Thread: First Shave - I Rocked It

I'll do that. Are there a chain of videos that show different ways to hold the blade for different strokes? I have the Lynn video from SRD and it's great, but he doesn't do a few things that I'd specifically like to see. I'd like to see the mustache area shaved, but when I asked him to demonstrate, he stabbed me in the chest and screamed something about his lip caterpillar not taking crap from anyone. Also - I'd like to see the method that you are describing above. The thing about "just trying to figure it out" is that this is a very sharp blade, so while I know that ultimately my style will vary from what's in a video, I'd like a solid place to start from.

Xel. when it started out not so long ago I started with left and right hands. glad I did. Using my left (non dominant hand) felt just a awkard at first but gave a smoother shave than my right hand.
This helped me dial in my right hand. the benifits of ambidextrous shaving is well worth the effort. It only took me a few days to feel at ease with it.
I did see somewhere different grips for how to hold a SR but just can't recall where.

Shaved yesterday and scraped myself a bit. No "slices" or anything, just a little scraping. I think my lather wasn't good enough. It's also possible that I didn't strop properly or enough, but with no past experience on that, I'm not sure. Also not sure of the actual amount of pressure to use when stropping. In the SRD video, Lynn says to just basically let the weight of the blade do it's thing, but then you see the strop actually bowing a little bit when he's stropping. Unless that blade weighs a pound or two, it would not bow a leather strip being held firmly by an adult male unless there was at least some pressure being put on it.

The strop bows because you're not pulling it off the wall with extrem force. You're just putting tension on it. You shouldn't need to put pressure on the razor during stropping, as you're trying to just smooth and polish the edge...Not sharpen it per se, just polish. What pressure is applied is the small amount required to ensure even contact of the razor blade to the strop, ensuring that either the spine or the blade is not lifted off the strop and also that the blade is contacting along the entire width of the strop on the stroke.
The scraping you have done to your face may be too much pressure used in the shaving stroke, but it could also be any number of other things too. Poor stropping having damaged the edge would be my next thought. We're all guilty of these little mis-haps so don't feel bad about any of this. Just accept it as part of the learning curve and keep going with improving your technique.
I wish I could help you with regards to shaving the top lip/chin area, but I sport a moustach and goatee myself and have only ever shaved it off once with a cut-throat just to prove I could, and I could and did. However either due to technique, or the lack of toughness to an area that hadn't felt a razor for many years, I was left with a little redness, so I'll leave that question to someone with more experience than myself. I think I look silly without a moe/goatee, and won't be shaving it off again anytime soon.


Mick

Originally Posted by Xel

I'd like to see the mustache area shaved, but when I asked him to demonstrate, he stabbed me in the chest and screamed something about his lip caterpillar not taking crap from anyone.

I usually don't like seeing people assuming handles similar to mine due to lack of character but in this case I'm willing to make an exception. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Mick. I'll strop "softer". If I did strop too hard, does the blade need to be re-honed to fix anything I may have done, or will regular stropping correct that?

Hard to say mate, but if you have rolled the edge or something, it'll need to have a touch up on the hones to right it. A better honer than myself might be able to help you out with that question. My experience is limited to maintaining my own razors only. I'm no expert on what problems may have arisen from over-zealous stropping. I know I've been guilty of it, but that was many years ago. I haven't repeated the mistakes I made back then, and didn't really know much then on proper correction.
If you're getting comfortable shaves, more than likely no harm was done. I base my own razors, not so much on how well they'll cut a hanging hair or other such trick, but on how comfortably they shave.


Mick

Originally Posted by MickR

Xel, I recommend that you jump on the bus early here and practise shaving using your left and right hand (but not both at the same time...No that would just be plain silly ) It will help with those finicky little vision problems if you can change to the other hand and just a minimal amount of head twisted contortions. Also to get your angle about right think in spine width/thickness rather than guesstimating the angle by other means. Work on having the spine about 1.5 to 2 spine thickness' away from your face and take it from there. You'll need to adjust to suit your facial angles etc and fine tune everything to suit, but it gives you a starting point.
I'll leave it at that anyway mate, you might already know this stuff.


Mick

^^ Excellent advice!

OK... so... what does my reflection do when I'm NOT in front of the mirror? And just WHERE is he right now?

(I don't trust him...)

I wouldn't neither. I think the bugger is slacking off somewhere!


Mick