"except the first time" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use this phrase to indicate something that normally happens regularly, but not on the first occasion. For example, you could say: "I usually go to the store once a week, except the first time when I went twice."
"It never upset me, except the first time I read about my bones," said Paul Grabowski, 60, of Houston, who has two forms of blood cancer and has developed bone loss that causes severe pain.
So many of my responses to this cancer journey do take on that semi-automatic glaze -- except the first time I hear the words 'right mastectomy,' I sob and sob as if I were Carol Doda herself.
5, 14 In our patient, skin biopsy showed granulomatous inflammation with negative results for AFB stains on multiple occasions except the first time.
It was like a homecoming -- except for the first time in our lives, we walked onto the deck as bona fide tourists, shedding the nervous sheen that came with being sneaky.
The pressed tofu and celery salad is so unusual and so good that I can honestly say I have never gone there (except maybe the first time or two) without ordering it.
Except, for the first time all series, the joke was on Australia.
As I contemplate my own Apple TV, untouched except for the first time I turned it on, only to be completely underwhelmed, I wonder: who really uses Apple TV, and what's the outlook for the technology?
Except during the first time period, prophylactic antibiotics were administered systemically in almost all operations (Table 1).
The decision by the World Bank this week to repudiate future investments in coal-fired power plants except under exceptional circumstances marks the first time that the global community has collectively ruled some forms of high carbon energy development off the table.
Nothing unusual in that, except it's the first time he's done so today – even though it's the 75th ball of Panesar's spell and the 70th of Williamson's innings.
