What's new

Tarrasmeisters Straight Shave Diaries

Hello fellow B&Bers!

INTRO

I'm a Swedish 23 year old who recently attained both an interest in the field of wet shaving, as well as attaining knowledge of this (glorious) sites existence! I reasoned keeping a log from the very beginning might be of interest not only to my future self, but maybe also to newbies and shavemeisters alike!

My background in shaving is as such: I've never had much beard growth worthy of a mention, as such, i've downplayed the importance of it, relying upon multibladed gilettes and blue goop. This always, ALWAYS, leads to shave burns. I've had shaveburns for as long as I can remember, a permanent state of red blemished all over the throat and jawline. Yuck. I've sort of gone with the idea that my skin simply IS that way and that it is simply unavoidable. Silly me right? I've also run with a electric shaver, and I've pretty much never been redder. I won't be doing that again.

So I was surfing around a quite well-known (I guess) self-improvement blog which is sort of focused on the ideal of the american gentlemen of old, Mad Men types of guys. So yeah. I came across a post about straight shaving and how it is (when you do correctly) much kinder to the skin and I was sold. A few bored nights at work later and I got a hold of my starter stuff!

DAY: -1
So I ordered a pre-put together set of starting equipment from a swedish grooming site, the ingredients is as follows:

* A humble Dovo 5/8 blade, black plastic handle, so I presume it's a simple intro model.
* Leather Strop
* Stryptic Pencil
* Pure badger brush (noname with the sites logo on it)
* T&H luxury shave soap

* Some stands for blade and brush, so it can stand prettily!

Some other common ingredients I use which are from before my wet shaving days is a face wash and moisturizer from Bulldog (smells good), as well as an "respleneshing" afterhave balm from Nivea.

 
DAY: 1
The first shave!

My introduction to the noble arts was with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. I began with a long shower (the best kind) and then started working on the lather. The brush had been soaking for the whole process. I wringed out the excess water and began to swipe up the soap. Of course it went EVERYWHERE. Lesson one. The cup the soap came in isn't suited for lathering in. Instead a small bowl was obtained, and i started putting a lot of lather in it. Now as I look back and to others videos I realize the lather was horribly underworked, nowhere close to a fluffy cloud! Lesson two: lather well, keep lathering. I then put it all over my face and let it do its magic.

I then stropped the blade, an awkward motion. Didn't put any pressure on it though, and kept the strop straight. Pretty good I think, if a little time consuming. It will get a lot better with time! I tried with one of my hairs and the blade simply cut through it, holy macaroni that's a sharp blade. Now to put it to my face!

I went very, very slowly WTG (I thought), and it felt great! It didn't have the hot knife through butter effect I almost got the feeling that other people had, it was a bit stubbly and awkward, but still great. The most tricky part was exactly how to hold the blade, and I spent a lot of time trying to hold it paralelle to my skin and tilting it appropriately. I didn't dare to do any additional passes my first try, and I left the neck untouched since i had simply too many razor burns and such since before, and I didn't wanna slice them up.

Now after consulting a chart and really feeling out my stubble I realize that I didn't go WTG my first pass at all, and the hair grows in a lot of different ways, I'll make sure to adapt during my next shave! (as I write this I've done 2 shaves, my Day: 3 post will be more detailed and not written in retrospective!

 
Sounds like your of to a great start! Welcome and have fun with it! If your interested you can read and watch my progress here: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/297842-Gissy-s-straight-razor-stories

Well thanks a lot! To be honest, I've read all of your thread and it was actually the one that inspired me to write my own. Maybe I'll also build up the confidence to make videos of my clumsy attempts later :D

Day: 2
So after a full boring day at work browsing B&B for newbie tips and such i came home very eager to get to work with the ol' cutter. Oh, also I forgot to mention that after the last shave I applied my after shave balm, as well as moisturizer when it had dried in, as I wanted a lot of moisture back into my skin in case that the razor had gotten the best of me.

Today my skin was actually a little better, somewhat as it usually looks like 2-3 days after a shave rather than the day after. That's kind of HUGE for me. To be completely fair though, the neck area (the most sensitive) was completely untouched, and I only did one pass before, so it wasn't as close a shave as I usually get, which naturally leads to less irritation. I'm not completely wow'ed as of yet :)

I really didn't need a shave today. I, however, wanted to work at my stropping and lathering skills, so I lathered and lathered, stropped and stropped. The urgeto shave became to strong though, even though I intended not to annoy the skin too much. Like a Khukuri of legend; once the blade is drawn it must taste blood! I intended to avoid bloodshed though. INTENDED TO.

The lather went on the skin and the blade came soon afterwards, today it went a bit smoother as I went with the grain (again; as I thought). I also dared to take the knife to my neck this time, but I went very very carefully, as you might expect. Everything went well enough for me to lather up my face (not neck) again, and go XTG this time. The feeling was great afterwards, and it went a little more smoothly than I expected it to go. I realize now that it's because I actually partly went WTG for this pass even though I didn't intend to! One hiccup though, I managed to nick myself a little in the ear with bloodletting results. Oh well, the stryptic went on, and it resolved itself.

Afterwards a lot of cold water to the face, along with balm, moisturizer, and my trusty old spice aftershave! I now feel like a thousand bucks, awaiting future shaves with glee!
 
Last edited:
Welcome to the club and great start. I began my straight journey in January and only wish I had started sooner.

Be patient and go at your own pace. Big jump in skill level seem to happen at the ~25 and ~100 shave mark.

Wishing you success.
 
Top Bottom