The journey so far ...

My foray into straights was accidental, but I've just had my 1st complete (no assist from the DE) shave today; SAS shave. However, to be honest, yesterday morning I had a BBS shave with my DE, so today I was SAS anyway. But still, I had been finishing up w/ DE at this point, because I couldn't quite reach all of the areas on my face with the straight. I did this time, and then did a complete XTG pass. The last two times, I've been experimenting with different grips and found that I do better going with a different grip than the traditional one.

Still haven't found the angle that does the job right though. I tried everywhere from almost flat on my face to 45 degrees; Just about all of the angles I tried gets some hair, but not like it should. Yet, each day I get excited about trying it again.

A local member hooked me up with another local straight shaver who honed my razor, but I haven't been sure whether it was truly shave ready; it passed the HHT only about 20% of my attempts to test it. The local member gave me his Poor Man's Strop and some pointers. The strop was nicked and cut up pretty bad, so I sanded it down to smooth it a little and sanded the back side of the strop a little. I've been primarily using the back side to strop, thinking it may work like a linen strop since the texture is rougher. Then I finish it on the smooth side, but I still worry that the nicks and cuts in it could harm the edge. Anyway, after about of week of stropping (still haven't nicked it myself) and shaving, the blade now seems much sharper. It easily passes the HHT every time.

Anyway, thanks for all of the support from all of you, and the local member who has been giving me good advice. And thanks to Badger & Blade for giving us a place to vent, share our experiences, and get the support we need.

A week later and I have seen some improvements. Yesterday's shave was like the one described in my initial post. I was SAS to start with, but I did improve on that a little with a 3 pass straight shave. The first N to S pass had a lot of tugging, but I read in another thread that there is always some tugging on the first pass (I'm not sure if that is true or not). I did another N-S pass and it felt smooth, so I know the razor did some hair reduction on the first pass. The 3rd pass was ears to mouth on the cheeks and S to N on the neck. Again it was smooth, but the final result was still only SAS.

This morning I was definitely not SAS, so I had to shave. The first pass was much smoother than yesterday's first pass, I didn't really notice any tugging. I then did another N-S pass, then went S-N everywhere but between my chin and nose. Tried to do a sideways pass in that area. The result was SAS again; I seem to have a long way to go before getting results I am used to from DE shaving.

I am enjoying the journey though. One of the biggest frustrations is trying to find a way to hold the razor that gives me the control I need when shaving places other than my cheeks. Suggestions welcome.

Sounds like its going well. It usually takes most members around a month of shaving daily (or equivalent number of shaves) to start seeing improvements. Keep at it and things will start falling into place as you gain muscle memory.

For holding the razor, it might feel non-intuitive at first but the traditional grip should give you good control once you've got it down. But just go with whatever works best for you.

Congrats on your progress.

Grats on the move to a straight! It takes time, but quick effortless BBS shaves are waiting in the wings.


I would work on making the traditional grip work. It's like golfing, it feels weird and wrong at first, but keep on doing it the traditional way and it will come naturally eventually. I have seem some guys with pretty funky swings, and while they golf ok, no one has come up with a new revolutionary swing method yet to replace the traditional swing.

That being said, shaving isn't golf, so if your results are good with your modified grip then who can argue with that?

You are doing wel Bob. Lots of great advice in above posts. We all go thru the learning curve and for me it's a continual work in progress. Just stay focused when using the str8 and keep the pressure light. Good luck.

Thanks for your progress report, Bob. I'm in my first week of straight shaving and I need all the reassurance I can get from people who are actually improving their shaves.
I'm keeping a journal here myself partly as a reference and a diary, but also for the amusement and ecouragement for other starters.
I forget who's signature it was, but this guy was so right:
"For he who sheds his blood with me today shall be my brother, even if it's just a small weeper." (parafrasing Shakespeare's Henry V)