For Christmas this year, Pat got me a pair of straight razor handles for disposable razor blades. When I opened the gift, everyone’s reaction was a parody of those in A Christmas Story, “You’ll cut your face off!” But it’s something I’ve been wanting and had asked to receive for quite some time, and I’ve been using it for the past few months.

Since I started working at home, I don’t shave as regularly as I did when I was working in an office. Why would I? It’s kind of a pain to do it. Even when I was working in an office, I didn’t shave every day, even though my face hair would grow in fast enough to warrant it. It simply hurt my skin too much to do it, even with the safety razor.

Sure, I tried the electric for a while, and have had varied amount of success with different cremes and lotions. But coming right down to it, there are only two ways to approach shaving my face. Either it’s a quick pass with a safety razor and any random kind of foam/gel/creme that has passable results, or it’s a dedicated act that requires almost zen-like concentration and focus that has slightly better than passable results. After going to Shaving Grace barber shop a couple of times, I’ve learned the zen of the shave, and occasionally strive to get into that zone.

Here’s the trouble: To get the quality shave provided by the barber, you need to have skill with the straight razor. And you can’t get skill with the straight razor without practicing. And if you are using only the safety razor for the “good enough” shaves between the zen-like shaving events, then you’re not getting the required practice, and the zen never happens. The end result is that I’m shaving with the straight razor all the time.

Where is the skill involved? Surely, this isn’t much different than using a safety razor? Well, in some respects its not. The surprising thing I’ve found while using the straight razor is that I can push it against my skin pretty firmly before anything bad happens. It’s good this is true, otherwise the blade would never get close enough.

Obviously, the same troubles that surface when shaving with a safety razor apply. The hairs grow in all different directions, and if you cut the wrong way, you end up with stubble that is either too short to cut or results in a nick trying to get at it. The new problem that the straight razor brings to this is that it’s not as convenient (yet that I’ve found) to hold as a safety razor. It’s hard to get it in a position for the odd-angle cutting, or at least in one that doesn’t also block your view of what you’re doing in the mirror.

So for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been keeping a beard trimmed up with the razor. It’s interesting. I alternate days between stubble and various cuts and nicks. Two weeks ago, I took a pretty deep chunk out just below my nose. Last week, I cut myself in a weird location above my cheek bone near my eye. Not even sure how that happened. But today’s shave went pretty well. A solid combination of firmness and speed.

People will tell you that there are certain tricks to getting a good shave, and there are. The first one is hot water. Lots of it. Wet blade, wet face. Never shave dry. The second trick is that the gel they sell in stores makes you feel good, but isn’t the best for shaving. My preference, at least, is for shaving soap, which I get from the barber shop and apply with a shaving brush. It smells nice, it’s slick enough for the blade to work over it, and the process of applying it with the brush gets the hairs ready to be cut. Barring soap, there are a couple of shaving cremes that I’ll use. Origins’ line of shaving unguents is great. It’s not foam, but a light oil that makes the shave easy.

I’ve heard not to shave against the grain. I think this is nonsense. I can’t get a close shave without shaving against the grain. For me, shaving only with the grain would be pointless.

I’ve not completely got the hang of shaving with the straight razor yet. If you see me these days, I’m probably reasonably chopped up. It’s not that the blade is sharp, but more that my face isn’t made of plastic. But in any case, the experience is a good one, and I expect to be an expert at it in a reasonable amount of time.