Thread: 1st straight razor shave = worst shave ever

I started with a Shavette for a couple months before moving to a "real" straight. I figured it'd be cake to switch over. Boy was I wrong. Sure, I had some of the angles down but every razor is a different beast. For my first razor I picked it up from Larry over at Whipped Dog. He included some handy instructions that I'll paraphrase for you. First being: This razor is Shave Ready. That means don't strop it before you use it. Second handy tip: lay that sucker dang near flat on your skin. Nope, won't get BBS or even close to it. However, you'll get comfortable with something that sharp against your skin w/o cutting yourself and you can gradually increase the angle on more passes till you find what works for you. Third super useful tip: Break in your strop before you use it (and either practice on a bread knife or lay it flat and use it as a bench strop to start) or you're screwed (or will at least have to spend a ton of time stropping later to fix what you just done gone and broke).

Lastly, a paraphrased tip from the wiki: "don't try and shave your whole face the first time around. Start with a small section and work on that. When you're comfortable with that go on to another section till you're comfortable with that. Then go from there".
There's a huge difference between a straight razor and a cartridge monstrosity. Respect it. It's like going from driving a Chevy Crapolier to a Ferrari. Both do their job well, but one takes a hell of a lot more practice and skill to use properly. Either one will get you somewhere, but when you know the Ferrari well, you'll have a lot more fun with it.

Also, when you read the wiki you'll see talk about using no pressure. Believe it, but don't take it at face value. You have to put pressure against the hair but not the skin. You want the razor to glide over the skin but slice through the hair. If your hold is too light you'll tug and pull every hair. If it's too hard you'll go through the hair in to your skin.

Originally Posted by mpukas

What's CT? Thanks! mpp

Same as SR only Australian/British english. CT is short for Cut-Throat (razor).


Mick

P.S posted before I read Utopian had already explained in an earlier post. Left my post here anyway.

Originally Posted by mpukas

Thanks for the link.

I know the major cause of my bad shave is due to inexperience with SR's. I didn't want to come across as blaming the balde, but it came across that way - I was thinking about possible areas to adress. It just wasn't as sharp as I had expected it to be. If it's shave ready from Lynn, then I'll take his word for it.

Once my face heals in a coupe of days I'll try it again, this time w/ better lather. In the meantime I'll pay more attention to stropping and see what I can come up with.

I would not compare any Japanese knife to a razor in terms of edge they can take.
The steel is great but the edge is nowhere near as thin and sharp as a razor can get.

Just practice and shaves will get better.
Proper stropping is also important.

Stropping could have definitely screwed up your edge, but a lot of it might just be blade angle. It's amazing how a scary sharp, shave-ready razor can feel dull as a spoon if the angle isn't right. Like everybody else has said, keep with it! You will develop muscle memory and find "the touch" that works best for you. You'll be face deep in shaving nirvana before you know it!

My 2nd shave last night went MUCH MUCH better. Again a couple of nicks here and there, especially w/ my off-hand, but no pulling or razor burn. Still, it wasn't as comfortable as my shaves w/ cartridges, but not unpleasant at all. Thanks again for the feedback and encouragement!

The things I attribute to the better shave;

• I stropped the blade VERY VERY carefully on my own leather bench strop. I noticed a significant improvement in the edge both before and during shaving. I know I'll probably get shot down for this, but I honestly feel this was the biggest improvement. I know I may have ruined a good shaving edge by stropping it on my brand new hanging strop; it's pretty darn good now.

• I used a Trumper's soap this time, and built a good wet lather in a mug first. The lather had nice lubrication and didn't dry out half way through. I was able to a good 2nd coat on my whole face, and even a third coat on my neck for a few touch-up passes.

• Improved technique and being more comfortable. I played around w/ different angles as suggested, but honestly it didn't make that much difference - not like Holy *** that's rough vs WOW that feels good!

It didn't shave my hairs any closer than I usually do w/ a cartridge, but I didn't do a full 3-pass WTG, XTG and ATG shave - a couple of places I did some ATG and XTG and that got things quite close. But what I did notice is I felt like the SR exfoliated my skin more - it felt smoother and tauter.

Now I'm starting to really dig this stuff - I knew I would, it's just a matter of time, practice and proper guidance. Thanks again guys! mpp

Grand News!
I'm happy for you, sounds as if the improvement was significant!
Keep at it, as I'm sure you will, and you will take steps continuously.
I do doubt they will be this significant from one shave till the next, but still

It will become comfortable soon, I bet around 5th shave . You should drop ATG this early.