Shaving skill

I've been wet shaving almost a year and have come to realize the importance of skill development. I'll tell my story and hope to hear comments and other folks stories.

I started with mild Merkur razor and took several months to master it. I learned that I couldn't use Feather blades as they were too sharp. So, I finally mastered the mild razor and purchased a Muhle R41, which is the most aggressive double edge safety razor on the market as far as I know.

It was a rough start with the R41, but I stuck with it. Interestingly, the skill needed with that razor vastly improved my skill with a less aggressive razor. Once I was shaving well with the R41, I got a straight razor.

Rough start with the straight razor, though with less than two months use am fairly close to mastering it. It usually takes longer to gain skill with a straight, though the skill developed with the R41 has been very helpful.

I can now do a quick shave with the R41 with Feathers in it and can get a baby butt every time with no nicks, cuts or razor burn. Learning to use a straight is what has enabled this.

Of course, skill development won't allow everyone to do this as our bodies are all different, though I hope this will be an interesting thread.

LOL! I can't begin to tell you how many times I've heard that story. There is a big carry over from straight shaving to DE shaving. I was a SR user for a year before picking up a DE and have never had an issue with DE shaving. No nicks, cuts, razor burn, etc. and I attribute it to mastering SR shaving first. Unfortunately, mastery of a DE doesn't seem to help with mastery of SR shaving.

I only shave my head. So everything that comes after this must contain that caveat...I've never shaved my face with a DE, SE, or a straight, except to cut in my cheek lines, so I have absolutely no clue how they compare...

I'm one of those guys that just enjoys learning to use a new tool efficiently. I started with DE, which came to me very naturally. Once I figured out how to control my pressure and angles, DFS was pretty easy to achieve with my "go to" setups, and BBS was fairly reliable with touchups.

So I got a couple SE razors, and set about learning how to use one. Not very difficult, once you figure out what blades work for you, your razor, and your ability to acquire said blades...

I tried a 1/2 DE blade shavette next. It was a matter of blade maintenance and initial cost output. It was a bad choice, in my opinion. A different monster from any of the above. Not an easy transition to make. Pressure, angle, and attention were exponentially more important, and the results of even the smallest error in any of those 3 factors resulted ion blood. I bled a lot that week, because my stubbornness forced me to try again and again...

When I tried my first traditional straight, it was either blood free or only a minor weeper...I don't remember exactly, but I remember distinctly that it was not nearly as painful as a shavette was. It was one of those shocking moments that freezes in your mind. It seemed so much more gentle than the shavette I had been using. I got better with every shave after that. After only a few weeks I was shaving without bleeding consistently. After a couple months, I was no longer getting any kind of irritation or burn.

I am still improving with every shave. I have days when I get as close to BBS as I can possibly get(given that I use 2 mirrors for the back of my head and just can't stretch a couple of small areas), and I have days when I settle for close and comfortable.

These days, I mix in DE, SE, shavette and straights. It depends on the mood, the day, the time constraints that may or may not be there, and the results I am looking for.

I get BBS consistently with DE and SE now, with just nominal effort, and I can get a great shave in less than 15 minutes. I can get an extremely close and comfortable shave with a shavette, though I do sometimes still get a little irritation if I get clumsy. I do attribute that to my experience with straights...

I've been wet shaving almost a year

I think your skill just improved with time. One year may seem a long time but it may not be long enough to master small details of a full three pass shave. It takes years for barbers (yes their trade is more involved as they shave different people with different face/beard) to learn how to give the absolutely comfortable and close shave.

My point is, the improvement of your skill may have more to do with practice and time than with R41, straights etc.

Also it may have something to do with 'You learn to swim in winter and you learn to ski in summer', the wiring in your brain became more refined while you took a break (full or partial). I started getting really good straight razor shaves after pausing for 2 months after finishing my 100th shave.

I bet in another year you will probably stop using R41 as I have now .

Several years ago I owned a Muhle R89 and a Geo F. Trumper Gold Warwick razors. Then I purchased an ATT Kronos 5 piece closed comb set. I began rotating the three razors. I never considered collecting razors, it was just not my thing. After about 10 days of rotating the three, I took the blades out of the Muhle and Warwick and have not used them since. So, for several years I have only used the Kronos. In doing so I have become very proficient using it and I never have to think about how to hold it, how much pressure to use and how to perform three passes regardless of the blade I use ( I use about about 7 different blades). In addition nicks are a thing of the past. There is something to say about using only piece of equipment.

Yep, your skills have improved with practice and time. That's pretty common for most people who move to any sort of traditional wetshaving.

Like you, I'm a pretty big proponent of newbies using a medium-aggressive razor to start with. I usually suggest one of the Cadet razors, which are not as aggressive as the R41, but are still pretty efficient shavers. They make you pay more attention to technique when you start out and being able to feel the blade offers good feedback.

I'm glad you've mastered your straight shaves as well. If your experience is anything like what mine was, even though you have mastered getting a good shave from them, you can still expect to see significant improvements in the shave over the next couple of years. There won't be improvements of the magnitude that you've seen so far, but in a couple of years you'll look back and see how much better the shaves have got.

These are all good points. One lesson I've learned was very hard to learn.

I was instructed from the start to use very light pressure, though my desire to get a closer shave interfered with that. It took months of nicks and cuts for me to really take in the importance of a light touch.

Even the weight of the razor is to much with an R41 loaded with Feathers.

These are all good points.  One lesson I've learned was very hard to learn.

I was instructed from the start to use very light pressure, though my desire to get a closer shave interfered with that.  It took months of nicks and cuts for me to really take in the importance of a light touch.

Even the weight of the razor is to much with an R41 loaded with Feathers.

I believe the weight of the razor has a lot to do with your daily shaving approach. A lite razor requires more pressure where a heavy razor such as a stainless steel requires less pressure especially on you down ward pass as well as your left to right and right to left. So, when I use the same razor every morning I don't have to think about it anything; it just happens.

2-3 razors at the most.
Preferably 1-2.

Consistency.

… I was instructed from the start to use very light pressure, though my desire to get a closer shave interfered with that.  It took months of nicks and cuts for me to really take in the importance of a light touch.
Even the weight of the razor is to much with an R41 loaded with Feathers.

Most of us have to come to this realization, usually through trial and error. I have a couple of razors that are quite heavy. For the first pass especially (for which the term beard reduction is really the perfect description), I have to actually prevent the full weight of the razor from taking effect. Otherwise the shave is not optimal.

Obviously, the rather significant part of the population that shaves with almost weightless razors has learned to do exactly the opposite. (Hence the learning curve when transitioning into this way of doing things that we hold so dear to us.)