I've been DE shaving for a few months. When I first started I saw the straights.....geez I though, those guys are f***ing nuts. WWhy? Well, what can I say, DE shaving became easy. I figured time to live on the edge (pun intended).
So I just received my new Ralf Aust 6/8 Spanish tip. Yea I know, new guys are supposed to start with cheep 5/8, but I figured if I like it why waste the money on a starter. I know I like heavy DE razors so 6/8 sounded better. I have a goatee w/ a pencil thin mustache and figured the French Tip would trim better.
So, got the razor, watched a couple videos by Geofatboy from shavenation and Lynn from SRD (new shavers should watch these guy's youtube vids) and went to it.
It was a lot easier than I thought and I ended up doing a full 2-pass shave. The correction "Spanish Point" was great at getting under most of the nose from the sides, but I couldn't quite reach the center. Tried to get under the nose straight on, but since I only have to go down half my lip, I almost can't get a momentum going and felt like I was more scraping. So I stopped and just finished that part with my DE. I only got 1 weeper on the top of my right cheek (I'm left handed) because I placed the blade down a little too strong.
The blade came shave ready, but I think it was either too sharp for me or maybe I needed to strop it. I purposely didn't strop it yet, as that's the advise I have often read for beginners for the first shave or 2. I don't think it was a problem of me holding the razor at the wrong angle, because I was very careful about that. Now the reason I say it may be too sharp is because I've noticed that of the DE razors I own, when I use my Slim (on any setting, and with any brand blade), the first shave is a little ruff and the following shaves are heaven. I figure on the first shave either my skin just slightly dulls the razor to the point that it feels better on the second shave, or my skin is acting like a strop and smoothing out the blade.
I can't wait for my second shave. So as a beginner I figure maybe I should newspaper strop the first couple times. Plus, I didn't even buy a real strop yet as I wanted to be sure I liked it.
Sorry for the wall of text. Just excited about the shave.
Chas
So I just received my new Ralf Aust 6/8 Spanish tip. Yea I know, new guys are supposed to start with cheep 5/8, but I figured if I like it why waste the money on a starter. I know I like heavy DE razors so 6/8 sounded better. I have a goatee w/ a pencil thin mustache and figured the French Tip would trim better.
So, got the razor, watched a couple videos by Geofatboy from shavenation and Lynn from SRD (new shavers should watch these guy's youtube vids) and went to it.
It was a lot easier than I thought and I ended up doing a full 2-pass shave. The correction "Spanish Point" was great at getting under most of the nose from the sides, but I couldn't quite reach the center. Tried to get under the nose straight on, but since I only have to go down half my lip, I almost can't get a momentum going and felt like I was more scraping. So I stopped and just finished that part with my DE. I only got 1 weeper on the top of my right cheek (I'm left handed) because I placed the blade down a little too strong.
The blade came shave ready, but I think it was either too sharp for me or maybe I needed to strop it. I purposely didn't strop it yet, as that's the advise I have often read for beginners for the first shave or 2. I don't think it was a problem of me holding the razor at the wrong angle, because I was very careful about that. Now the reason I say it may be too sharp is because I've noticed that of the DE razors I own, when I use my Slim (on any setting, and with any brand blade), the first shave is a little ruff and the following shaves are heaven. I figure on the first shave either my skin just slightly dulls the razor to the point that it feels better on the second shave, or my skin is acting like a strop and smoothing out the blade.
I can't wait for my second shave. So as a beginner I figure maybe I should newspaper strop the first couple times. Plus, I didn't even buy a real strop yet as I wanted to be sure I liked it.
Sorry for the wall of text. Just excited about the shave.
Chas
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It's all gravy from here.
