Diary for a 1st Time Tarheel SR shaver

[bran]

Well tomorrow morning will be my first straight razor shave on both sides of my face. Monday and Tuesday morning I shaved just the right side of my face to get a little bit of a feel for the weight of the razor and feel of the shave. I plan to do just a WTG pass on both cheeks. I'll DE my neck and chin as well as XTG and ATG on the whole face.

My typical setup (consumables and brush carried over from DE):
AOS Unscented Preshave Oil, Cream and Aftershave Balm
Hart Steel 6/8 Quarter Grind with Walnut scales
Omega 6211 Silvertip Brush
American Mountain Extra-Wide Strop

I have allergies to many scents and have not really ventured past the AOS unscented. It works for me, but I am planning to try Dermalogica products at the end of the week. I have a sample shave kit on the way. Anyone have any suggestions on good unscented products?

My typical routine is pretty much shaving after a shower. I will make my lather in a metal dish and float it in a sink of hot water to keep warm. Lather up and hot towel for about a minute, apply my preshave oil, re-lather and begin to shave.

For tomorrow morning I plan to lather the right side, shave, lather the left side and shave. One concern is trying to shave the left side with my left hand. I may wimp out and shave with my left with my right hand. I am going to take it slow and learn as much as I can before I jump in whole hog.

Here's to no slippage and going to work with all facial appendages intact! I am excited but realistic. But hey, who knows, miracles happen. I could get a BBS shave on my first WTG pass. :w00t:

[dmcconnell]

Good luck with your shave...you've got a good plan.

[Luc]

Good luck on the shave. I doubt it will be that close but I hope so!

[Klarion]

You may want to give Mitchell's Wool Fat a try. It has little in the way of scent and treats your face pretty well. Some people have found it difficult to lather, though it lathers about as easily as Tabac for me.

[Gustav]

Good luck, I am new to this also and will keep a close eye on your progress because you can learn a lot from other peoples' shaves.

I find the palmolive stick to be near unscented when you lather it up, it cannot hurt to try, the stuff is dead cheap.

For the shave itself, take it nice and easy, do not force yourself to do something you do not feel ready for. There will be some rough spots in the beginning but it is nothing to worry about because with practice you will learn how to better shave your face. Lathering only the part of the face you want to attend to is a very good idea because in the beginning you are going to be so slow that the lather dries out in the other parts while you are shaving.

I would like to urge you to really try shaving with your non dominant hand on relevant parts of your face because at least for me maneuvering the razor with my right hand on the left side of the face feels, in some cases, more awkward than using my left hand on that part.

Also, as "honed" suggested, watch some youtube videos
from Chimensch and Jockey, these really help in seeing different ways of holding the razor on different parts of the face.

Last but not least get yourself an alum block to increase adherance of your fingers to your face making skin streching on slippery skin easy-peasy. Watch Chimensch video on Youtube to understand this better.

[bran]

Good morning gentlemen-

Thanks for your posts! It went fairly well this morning. My expectations were quite low. My main goal was to trim some stubble not to bleed much at all. I did accomplish both of those. I started with my regular routine of prep then lathered my right cheek. Going down the sideburn really wasn't hard at all. I find it quite difficult as I get to my lower cheek toward my mouth and chin. I shaved today as if I had a gotee. I have fairly defined dimples on each cheek and it is pretty tough to get in those divots. Is it safe to puff your cheeks out to overcome this?

The left side is a different story. Gustav- thanks for your shave diary. That is what inspired me to do this. I hope it helps to keep me determined. As you suggested I did try my left cheek with my left hand. It is pretty difficult because I really do not use my left hand for anything but typing and really don't have much coordination there. There really wasn't much problem, but then again I really didn't remove many whiskers either. I had one very tiny scratch from the blade tip. I just wasn't watching the end of the blade. I am finding it very hard to see what I am doing. I would like to have a 360 degree mirror. I do have an alum block coming in today and will use that tomorrow morning to help as you suggested.

Luc- I was just joking. I didn't expect it to be very close at all. I didn't want to set myself up for failure from the start. But I was pretty surprised at how close I got my right cheek especially, left is a different story.

Thanks for the suggestions on different creams to try. As my budget allows I will pick them up and give it a try. I am limiting myself in purchases. After all, this is eventually supposed to help me save money. Especially when you consider I was paying over $90 a month on Fusion blades before I started shaving "for real" with a DE and now trying a straight.

We'll see how tomorrow goes!

[Gustav]

Do not worry too much about not removing much stubble with the left hand pass, it can only get better. I too am having great trouble seeing what I am doing in the mirror at times and when this happens I actually just position the blade where I think it will be all right and then start moving really slowly and hope that it is. Up until now, I do not think I have ever had a cut due to not seeing what I am doing, mostly it is when I get caught somehow and do a sloppy movement to get unstuck.

[sanfranciscian]

congrats, sounds like a winner, definitely go for the cheek puffing, works great for me and anything that works is the correct thing as far i am concerned. i am only a few months ahead of you so not a pro, but one thing i am sure of is that patience will reward you a lot quicker than you might imagine.For me i just had to fight through a few times where i couldn't see any real progress and then one day i would make a leap forward and those times were soon forgotten. Good luck and have fun.

Ian

[Gustav]

congrats, sounds like a winner, definitely go for the cheek puffing, works great for me and anything that works is the correct thing as far i am concerned. i am only a few months ahead of you so not a pro, but one thing i am sure of is that patience will reward you a lot quicker than you might imagine.For me i just had to fight through a few times where i couldn't see any real progress and then one day i would make a leap forward and those times were soon forgotten. Good luck and have fun.

Ian

I could not agree more, my first 7 shaves were quite rough and then on the 8th shave it all came together and I ended up skipping the DE-touchup because the shave was that good. It was still not up to DE standards but definitely progress in leaps and bounds.

You will see for yourself and by this time next week I will be taking tips from you since I only shave every other evening. Today is shaving day and I have been looking forward to it all day.

[bran]

I did pretty much the exact same thing this morning. Right cheek no problem at all. Left is going to take some getting used to...just a slight nick there this morning.

On my right side I felt absolutely no whiskers being removed when I went back with my DE for a WTG. I did on the left. Nothing to do but continue on with patience and perseverance.

Now if I can just pacify my wife. She is extremely nervous about me using a straight...so much so she asked me to put them on BST today.

[Gustav]

If your SWMBO is like mine and loves a clean shaven face just tell her, that for the time being, it is either the straights or no shaving at all. :lol:

[natchez]

Good luck with your first full shave. Try KMF unscented for an easy to lather, but reasonably effective cream.