of time, so take a deep breath and relax. I would strop the razor (carefully) 50-100 laps and see if that helps. I wouldn't worry too much about the hanging hair test. Many good edges don't pass it - depends on the hair, etc.

You may want to send your razor out to be honed and then get another, inexpensive vintage razor to practice honing on. Good luck.

Jordan

 

Jordan is right - the HHT is a little variable. But the arm hair wafting thing usually works OK for me.

Stropping is fairly vital before each shave. I agree with Jordan, try stropping your blade carefully for 40-50 laps (return trips - don't forget to flip on the spine, not the edge) a few times. After each time, test the edge by wafting it through your arm hairs like before. See what that does.

If stropping does not seem to improve the edge, and if you are prepared to send your razor to Australia, I will hone it for you, and send you a loaner that I know works well for the interim. This is a big call I know, so do not worry if you do not want to do it. Send me a PM if you like.

James.

 

Shave #5:

"heavy" stropping
Proraso Red cream
shave
warm water
cool water
Aqua Velva Classic Ice Blue
Corn Husker's lotion

WOW! Stropping actually DOES make a difference! I had to wait until it had properly cured to use it, but now I know what you fellas are talking about when you say that shaving with an un-sharp straight is torture.

Day 5 was a huge improvement.

And holy SMOKES is that Proraso Red awesome! A huge, HUGE improvement over the Salter's vetiver I've been using. That stuff went on and on... it's like every pass I did, there was MORE lather! Awesome. Must locate a tube for me, and a second tube for my son. Any offers?

Cheeks - BBS. Beautiful, lovely, felt great. Chin.... a work in progress. Didn't cut my nose today!

Neck - about 70% shaved. Is it actually possible to dull the blade mid-shave?? That's truly how it felt, by the time I finished with my cheeks, the blade didn't seem to have anything left in it to do my neck, and the blade was dragging, and dragging, and wasn't cutting anything - just like pre-strop. Are you allowed to re-strop mid-shave??

Or... maybe I'll start with the neck next time??

And I skipped witch hazel today, wanted to try out the "legendary" AV. And it was freaking AWESOME. Everything you all have said about it being soothing and the "good" repair lotion, is true. Loved it.

Also slapped on a layer of "ghetto skin food" for kicks, but I might skip that next time - leaves me looking kind of shiny in the warmer weather we've been having.

 

Sounds like you found the first ingredient for your recipe for success! And the way I see it is, it's your face, your razor, your rules. If you feel a stropping is needed to complete a satisfactory shave then strop away.

Take that with a huge grain of salt as I'm also a straight razor rookie, so my ideas are about as useful as a pakistani razor.

 

If your stropping is good, then you cannot strop too much! By all means strop and experiment. I find the neck feels much different than my face and requires different technique for shaving it well. My neck hairs lie very flat and I find it crucial to stretch the skin so that the hairs stand up a little so the razor will catch them better

As my shaving, stropping, and beard prep techniques improved, I found it less and less necessary to strop midshave. If the razor is quality and was honed well, then in my experience you should be able to eventually get through an entire shave without feeling like you've just got to strop the razor or else the razor is pulling and tugging against the hair

Good luck, it's fun reading your trials, setbacks, and improvements!

 

Shave #6:

TOBS Mr. Taylor shaving cream
shave
warm water
cool water
Thayer's regular witch hazel
Floid (spanish) mentolado vigoroso aftershave

Ouch, ouch, OUCH! This shave SUCKED. And I totally blame the shaving cream. How do you guys USE this stuff??? It dragged, and dried out, it flaked off, and it drag, drag, DRAGGED some more. My poor face was SO razor-burned afterwards, that I had to completely abandon my initial after-shave plan and go to my emergency default "rescue" combination of Thayer's and Floid Vigoroso

In hindsight, I'm going to skip the Thayer's next time. Ouch again!

(note to self: must buy some alcohol-free Thayer's...)

Results: FOUR nicks, TWO cuts (one under my soul patch was my own damn fault). Actually had to pull out the styptic stick again. D'ohh!

Shave pattern: similar to XMan's regimen: FACE: XTG, then ATG. NECK: XTG, then XTG/ATG.

I very much doubt the pattern has anything to do with my razor burn issues... but I could be wrong.

Cheeks: 98% excellent. Corners under ears were a little sloppy.
Jawline: 85% very good - surprising! I credit the XTG/ATG routine. Actually, to be more accurate, what I credit is shaving my jawline WITHOUT watching myself in the mirror. Doing the ol' Yoda and using "the force", and the feel of the blade on skin as a guide, instead of visual aids.
Neck: 70% good, like the day after an electric shave. Best so far! - some of my neck hairs go SIDEWAYS, and it's really hard to direct the blade that way!!! How the heck can I go ATG if I have to shave sideways?!?

 

Thanks for sharing your journey with us. I have been shaving with a straight only on the weekends so I have enough time to worry about techniques (both shaving and stropping). It's easy to get discouraged, but I have faith that I (like you) will get better at it with time and experience.

(I think you'll find the non-alcohol Thayers to be helpful, btw.)

Nathan