Thread: First Shave!!!!!!

Well, around 10PM I hopped in the shower, with my new shavemac brush soaking in some HOT water.. Took a nice long shower to give my beard and brush plenty of time to soak.

Lathered up, took the Wolstenholm 50 laps on the strop, and gently proceed to do a WTG on one cheek. That went well, though not *as* smoothly as I'd hoped.. razor "pulls" a little. Stropped 20 more laps, re lathered other cheek, wtg, 20 laps neck, and so on. Go into bedroom grab radio and Pat Green CD... re lather, another 50 laps on the strop, x-grain (20 laps on strop for each new "section)... so far so good. 50 more laps, and.... atg. I'm proud to report probably 80-85% of my face is BBS, including cheeks and most of neck. At least as good as I ever managed with the Sensor. It did take me almost an hour and a half though versus 10 min with the Gillette. And no nicks severe enough to warrant styptic. Wipe down with COLD water on a washcloth... very gingerly apply some "bump stop" (contains misc. acid, alcohol etc... expect MAJOR burn), with no real negative side effects. So then I get careless and give a squirt of Mama Bear aftershave and !!!!!!! BURN BABY BURN!!!! Yikes. That was painful... try to bear it for a bit, but give up and pat face down with wet washcloth again. Now my face feels mostly back to normal. I do have some "red" on my face indicitave of a close shave/irritation.

Questions:
a) My wostenholm, though clearly very sharp does not pass the HHT, and when the ATG strokes really felt more like it was pulling hair rather than cutting... is this normal, or should I seek more honing, or is my stropping suspect?

Misc Comments:
a) couldn't resist... took "No Cussing" for a spin even with no scales, or honemeister job. (I believe this is akin to taking your newly acquire project/hot rod car out for a spin before getting seats, or tuning the engine) I can already tell this one's going to be a favorite... LOVE it. Not that the wostenholm's going to get neglected... but the Case is superb.. can't wait for the ebony scales and will probably send it out for a honemeister job.

b)Pat Green is good shaving music

c)I did a pretty decent job with some left-handed work.

d)looking forward to gettin better!!

First shaves are typically like the one you describe. Above all though, the most important aspect is that you enjoyed it.

I would say you pushed way too hard, most people do. I still do if Im not careful. I got BBS pretty quickly when I got started, but my face paid the price for it, as did yours when you put on that aftershave. You'll soon learn to embrace that burn though. When you get your technique down, it just feels nice and cool with a pleasant "warm" feeling for hours afterwards.

I would recommend that you do not go ATG for a while until you get used to everything, and there is a lot to get used to. Dont try to get BBS, try to get decent shaves that do not irritate your skin at all. You'll soon find that if you do this, you'll be able to shave everyday and before long, you will get that BBS with out the pain.

Careful stropping is everything. 90% of newb's roll their edge initially until they get the hang of it. Take your time and dont try to move too fast. Keep that thing pulled tight!

Try some hair conditioner on your beard while you shower next time and use some pre-shave oil and see how you like it. It helps lubricate obviously but it makes it hard for me to stretch your face properly though. Give it a whirl and see what you think. Remember there really isnt only one correct way to do this but, there is one way that will work for you. You just have to find it.

I did use conditioner in the shower.. read that on here somewhere yesterday, and decided it wouldn't hurt. I'm going to try to pick up some Neutragena shave gel that I read on here made a nice additive to the lather (better lubrication).
I'm probably going to take tonight off to give my skin some time to recover, and try again tomorrow night. I'll try lightening the pressure, though I don't *think* I was applying too much pressure, just enough to cut through... but I'll try to lighten my touch and see what happens. And also do some slo-mo stropping.

Yeah that sounds pretty normal... If you didn't get bad razor burn or cuts then it is sharp. The razors all pass hht when they leave but make sure that you have the root end out when you try. Strop slowly and have the strop taught with pressure on the spine to keep from rolling it at all. If it dulls a little strop it on newspaper to sharpen it since it seems to act a little like a pasted strop. also make sure the strop isn't curling when you pull it taught. Just take it slow. I find I have to rehone 30% of the razors after a month or two cause newbs mess up the edge and they show up dull as butter knives. Just take your time.

Shuan, your quote I know that one but the one I know was he who measures twice only cuts once.

Thanks for your comments Topher, I will try as you suggest.
I suspect my stropping is part of the problem, and will try to go slo-mo for a while, and get the tecnique down.
I did have some razor burn, but by now my face feels pretty much back to normal.
To be perfectly fair, I'd say the comfort level was no worse than with my Gillette Sensor I'd been using, ATG with that was always pretty rough as well, and caused a fair amount of razor burn. The good news is that so far I don't have any great population of razor bumps, which is an improvement over the Sensor... So overall I'd say the only down side to the whole experience was that it took around 45 minutes versus 10 or so with the Gillette... but the time went quickly and was enjoyable.. just took longer.

I'm looking at having my Case sent to Lynn for a hone job at which point I should have two good quality blades honemeister certified, and will have some idea of what the benchmark is for doing my own honing eventually. I actually may try the newspaper method on the Case as it's not far behind the Wostenholm in shavability...

Reading around I also think I'm using too much pressure.

Question, my skin mostly feels back to normal... is it adviseable for me to try again tonight (provided enough stubble grows up to warrant shaving), or should I give it a day?

Don't be afraid to try again today, but take it easy and use a light touch. If you start to feel the burn again, it is pretty easy just to wipe off the lather and try in the morning. Just remember to let the weight of the razor do the work!

I think pressure is key. Once I was able to let the blade do the work, the irritation was cut to almost none. Blade angle is important, but it seems like there is a little more wiggle room with it. Pressure was the key to my success.

I would advise to keep it simple when you're learning, strop
before your shave, WTG, XTG, done. Closer shaves will come
in time.

Good luck!

- Scott