Today I am a man.

Don't get me wrong, I am well aware of my gender, but today I shaved my entire face and neck, 3 passes, with my straight.

My biggest problem was my neck, and I was so unsure how I was going to get in all the little grooves, let alone in different directions without touching up with my DE, but lo and behold, I got it all done. It's no DFS, but better than I used to get with disposables.

Quick question though. How DO you go for 4 passes? The directions and angles seem almost impossible to me right now. Any hints for getting into all the hard spots from different directions?

I wouldn't do 4 passes. Keep it at 3. If you can get a BBS shave with a DE, if you do your passes in the same direction, you should be able to get a BBS with a straight. It won't come right away, you will get it with time.

Practice!

Well done!

I am still a newbie to straight shaving. But one thing I have found really helpful is watching videoes of others straight shaving. Like these:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=136249

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W44WFTfqzA


I am sure there are other good videoes but I found these very useful for trying to figure out the best angles for shaving in hard places. I also learned a lot about really stretching my skin from both videoes.

Best of luck!

Well done!

It's gonna take some time and practice to learn to use a straight so enjoy the ride and the results will come. Congrats on your first good shave only 50K to go

Excellent.

Congratulations, Mr. Man!!

Nice, congrats.

Congrats dude! You can try adding more passes in the same directions you already do. I find that I can keep getting reduction in the same direction. I have a hard time following the exact same passes as my DE, getting the angles and all, but can still get the reduction I want by repeating passes.

Well done! I found that my neck was second hardest at first and now is as easy as my cheeks. The sliding stroke works wonders as my neck hair grows horizontal and I can't stroke with the blade vertical against the grain. By shaving bottom to top while sliding against the grain a bit I can slice those suckers off. Four passes sounds like asking for trouble with razor burn.

I never do more than one pass with possibly a water only touch up if I find I have missed a spot. The touch-up is done in the same direction as the basic pass. The one pass I do is of course done via the Natural Shaving (tm) method. Attempting to do additional passes in different directions will force an unatural action on your hand and arm and this is in my opinion the quickest way to nicks, cuts and/or irritation.

fccexpert said:

I never do more than one pass with possibly a water only touch up if I find I have missed a spot. The touch-up is done in the same direction as the basic pass. The one pass I do is of course done via the Natural Shaving (tm) method. Attempting to do additional passes in different directions will force an unatural action on your hand and arm and this is in my opinion the quickest way to nicks, cuts and/or irritation.

Click to expand...

What is the Natural Shaving (tm) method?

Thanks everyone!

nathanb said:

Well done!

I am still a newbie to straight shaving. But one thing I have found really helpful is watching videoes of others straight shaving. Like these:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=136249

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W44WFTfqzA


I am sure there are other good videoes but I found these very useful for trying to figure out the best angles for shaving in hard places. I also learned a lot about really stretching my skin from both videoes.

Best of luck!

Click to expand...

HEY, nathanb thanks for posting these videos. I learned a LOT from watching them. In fact, I had never realized that switching hands was so common. I have some practicing to do I guess.

Congrats OP! Today I too reached a milestone: my first DFS shave (minus some razor bumps). I've been at this for three months and it's amazing how much further I still have to go.

Congrats on the great shaves so far. If you are not getting perfect swipes maybe you can try scything swipes to improve. I tend to do double swipes XTG or ATG if I'm the razor I'm testing is not shaving well as well as I hope. If it's a razor in my regular rotation then I will usually be okay with 3 passes.