straight razor

[darxus]

I ordered a carbon (not stainless) steel straight razor made by Dovo in Solingen. I used it for the first time last night. Bringing that blade to my flesh for the first time was more scary than I expected. I achieved a terrible shave, and only one tiny nick. I'm happy, I expected this to take practice. I strongly recommend hitting youtube before trying this.

Another thing I've been wanting to try for years off the list.
Yes, I'm coating it with mineral oil after each use, have a strop, and watched a video on that too.

I totally blame Fahrenheit 451 and Snow Crash.

Comments

[darxus.livejournal.com]

At this point it's hard to say if I'd be comfortable doing that (if I had that hairstyle). I'm certainly quite a lot more comfortable with the blade now than before I tried it.

I'll certainly be doing progress reports. My skin is generally pissed off abut shaving. I've practically exclusively been using Gillette Sensor / Sensor Excels since I started shaving. I only shave in the direction of hair growth. I've been using wintergreen alcohol afterward for years, and have recently been getting into the habit of using cetaphil lotion afterwards which has significantly improved our relationship. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that goes.