Thread: Yet another newbie

Hi all.

First off, the introduction: My username is my real given name, I'm a sysadmin/IT support guy plying my trade in the Netherlands.

Like most Unixy guys, I attempted to grow a beard. Unfortunately, once it's past the first few centimeters, my beard starts to be scraggly. I also got into a bit of a lazy spell, so it really looked nasty. It had to go off.

I had been shaving using Wilkinson two-bladed cartridge razors, but another change in the holder rendering all my shaving stuff worthless convinced me to go straight if I ever started shaving again. Which was 1.5 months ago.

Thanks to the local straight shaving guru, who also runs a barbershop and a webshop with shaving paraphernalia, I picked up a basic Dovo and some Truefitt & Hill aftershave balm. I already had the soap and brush from my cartridge shaving days, a tub of Vergulde Hand (Gilded Hand), the local brand of basic unscented soap, very good stuff, and a boar's bristle brush.

I picked up my stuff in person at the barber's, not through his webshop, and got a few questions on my experience, and a few tips that mirror Lynn's tips very closely: start with the cheeks, go slow, and if needs be take a few days pause. First shave however went so well on the cheeks, that I decided to continue on to the rest of my face, including my rather stubborn stubble on the chin. Going only WTG, it went surprisingly well, and I was sold on straight shaving, starting to slowly shave ATG a week in.

Experiences so far are great. I occasionally nick myself, but less than with a cartridge razor, and the nicks close up on application of cold water. The only mistake I keep making is putting a little too much pressure on the blade, so I tend to end up with a mild razor burn occasionally.

What I found helped were a couple of things:

1. Go slow. I take 15 minutes for a full shave.
2. Don't hesitate to re-lather. Trying to shave a full pass on one application of lather doesn't work on my face. Doing short strokes with the occasional re-lather works great on the ATG pass though.

So far, I'm enjoying this. I will now go back to lurking, and I hope I will in time be able to help other newbies with tips of my own.

Regards,

Mart

welcome, I find that razors can get damaged just from too much pressure shaving. Good post!

Yes, I found that out as well. I really put too much pressure on the blade at first, and it dulled quite quickly.

So next purchase two weeks in was a fine stone for honing. After honing, I find that I can keep my blade in shaving condition using only the strop for about a month. With a little practice, I should be able to get that to about three months or so.

Mart

Welcome to SRP! Congratulations to you for making the switch. I now look forward to shaving as I am certain everyone else here does as well. Be sure to check out the Wiki section of the forum as it contains a lot of useful information.

welcome to srp, thanks for sharing your story

Welcome to SRP, it sounds like you have done your homework, enjoy!

Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride.

Welcome to SRP Mart! Sounds like you have some great local help there. Good luck with your future shaves.

In my experience, razor burn was caused by incorrect pressure (as noted above), and also by incorrect moving thru the shave strokes. Now, I take as many strokes WTG as it takes to be shaving a smooth (from that direction) face. One pass, or more. Then, and only then, I move to XTG. Etc.

When I emphasized WTG, often relathering and repeating WTG, two things happened...

- The rest of my passes went more quickly.
- Most of my razor burn stopped.

Welcome Mart!

Congratz on making the switch and the successful shaves ^_^

That's awesome you have a barber nearby to get advice from, since you bought your razor from him I am assuming he honed it for you too?

You'll have to ask him to show you how to hone and report back what he says these oldtime barbers have some interesting tricks they know sometimes and the SRP community would love to hear them.