Newbies, tell us how is your shave progress so far, what have you learn?

jawats said:

I use a Tweezerman brush for my shave. However, I use a modified version of this technique for pre-shaving prep: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/9745-How-to-Pre-Shave-Prep.

I use my fingertips and massage the area to be shaved, instead of a brush on the pre-shave. Then, I use hot water in the shower to rinse, rather than a hot towel.

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Bushhippi said:

​Everything has improved from my first shave. It is just amazing all that I have learned hear, and am having so much fun too. But am starting to spend to much $$. First improvement was to stop trying to shave with my straight razor until I got it honed by a pro. Next was getting some soap, cream, and AS samples. Then getting my first OC. And today my first vintage shave w/an OC but store brand razors. Still an awesome shave compared to my first.

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9 Iron said:

The positive things I've learned:

Lanolin soaps are fantastic for my face (MWF, Mike's, Sterling) and the Proraso Red Cream with shea butter is almost as good. The Proraso is quicker, just a drop on a badger brush, 15 seconds of face lathering and I'm shaving. The soaps are a bit more fun, a bit more time consuming, face lathering them with a Semogue 1800 produces excellent results.

Proraso White aftershave balm is a blessing.

It seems that the trick to wetshaving lies more with the razor and blade combo, and less with the soaps and sundries, but the soaps and sundries are where the addiction lies. Most soaps and creams I've tried so far would suffice. They are all good enough.


The not so positive things (for lack of a better phrase):

the toughest part, and the part that is still elusive to me, is finding the perfect razor and blade combo. I have a 1959 Tech and a 30's era NEW LC. The Tech is nice enough, mild, easy to use, but even three passes leaves stubble behind. Blade selection seems to be less important with this razor, none so far are bad but even the sharpest blades (Feather) don't make that much difference. It's still a good enough razor and is a good choice on days where I'm in a bit of a hurry. It'll give a decent shave at a quicker pace without fear of shredding myself. The LC I like a lot, but it's an agressive bugger. Good sharp blades work best (Feather, 7 Oclock black) and my cheeks, upper lip and chin only require one pass. My neck fights back though. The razor skips a bit if I use light pressure and multiple passes are required that create some irritation. Heavier pressure leaves me with a good deal of irritation and is a bad idea. I'm going to try to find a short comb, or maybe a more modern open comb razor and see what comes of it.


it's funny, but when I first got into this I was convinced that I could buy one cream or soap, one razor, one kind of blade, one cheap brush, and maybe an aftershave and I wouldn't need anything else. Of course I quickly gave in to aquisition disorder and snapped stuff up, just to see what it was all about. Turns out I was probably right, but there's no way to know what those "Just one" items could be until you go through a bunch of stuff and see what works for you.

So far it's been a fun ride and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

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Badmedicine said:

What I've learned so far-
1-Commercially produced aftershaves are not evil! I had been using a homebrewed concoction of pure rubbing alcohol and herbs, based on a recipe from my grandfather. Burned like a mother, but I figured that was the only thing keeping razor burn and acne in check. Mea culpa, my friends. Mea culpa.
2-That either I have some kind of mutant adamantium beard, or I am doing something wrong. I still cannot use any blade- of any brand, in any razor- more than once. But, even using a new Feather every other shave (I use a shavette, so I cut them in half and get two shaves out of every blade), I'm saving money and having a lot of fun.
3-That I may not be saving as much money as I had originally hoped. True, each shave costs a fraction of what it did with carts and canned goop, but I have a serious case of CAD/SAD/RBAD/RAD. I'm just so curious to try everything...
4- That a boar brush can be a beautiful thing. Some other sites I had visited rag on boar brushes without mercy, but it seems many gents here use them, and a fair number even prefer them.
5-That I have no taste for DE shaving. I started wet shaving with a Parker shavette (hoping to ease my way into a straight), having never used a DE. I went a month using a friend's EJ89, just to experiment. I was getting great shaves pretty quickly, but I guess I just prefer the feel of a straight edge.
6-That straight razors are not the scariest thing out there. I traded my MD Dragon shavette and a ten-pack of Feather blades to a friend for his full-hollow Wacker straight, just for a month to see. After using a fresh Feather in my MD every shave, the Wacker felt pretty mild. A bit too much, for my taste. My friend, on the other hand, came out the end of the month with several scars where he underestimated my "cheater razor". We both gained a deeper understanding of ourselves and a newfound respect for our tools.
7-That I don't like many of the old standby scents, especially in aftershaves and EdT's. Old Spice, Bay Rum, Clubman, Brut, Aqua Velva... Just not to my liking. Oddly enough, I tried The Veg, and while others thought it smelled great, I wasn't too fond of it. Oh well...
8-Lastly, I learned the importance of locking my bathroom door while shaving at the sink. If your cat sneaks in and sinks his claws into the family jewels while you have a straight edge pressed to your jugular, you better hope your reflexes tell you to let go of it.

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9 Iron said:

Yeah, my face is pretty easy to map. Hair grows down on face, up on neck, with a couple of small oddball sideways patches at the very bottom of the neck. It's pretty uniform. Sensitive skin, coarse beard, lots of grey. The neck hair is thicker/harder/more coarse than the face hair, resists the blade more regardless of angle of attack.

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Bantz said:

This is what I have learned thus far

#1 No pressure on the blade
#2 Use a tallow soap (if you are not sensitive to it)
#3 Find a good blade (some work better in different razors)
#4 Get a few different razors to see what you like (mine was a heavy slant)
#5 Use 3 passes WTG, XTG, and ATG
#6 Darn it this isn't a nice relaxing me time that I have started to look forward to

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AETProf said:

Started DE shaving on Wednesday and now have 4 shaves under my belt. All done with my EJ DE86, Parker deluxe badger, Proraso white preshave, TOBS Jermyn St SC and ASB. Hot shower while soaking the brush and preshave applied after a noxema cleanse and before exiting the shower. Would lather, shave, warm water then cold water rinse, apply styptic as needed, ASB and fragrance. I also have a full beard.

Shave 1: Derby blade and a few days of growth. 3 passes on the cheeks and 4 on the neck using WTG and XTG. Got a decent shave but felt some tugging and several weepers on the neck. Chalked it up to inexperience and the extra growth with a mild razor.

Shave 2: Same setup and first time doing back to back days of shaving in years. Less tugging, but still weepers and some irritation.

Day off while visiting in-laws overnight.

Shave 3: replaced blade with a new Derby and added Dickisons witch hazel before ASB. Pretty much same result. A few weepers and slight irritation on my neck.

Shave 4 this morning: decided to ditch the Derby for now and use a Gillette 7 o'clock yellow this morning. Immediately noticed a smoother shave over the Derby. Also went with a lot shorter strokes versus the long strokes on my neck with each pass. Felt confident enough to forgo an XTG on my neck and try for an ATG as my last pass. Got a DFS, but also irritation.

What I've learned so far:

1. Derby blades aren't for me, at least at this point in my journey. Will continue going through my sampler that includes Gillette silver blues, Astra SP, Feather, Big Ben, Naecet, WS, and several others.

2. Shorter strokes instead of long passes.

3. Stay away from ATG for now.

4. If a few days of growth, I may break out my Muhle R101. However, I'll try to keep shaving daily with the DE86 if I can to hone my technique.


Currently using about 20 minutes from lather to clean up. This may cause the need for me to wake a little earlier when I return to work or shave in the evenings after my post-workout shower. I'll have another week before that happens though as I'm off until the 6th (engineering professor).

Also added washing my face with the noxema, witch hazel, and cetaphil lotion into my bedtime routine. So far I've only spent my own money on the witch hazel as the shave gear was either a Christmas gift from the family or a prize from a B&B contest (R101). I'll try to keep it that way for a while, but I doubt it (AD may set in in the future since I'm enjoying this and may look into straights later on).

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econjoe said:

My biggest improvement has been lathering. I was very surprised to learn how big of a difference a good lather can make during a shave.

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JesseD said:

I've only been at this replaceable straight razor thing for... 9 shaves now but, around shave number 8 I finally grew the stones to try an ATG pass on my neck and dayum, finally getting my neck almost as smooth as my cheeks now. I use a Parker shavette and Van der Hagen soap along with EMJ pre shave scrub and post shave lotion and a boar brush.

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fastback said:

For me the following seem to hold true and lead to a good shave:

Finding a good blade match for each razor helped a lot. Sometimes I can use the same blade in two razors, sometimes they're different.
Good blades for my modern razors include: Gillette Silver Blue, Gillette 7 O Clock Black, Astra SP, Feather

Three pass shaves work well when I go with, across, & against the grain in that order.
Leaving the against the grain pass until last allows the most prep time for what I consider the most critical pass.

I always approach the first shave with a new blade carefully. A new blade can be considered both a different blade I want to test or new blade I'm familiar with. Either way, the blade is the sharpest it will ever be during this first shave and it's best to err on the side of caution vs putting my styptic pencil to the test. This approach served me well when using cartridges as well, and I've found that the 2nd & 3rd shaves from a blade are the most comfortable for me.

Having a good soap or crème is important - having a good post shave treatment is equally important.
I use soaps & crèmes interchangeably. Lathering either and having enough for 3 passes is never an issue.
Having a good balm, splash, or crème for after the shave depending on how things went for me is key.
If I detect a harsh shave (old blade, new razor, poor technique...) I can often salvage the shave with a good post shave crème.
If I get a good shave with minimal or no irritation I have a little more freedom to grab any of my post shave items including an alcohol splash to finish off with.

The D.R. Harris products all work great for me and I appreciate that their soaps & crèmes have similarly scented aftershaves & colognes. I enjoy shaving with Cella but once the shave is over the scent is gone.

The last thing I've realized is that I don't need and don't expect a perfect shave every time I step up to the sink.
My face can handle regular shaves daily without issue - but if I'm blade buffing every day going for BBS every time the only thing I can count on is more irritation. No different than cartridges, some days I have a less than perfect shave and that's OK.

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