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Nathan's straight shaving journal

I just shaved for the 5th time in 1 week with my straight. :thumbup1:

It is going well. This shave was much better than my 4th shave. The blade felt much sharper and moved smoother. I also think I am getting better at the angles and figuring out how to shave more difficult areas. I know I just need more practice.

The biggest discovery I had between my 4th shave and this one was the great importance of stropping. Since I was worried I had rolled my edge or dulled the blade while stropping I read up a lot on stropping technique, watched a few videos. And then I stropped a ton, being very careful to go slow and keep the spine on the strop and not using hardly any pressure. I think focusing more on the stropping really helped my razor and shave.

I think part of the problem is that my strop is super small, 1.75" by 13.2". It is not a bad strop, I just realized I need to do a lot more laps because it is so small. When I eventually buy another strop I will definitely get a wider and longer one!

After this first week, I definitely think I am going to enjoy shaving with a straight. And I think I am picking it up quicker than I did the DE. :001_smile But then I do already have face prep and lather skills. And some sort of knowledge about blade angle.

Oh yeah, I have my 2nd razor on the way to me. :lol: This time a vintage David Issard. I am looking forward to trying it out and comparing sharpness, etc.
 
That is great news, keep it up! Stropping became a whole lot easier when I got my 3 inch Palladin strop from RupRazor. Nowadays I do not need to the X-pattern anymore and stropping has become more natural and easier for it.
 
Well, I have 3 more straight shaves under my belt. Last week was a little busy so could not shave with the straight as often as I would have liked.

They definitely seem to be getting easier and more comfortable. I am staying at my sister-in-law's house now, her bathroom is a little smaller and the mirror gets really foggy. But I wanted to go for it anyways and I actually felt like it was one of my best shaves yet. I can't really say why but maybe it was because I knew I had to be more confident and concentrate more since I could not see as clearly! :w00t:

I am still just doing one pass with my straight (that takes long enough!) but I am no longer having to do an extra pass with my DE to cleanup. :thumbup1: I will slowly work up to a 2nd pass, as I am able to shave more quickly.

After 8 shaves the lessons I have learned so far are:

1. Stropping is extremely important. If I don't concentrate on stropping well and a lot then my straight doesn't shave as well. I found that near the beginning I was not stropping enough but when I stropped for more laps then the shave got better. This also might have been because I was getting more comfortable and confident but I think it was partly because of stropping.

2. Don't be hesitant. I feel like if I am hesitant as I shave then the razor does not move as smoothly. But if I concentrate on angle and shave a little bit more confidently then the razor moves better.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
Well, I have 3 more straight shaves under my belt. Last week was a little busy so could not shave with the straight as often as I would have liked.

They definitely seem to be getting easier and more comfortable. I am staying at my sister-in-law's house now, her bathroom is a little smaller and the mirror gets really foggy. But I wanted to go for it anyways and I actually felt like it was one of my best shaves yet. I can't really say why but maybe it was because I knew I had to be more confident and concentrate more since I could not see as clearly! :w00t:

I am still just doing one pass with my straight (that takes long enough!) but I am no longer having to do an extra pass with my DE to cleanup. :thumbup1: I will slowly work up to a 2nd pass, as I am able to shave more quickly.

After 8 shaves the lessons I have learned so far are:

1. Stropping is extremely important. If I don't concentrate on stropping well and a lot then my straight doesn't shave as well. I found that near the beginning I was not stropping enough but when I stropped for more laps then the shave got better. This also might have been because I was getting more comfortable and confident but I think it was partly because of stropping.

2. Don't be hesitant. I feel like if I am hesitant as I shave then the razor does not move as smoothly. But if I concentrate on angle and shave a little bit more confidently then the razor moves better.

Excellent work! :thumbup1:
 
Don't be hesitant. I feel like if I am hesitant as I shave then the razor does not move as smoothly. But if I concentrate on angle and shave a little bit more confidently then the razor moves better.

confidence is a must, but in a zen like way... too cocky and you'll cut off an earlobe..i have found if i concentrate too hard, i cut myself. I focus but I don't over-concentrate, keeping the muscles firm yet loose...

in fact before i start a straight shave, i do about some finger/forearm stretching, no more than a couple of seconds...
 
Confidence is a MUST! I found that when I had acquired basic technique and the worst of the jitters had subsided, I could make long confident strokes which did no end of good to the shaving experience and reduced the skin irritation significantly.
 
Well, two more shaves under my belt and things are definitely progressing well. I am getting better and better shaves. Though I still do nick myself every shave and get a little irritation on the neck, things are immensely better than my first shave.

A few things that I have learned / have questions about:

1. I was having a lot of trouble with my chin. But the past 2 shaves I did not try to shave with the grain on my chin. I just shaved across the grain, so from my ear in towards my chin. I found this to work much better for me. This is after I shave my cheeks with the grain. Does anyone else do this or see how this would help?

2. I only seem to need to shave 1 pass with my straight razor and get a good shave, I have to do touch ups for places I did not get very well but I don't really think I need a 2nd pass unless I really want an extremely smooth shave. Is this normal or do most people shave for 2-3 passes?


Overall things are going well, I am learning much quicker than I did with my DE. I shaved with a DE for over a year and my progress with a straight is much much faster. :thumbup:
 
Congrats on your progress!

Stropping really is very important, sometimes I don't think it can be emphasized enough.

Number of passes is a very YMMV thing depending on beard type and other factors. Personally it takes me 3 passes and sometimes some touchup to get a great shave.
 
Well, almost another 2 weeks have passed and I have not really updated this journal. Things have been a little crazy and busy due to my wife undergoing an emergency c-section, so have not had much opportunity to shave with my straight. But my wife and our son came through it safely, so thank God. :thumbup:

I have gotten to do another 4 straight shaves, and I am definitely hooked. I am getting excellent, comfortable shaves. Though still getting a few nicks if I am not careful, I am getting better shaves after less than a month of using my straight than I did after probably 6 months of learning to shave with a DE safety razor.

I am definitely thankful to this forum and all the great members and information that is here, I would never have been able to learn how to shave with a straight on my own! :laugh: Thanks!

I just got a new shave ready razor, a David Issard vintage, and shaved with yesterday. Wow, it was my best shave yet. It was probably partially due to the fact that I shaved with it freshly honed, my newbie stropping skills have not had a chance to screw it up. But I can now understand how important honing is for straight shaving, and am thinking more seriously about learning how to hone in the next few months. Though, with a newborn I don't know how I could possibly find the time! :lol:

Anyways, straight shaving is definitely progressing well and I can see how more and more attempts are resulting in improved technique. The one thing I want to work on a lot is my stropping technique, I know that is very important.

I will definitely continue to straight shave for a long time. :thumbup1:
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
Well, almost another 2 weeks have passed and I have not really updated this journal. Things have been a little crazy and busy due to my wife undergoing an emergency c-section, so have not had much opportunity to shave with my straight. But my wife and our son came through it safely, so thank God. :thumbup:

I have gotten to do another 4 straight shaves, and I am definitely hooked. I am getting excellent, comfortable shaves. Though still getting a few nicks if I am not careful, I am getting better shaves after less than a month of using my straight than I did after probably 6 months of learning to shave with a DE safety razor.

I am definitely thankful to this forum and all the great members and information that is here, I would never have been able to learn how to shave with a straight on my own! :laugh: Thanks!

I just got a new shave ready razor, a David Issard vintage, and shaved with yesterday. Wow, it was my best shave yet. It was probably partially due to the fact that I shaved with it freshly honed, my newbie stropping skills have not had a chance to screw it up. But I can now understand how important honing is for straight shaving, and am thinking more seriously about learning how to hone in the next few months. Though, with a newborn I don't know how I could possibly find the time! :lol:

Anyways, straight shaving is definitely progressing well and I can see how more and more attempts are resulting in improved technique. The one thing I want to work on a lot is my stropping technique, I know that is very important.

I will definitely continue to straight shave for a long time. :thumbup1:

Congratulations and good work! :thumbup1:
 
Well, it has again been a long time since I posted in my shave journal. But I am still straight shaving. Haven't used any other type of razor since I got my first straight back at the beginning of December.

I have had another 8 shaves with my straights. I am averaging a shave every other day. With a newborn it is not possible for me to shave everyday! But I have not noticed anything bad about shaving every other day.

The past 8 shaves have been good but not great. I am definitely making progress and continuing to learn. I am not getting super smooth, comfortable shaves yet but I am still getting just as good shaves as I did with a DE and much better than I did before I started wet shaving over a year ago.

I have used the David Issard razor (5/8 full hollow) exclusively since I got it. My Dovo Best Quality has taken a back seat. I definitely like the Issard razor a lot, and the member I bought it from put a great edge on it (johnmrson). Not that I have much experience to tell if it is a good edge! :lol:

The things I have improved on:
1) shaving with more precise strokes,
2) stropping - I have not nicked my strop in a long time and my strop looks in good condition (though I do think that my stropping could still be improved),
3) shaving my neck and chin - since I started shaving up towards my jawline on my neck and from ear to ear across my chin I have seen a great improvement when shaving my neck and chin,
4) not nicking or cutting myself - though I do get an odd nick or cut here and there, they are no longer an every shave occurence
5) stretching - after watching my two favorite straight shave videos a good number of times, I feel like I am doing a much better job of stretching my skin. And I have seen a definite improvement because of this.

The things I think I need to work on:
1) time - I know this will come with more practice but I would like to see myself be able to do a straight shave in less time.
2) stropping - even though I am doing much better, I know that I could strop better
3) glide - it is not that my razor is skipping or getting stuck but it does not move as smoothly in some places as I would like
4) ..?

I know there are more things I need to work on but I cannot really put it into words. I am getting good shaves, the best of my life. But I know they could be better. Any tips from straight shaving veterans as to what moved them from getting good shaves with their straights to getting great shaves?

Thanks,
 
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