DoubleB's straight razor adventures

[DoubleB]

As I told in my earlier post, I'm taking the step to straight razor shaving. I've been DE shaving for a full year now (used carts before) and love the shaves I get with the DE now. Since my DE shaves started, I said to myself: one day I'll try a straight. That day has arrived.

Well, not yet actually. The day arrives in the forthcoming days (I hope it's not too philosopic!)

Last week I ordered a sight unseen razor with balsa strop from Larry at Whippeddog. Since I'm in the Netherlands shipping might take some time. I already bought a strop here in the Netherlands (no name brand, made by a guy who makes strops and paddles, so actually it's custom. But it was cheap. It's just plain leather, no canvas/linnen/felt.

Awaiting my package from Larry I've been practising stropping with a butter knife everyday. I'm think I'm getting the hang of stropping, although I first have to wait and see how it goes with a sharp shave-ready straight instead of a butter knife. I feel like I'm kind of getting the 'feeling' in stropping.

I love the whole idea of straight razor shaving. Not only the shave, but the care taking of your razor aswell. I'm currently looking in to honing. It's not something I'll start doing tomorrow, but I want to read myself in and I think the whole honing experience is very interesting. I know Larry sells the Norton honing set. Would that be a good option to go with as my first set of hones? The stones are cut in quarters, to they are about 1,5 - 4 inch. Would that be too short? Also, finishing the edge on an 8k and then stropping on the balsa with CrOx and after that plain leather would be enough? Or should I consider adding a 10 or 12k stone to my first set?

I want to thank you guys. You all actually made me take the step to straight razor shaving with all the info that can be found here and all the feedback given. Keep up the good work, you're making alot of newbies very happy!

Stay tuned for more.

Note: Please, forgive me my grammar and/or spelling mistakes. English is not my first language.

[gnoils]

Congrats on the first step! I hope it will be a good one for you too.

I have nortons as my first set of hones. The 4k/8k can do it all, setting a bevel to polish the razor to sharp ready. I have successfully hone a razor (Genco Roma) on 4k/8k and shave off it comfortably, I didn't even stropped then, though YMMV. I don't think you even need the crox or 10k or 12k stone, especially to start with as they messed up the variables for me, but that's up to you.

IMHO, the quarter hone will be more than enough for razor upkeep and/or occasional sharpening, but if you're planning to restore razors, then it's probably way too much work setting a bevel, work up the grits with the quarter hone.

Seniors and Honemeisters, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Sy

[DoubleB]

Yesterday the package from Larry arrived. Including a Balsa strop with CrOx, some neatsfoot oil, a free soap sample and my first straight razor!



The razor looks really good! It's a Clauss half hollow. I shaved with it this morning..

Shave #1
Straight razor shaving is hard! Larry coated the blade with some vaseline, so whiped that off. He sent a note with the razor to not strop it before the first shave, so I didnt. Lathered up with Institute Karité with my Simpsons Somerset Special and started the shave..

Well it was, to say the least, awkward. I felt like I wasn't cutting any hair at all. I had a 1 day growth, but nothing seemed to come off. Secondly the razor felt like scraping over my face and felt like every hairstubble blocked the razor downwards. I managed to 'shave' both of my cheeks and my neck area. Surprisingly, shaving my neck actually went better than shaving my cheeks, but again, not much hair was coming off. Lathered dried out a bit on my face, so I decided to put the straight down, lathered up and finished up with a DE. Found out I had two little nicks on my right cheeks because of the straight. It stopped bleeding when the cold water rinse was applied.

After my post-shave routine I did 40 passes on the leather. Stropping actually went well (i.e. no nicks, cuts or slices on the strop). But I'll have to see tomorrow if I did a good job on the edge aswell.

I found out I have a very long way to go on straight razor shaving. I really want this to work. Looking back I think I had an episode of the 'Newbie Dull Syndrome'. To me the razor felt a bit dull, but that could not be the case since Larry honed it for me and I didn't touch the strop or anything before this shave. I guess it's a technique thing? I tried adjusting the angle both lower and higher, but I couldn't get it to work for me.

Let's hope tomorrow is a better go.

[kjparker]

As a new straight shaver myself, and hoaving one of larry's razors, I would suggest your problems are technique related.

Make sure you are stretching the skin, and try and keep the razor at a shallow angle, I started out with having it almost flat against my face, and raising the angle a little from there as I got more confident.

Keep at it, you'll get there.

[Grips]

Great start.

+1 to the above.

I would recommend to commiting to 25-30 shaves. Big break throughs seem to happen about then. It will be up and down until then in all likelyhood.

Best of luck.

[Great White Shavealo]

Welcome to straight razor shaving, and you did fine for your first shave! I think Grips is right... commit to at least 25 shaves. I am on shave 19, or so, and slowly but surely the shaves are getting better. Don't forget to give yourself a little slack while you do this, too. There is a steep learning curve with straight razors and you may get frustrated at times and eyeball your DE, wondering what you have gotten into. Don't worry. Just practice the movements and the fine shave is coming your way.

[DoubleB]

Thanks for the great words guys. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. I'll just have to wait and see how long the learning curve is, but I'm definately enjoying the ride!

Shave #2
Todays shave was actually pretty good! I decided to do the first WTG pass with my DE. Lathered up again and went for my straight. I placed it almost flat on my face and slightly raised the angle from there. It worked out great. I wanted to do both of my cheeks but instead, I ended up with shaving my whole face! Including moustache and chin area. Only two tiny nicks on the chin. My face felt a bit itchy afterwards, but that's probably due to my skin getting used to the blade. I went for the greasiest ASB I have in my den and my face felt good afterwards. Still have big patches of stubble, but I had a comfortable shave with a straight! I'm really happy with how it turned out today.

Slight downside though, I did 50 passes on the leather afterwards..nicked my strop. Only slightly, but still nicked it. Luckily its on the right lower side of the strop, so not that big of a deal. I think autopilot kinda took over and that's where things went wrong with stropping. I got my focus back and stropped the remaining passes without problems. I'll try to sand the nick out of the strop this afternoon.

[Toxic515]

Welcome to Str8-shaving! If you nicked your strop, you're going too fast. :-) Take your time and most of all, RELAX! (At first I was holding my breath every time I got near the strop and didn't even realize it) Your shaves (and stropping) will improve, providing you practice at it. By practice I mean pay close attention to HOW you're doing things, repeat the parts that are right, and train yourself away from the things that don't work for you. The learning curve is certainly there, but it really doesn't have to be as steep as it is sometimes if you really pay attention to each step. It's quite difficult to unlearn a bad habit, and I think that's what puts people up in the 100 shave curve. I'd guess I was at about 20 or so before my muscle memory started to get good, and closer to 75 (at a total guess) before it was easy nearly every time. It gets faster, and closer pretty quickly. Before long you'll be nick free every day!

[DoubleB]

Shave #3
I did another shave this evening. I'll have to leave at 5 am tomorrow morning and won't be home before 11 pm, so I don't have any time to shave tomorrow. Since I had some stubble on my face and was eager to have my next shave I decided to have another one..

I did my prep and lathered up some Palmolive sensitive cream. Decided to do a 1 pass straight only to see how that would go..it went OK!
I did my sideburns and cheek on the right side, switch to the left side. Did my neck after that and finished with my moustache area and my chin. Two nick. One on the moustache and one on the chin. After that some Thayers and Proraso aftershave, followed by the Proraso ASB. Stropped on the leather 40 times afterwards.

There still is some stubble left. What I did notice is that my skin still feels itchy afterwards. Thats probably because my skin need to adapt to the straight I guess? Also, I still have some trouble getting the hairs cut off. Is it because of my angle or did I dull the blade on stropping? I saw Joel's video on youtube just now and he cuts a few days growth right off with a straight. I'll keep on shaving. I completely fell in love with straight shaving.

No posting tomorrow and possibly saturday, but I will continue to update this journal so keep looking :) Again, any advice on my shaving technique is more than welcome!

[Toxic515]

on the itchy neck: How long are you letting the lather sit after you've applied (and worked it in well)? Are you approaching the neck in a true WTG pass? My neck hairs are NOT in line with my facial hair above the jaw line. The neck is thinner skin than the face, and you really must maintain a light light touch. It's rather easy to take off a lot more skin than you think. I also found it rather difficult to get a good angle on the neck area. After being exposed to a space storm and gaining the super power to stretch my body... no wait, that was someone else... It's still a pain and some yoga like pretzel work to get my neck well shaved. :-)

[DoubleB]

on the itchy neck: How long are you letting the lather sit after you've applied (and worked it in well)? Are you approaching the neck in a true WTG pass? My neck hairs are NOT in line with my facial hair above the jaw line. The neck is thinner skin than the face, and you really must maintain a light light touch. It's rather easy to take off a lot more skin than you think. I also found it rather difficult to get a good angle on the neck area. After being exposed to a space storm and gaining the super power to stretch my body... no wait, that was someone else... It's still a pain and some yoga like pretzel work to get my neck well shaved. :-)

Thanks for your help. The whiskers on my neck are literally growing in every direction. This makes it so hard to do a WTG pass. I'll try a different approach next time.

#Shave 4
I had a 2 day growth to mow down, so I did a WTG first with my DE. Lathered up with TOBS Lemon&Lime (bought it yesterday in Bruxelles) man that cream is slick! Lathered up again and did a WTG with my straight. It went OK, cheeks are definately DFS, neck is CCS. Almost no burning from my AS. One slightly downside though...I accidently shortened my sideburn on the right cheek with my straight. No biggie, I thought, I'll shorten the left one aswell..thats when it went terribly wrong. I was to eager to cut the sideburn, I pushed the straight to hard..I instantly felt a burning sting, looked closely in the mirror and saw a very nice 2 cm cut. The blood already started to come out..its still bleeding (1 hour) I finished the shave, shocked by what I had done to myself, a truely newbie mistake...So I rinsed the blade,..and hit the sink with the edge. At that moment I thought I was going to faint. I inspected the edge and fortunately there is no chip or scratch on the edge. Guess I was being lucky..

I sanded the nick out of my strop, conditioned it with neatsfoot oil. I stropped the razor 20 passes before and 50 after the shave. Stropping went OK.

I think this was my first shave so far. I can't believe I made two completely newbie mistakes. Trust me, I will not make those mistakes again!

Yesterday I glued my two TGN knots (22mm finest XH buld & 22mm silvertip grade A) into my handles. I let it sit for 24 hours and they have come out beautifully. Both have a loft of 47mm. I'll break them in and do a test lather in a few minutes, do a good rinse and let them dry till tomorrow morning. Then I'll have the tough choice to decide which of the two I will be using first..

[DoubleB]

Shave #5
Shave 5 went better than shave 4. I really noticed straight are alot more forgivin than DE's. Even though my technique isn't down yet, I do not get an irritated neck which I would get with a DE.

Did my WTG Pass with my DE. Lathered up again (TGN Finest XH & TOBS Jermyn St. soap ) and did a WTG with the straight. Went pretty OK. One little nick at my adam's apple. Next I did an XTG on my cheeks.

Have a DFS on my cheeks and a CCS on my neck. Hard area for me is the jawline since the hairs are growing from East to West there.

I did 40 passes on the leather strop afterwards and splased on some Brut aftershave followed by some Trumpers Skinfood Limes.

Have a good week gentlemen!

[Grips]

Good stuff. I did the bang on the sink as well. I think the main thing with learning any new skill is to pay close attention to what works and what doesn't. Then to remember that and practice what worked until it is simple muscle memory. Keeping a journal like this will help you alot.

[DoubleB]

Good stuff. I did the bang on the sink as well. I think the main thing with learning any new skill is to pay close attention to what works and what doesn't. Then to remember that and practice what worked until it is simple muscle memory. Keeping a journal like this will help you alot.

I agree. Keeping this journal is helping alot, but it's also helpfull to read the other journals from other newbies!

Shave #6
Used my new silvertip Grade A from TGN this morning...WHAT A BRUSH! Used it together with TOBS Lemon&Lime. This is the luxury people are talking about regarding shave brushes. Just..WOW!

Stropped 30 passes on the leather. Then started my WTG pass with my Tech/Astra SP. Lathered up again (Oh my) and started a WTG with my straight. It went Ok! No nicks, better balance on the razor. After that did a small ATG stroke on my cheek. That actually went pretty well and I ended up doing one cheek ATG. BBS cheek was the result!

Splashed on some Thayers AS and Proraso ASB, stropped 40 times on the leather and put my razor away. Cleaned the brush (what a bloom!) and washed my RB scuttle.

What I did notice after the shave (and after every shave so far) is that I have a fair amount of redness on my face after shaving with a straight. Is that due to too much pressure? On the other hand, I have the feeling that if I don't put a little bit of pressure, the whiskers won't get cut off...

I'll try a lighter touch tomorrow and see how that goes. I just don't get the feeling (yet) like some of you describe..: like a knife through butter.

[DoubleB]

Shave #7

I'm in for 1 week now and convinced I will keep shaving with a straight razor for a loooooong time!

Stropped 40 passes before the shave on leather. Lathered up with my TGN finest 22mm and Plisson soap (seems to be rebranded T&H Trafalger??) This soap lathers really easy, so I had a lather bomb in no time.
I did something new this morning. A beard reduction pass, as described in Larry's shaving manual. I must've done something wrong, because there was no beard reduction at all. I lathered up again and did a WTG pass. It was rough. Because I did not manage to have any beard reduction yet, but got to manage the WTG eventually. I must say this probably was the hardest pass in 1 week of straight shaving. After that I lathered up again and did an XTG on the cheeks and WTG on the neck. One small cut under my chin which stopped bleeding when the cold water rinse was applied.

Although it was a rough shave it did give me some eyeopeners.
- Your first WTG/beard reduction pass is probably the most important pass in straight shaving. If that pass is good, then the rest of your shave will be good too.
- I think I'm 'cutting' away skin on my cheeks. It looks like my sensitive area's have swapped place. My neck is pretty OK with the straight, but my cheeks get red after every shave. When I apply a non-alcohol aftershave balm it still feels like burning. To me that is an indicator that I'm cutting away skin (the feeling when you have really really dry and red hands and you apply some handlotion and feel that tingling sensation). I don't know if it's a pressure thing, or an angle thing.
I did use a tad lighter hand (to my observations) than yesterday, but the problem seems to remain.

Can anyone shed his or her light on this?

[Great White Shavealo]

Can anyone shed his or her light on this?

It sounds like you are making good progress! Congratulations on sticking with it.

From my own experience, the "red cheeks" is razor burn which can be caused by poor blade angle, too much pressure, repeatedly stroking in that area with the blade, or all the above. You might also have a dulling blade, so be sure to slowly strop your razor paying attention to keeping the strop taught and the pressure very light. And as newbies we are prone to dull blades much quicker than the experienced, so be sure to refresh the blade on a hone or to send it out for sharpening when you begin to get some stiff tugging going on against your beard.

Keep it up. The shave gets better!

[DoubleB]

It sounds like you are making good progress! Congratulations on sticking with it.

From my own experience, the "red cheeks" is razor burn which can be caused by poor blade angle, too much pressure, repeatedly stroking in that area with the blade, or all the above. You might also have a dulling blade, so be sure to slowly strop your razor paying attention to keeping the strop taught and the pressure very light. And as newbies we are prone to dull blades much quicker than the experienced, so be sure to refresh the blade on a hone or to send it out for sharpening when you begin to get some stiff tugging going on against your beard.

Keep it up. The shave gets better!

Thanks for your kind words. I'll get back to the things you refer to when I describe my shaves ;)

Shave #8

This actually was pretty darn good! I stropped 40 passes on the leather (speed is increasing while watching my stropping technique closely, so that's a good thing I guess) and lathered up with Omega shave cream. Did a WTG pass with my DE, lathered up again and started WTG with my straight. I really was keen on my blade angle, because the blade went smooth on my cheeks. My neck went great aswell. Chin went good aswell. For some reason I don't encounter too much trouble on my chin as some other describe in their journals. Had one nick on my moustache though, but it was really small. It felt like I put a needle in there though, so I guess my blade isn't dulling that much actually.

Because of time restraint I called it a day after one pass with the straight.
I did notice that I did not have the burning feeling I had in my earlier shaves, nor were my cheeks red!

Shave #9
Today I went with Col Conk Lime, TGN finest and Trumpers skinfood limes. I stropped 40 on the leather again and went off a WTG with my DE. Lathered up again and did a WTG with my straight. (This is my current routine untill I'm comfortable with this, then I will try to do my first pass with a straight instead of a DE. Actually went the same as yesterday, comfortable shave and comfortable feeling on my face. Splashed on some proraso..almost zero alcohol burn! I was really happy with the result! Finished off with Trumpers skinfood.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to try an XTG again. We'll see how that goes.

I'm wondering if I, at this point, would feel the difference between a full hollow, half hollow and wedge. My Clauss is a half hollow and I'm really curious what the difference would be with a full hollow or a wedge.

[DoubleB]

Shave #10
Tenth shave already! Since the weather is beautiful and the theme of the SOTD this week is Refreshing I went with this setup. Couldn't resist to post my pic up.

Unfortunately, the shave itself was pretty harsh...
As I told yesterday I wanted to try to do a full shave with my straight only. That didn't went so well..I stropped the razor, went OK. Lathered up, felt great! But then..the first WTG pass..
It was hard. To me, this is the hardest part of the whole shave, first pass WTG with the straight. I immediatly felt some razor burn coming on, but I went on. Lathered up again and did a second WTG. Third pass was an XTG with a WTG on the neck.
Result: Three pretty good slices on my face and some major razorburn and bumps..What was I thinking?

Conclusion: I fairly overestimated my skills with a straight. This mornings shave made me realize I still have a long way to go. Although the razor burn cleared up pretty well after my AS routine (which burned like #@&!*@&!!) it wasn't a comfortable feeling.
Tomorrow it's back to basics for me. WTG with a DE first, then try another WTG with the straight.

[Krodor]

Maybe it's time to hit the balsa (green side about 10 laps, wipe everything off the blade, then red side (wipe down). Strop 30-40 laps on leather. After 10 shaves, the edge is bound to have lost some keeness. You'll notice it. Just make sure it's fully clean of the powder, as that can give red-face syndrome due to irritation too.

[DoubleB]

Shave #11

I did what Krodor suggested and hit the balsa strop. It sure did help!
I had an awesome shave this morning! Lathered up with Arko and did my first WTG with a DE. After that I went WTG and ATG on my neck. Clearly a DFS overall! I was really happy with the result. I had zero irritation so my technique is coming down. Only if I did learn to manage my first WTG with my straight...i'll just keep practicing.