Bad first experience.

Let me qualify this by saying I am not a noob, I am a super noob. I bought the cheapest razor I could find. I paid 5 bucks for a bristle brush at the beauty supply store. I bought a can of Aveeno shaving cream. I felt pretty good about myself for spending less than 70 bucks for everything and you guys drop hundreds of bucks. Short story long. After my first shave I realized I was the dumb one. It just felt like it took forever to shave. I guess I'll go buy a proper razor and brush this time. Here's a pic of my 50 dollar razor and 5 dollar brush

Something doesn't look right on that razor. The red insert is for 1/2 of a DE blade. If the holder doesn't hold the blade snug and secure, you're in for a world of trouble.

Nothing wrong with a $5 brush, as long as it's not shedding hairs like crazy. I honestly cannot remember when I last used shaving cream (20+ years?), so I don't even know if you should use a brush with it or not.

Welcome to B&B and, unlike most of us, you really don't NEED to spend big bucks. We just WANT to because we're all nutjobs.

Looking at that set, I need to tell you that is was not your kit - except for the goo out of the can.

Shaving with a DE, Shavette and even more so with straight takes practice and patience.

Expect to achieve truly good shaves with a straight after about 100 shaves.

If you don't have the patience and persistence to educate yourself and invest the necessary time and effort to practice then you might as well give up now and go back to your previous shaving regime.

Apologies for being so frank, but expecting to become an overnight straight shaving expert is a fallacy.

Don't feel bad, we all had to climb that hill.



B.


BTW,
While not my favorite shaving tool, you can get very good shaves with the Dovo Shavette, but you might want to try the black blade holder and (longer) Dovo proprietary Shavette blades.

No no no, I appreciate your frankness. Thank you. More people should shoot straight from the hip

Hey Rock. The red thing, I'm not even sure what it's for. I was just trying to make it fit because it came with it.

What kind of blade is that???

If it looks like this, you need the green holder..

cant quite tell if that's what it is from your pic though.

\/ this \/

The plastic holders come in three colours: red, black and green

The red one takes 1/2 of a DE blade. You don't need to buy 1/2-blades, just carefully crack a normal DE blade in half. If you open up your plastic sleeve, you'll notice how it has cutouts for the blade. This is how it should look with a blade inserted.


The black holder (I think there are two versions, comb and no comb, but they take the same blade) take a longer blade. The Dovo brand for sure, and maybe another one. Either way, I think it has three holes and pips which the these blades go in to.

You probably don't have the green holder, but it is made for Personna hair shaper blades.

Make sure you use the right holder/blade combo. Otherwise, your shaving experience is gonna be "fun."

My first brush was a $5 brush. It works just fine - I had pulled out out a couple weeks ago just to go back to it and it still works well.
I also started with straights with a shavette: keep in your head that you need a light touch.

The time it took for your first shave is likely not uncommon, regardless of whether you use a shavette or a straight. It's a whole new skill to learn compared to a DE or other lesser razor.

Coming from cartidges, my first straight shave was only slightly short of terrible as well. Second one was even worse! But after that I had a pretty good idea of how to proceed. I now conistantly get very close shaves with little to no irritation. It is very satisfying. Keep at it, you'll get there.

I agree with Brutus, ditch the can 'o cream. Target or your local drug store should have some inexpensive soap that will be far superior. But again, don't go expecting a phenominal lather on the first try. Believe it or not, soap lathering takes some learned skill as well.

Did you manage to find the correct holder for the Fromm blade, or pick up some DE blades for your red holder?

Good luck with your shaves. You are in the right place for advice.

I am fairly sure none of us hit gold first try. The cheap brush is not a problem either. I still have my first cheap brush, from ebay and the postage was more than the brush! It is still used and whilst not as fancy as my favorites, it does the job.

So as others have said, make sure you have the right blade in the blade holder and just practice. It gets better and in a couple of weeks the penny drops and you will be advising the latest newbs on what to do!

Make sure you have good, slick, cushion providing lather/soap. It makes a huge difference.

Let us know if you found the right blades for the right holder on that shavette. Plus any general progress reports on it all. lol

I shaved with a regular straight razor for six years before I tried a Shavette razor blade style razor and it felt like I was a beginner again, it was very unforgiving and I felt like I was always going to cut myself. I did get used to it after a few tries. My advice would be to find a cheap DE on Ebay or an antique store or in the classifieds on the forum. Find a decent real soap or cream, learn how to make a good lather and do a good prep, then go back and try the shavette again. Like someone else said, unless the brush sheds, it's probably fine for now