Wherefore art though BBS?

Use a straight. You know it makes sense.
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Occam
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Wherefore art though BBS?

Post by Occam »

Gents, I have been shaving twice a day lately.

Standard 3 pass shave that gets me BBS or near BBS each morning with a Gillette President / Derby Extra combo.

At night about 12 hours afterwards I have a slight shadow.

It is then that I practice my straight razor shave technique with a 1,2 or 3 WTG pass with some ATG thrown in. My honing skills are such that I can get to a HHT and not ruin it with stropping. Now it's still not DE blade smooth. There is still some slight hesitancy around moustache and chin.

With a WTG and ATG pass on my right cheek which I am very confident with now I can get a near BBS result. I'm still pretty far from this on my left cheek. On my neck I'm still very so so and moustache and chin are pretty ordinary still.

Is my entire problem just a matter of practice and experience? Or does anyone think my blade needs to be sharper? I'm a little disappointed I never got a proper benchmark razor in this respect. I know I can't be that far off but my chin and moustache beg to differ.

Now I'll just clarify... when I was shaving with a straight before, I would do my moustache and chin with an M3. The whole shave looked even but I only ever did WTG. I know that my shaves now with a straight all over are somewhat like what I used to get with that combo before which might tell you how bad my shaves were mostly.

Having gone the DE route I'm getting really really nice shaves and I can't believe how bad my shaves must have been before. I see other men with thick and heavy beards who must just do M3 shaves and see the bad results...

Will I ever get the same sort of shave from a straight?

How long would you estimate it might take for me to get there or close to the DE result?

Would it be a better shave if I let my stubble grow out more and tried a straight shave then? Perhaps trying to shave a light stubble is harder?


Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
Ben

Merkur Futur in Au.
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rustyblade
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Post by rustyblade »

How is your stretching technique? Your chin should be the last part of your face you shave giving the lather there time to soak in Stretch the skin under the chin downwards, pull up the skin with your bottom lip and do an against the grain pass with the heel of your razor upwards. It will take a bit of practice to get all areas of your chin.

An against the grain straight shave should *feel* like it lasts longer than an equivalent DE shave (the stubble grows back softer giving the sense of a longer lasting shave).

FWIW I can't go against the grain on my mustache area, just across the grain.
Richard
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jww
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Post by jww »

BBS tends to be something of a Holy Grail for wet-shavers, and yet many of us get excellent shaves without worrying about BBS every single time we take a razor to our face.

I am in the same boat as Richard where my mustache area is concerned, but have what my wife swears is BBS results without XTG.
Wendell

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Mr. Spacely
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Post by Mr. Spacely »

As Wendell said:

+1 - just enjoy the shave
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Scott
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Hoos
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Post by Hoos »

+2 for Wendell's comment.

IMHO, BBS is wonderful when it happens and, for me, I let it happen on its own. It's never a goal. It would make the shave too much work for me. :lol:
Brent
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Squire
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Post by Squire »

Wendall has received wife approval for his shave which is a slightly higher standard than BBS.
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Squire
mparker762
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Post by mparker762 »

Sharper will help, though your technique will keep improving and that will help too. But shaving twice a day isn't doing your skin any favors.
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Squire
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Post by Squire »

With respect though, I shaved twice a day with an open razor for years, still shave twice with a DE, arthritis makes stropping not worth the trouble, and my skin has never been better.
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Squire
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kaptain_zero
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Post by kaptain_zero »

Ben, the most useful suggestion I can give you in regards to getting a better straight razor shave is to simply put your other razors away. Straight shaving and in particular BBS straight shaves will only come with practice and experimentation. What works for me does not automatically work for you. There are far too many variables and you need to work them out for yourself. Yes, you can get stumped with a particular issue and then we'll be able to offer suggestions as to how to get around it but you will ultimately have to sort it out yourself and the fastest way of doing that is to stick with a straight alone until you get the hang of it. Nothing worth while is ever *easy*, if it were so easy, everyone would be doing it! :twisted:

As soon as your straight shaves without any other razor help is sufficient to pass your particular presentability situation (as in good enough for work), drop the crutches and go with the straight alone. If you have some areas that are a problem, try different things to see if you can sort it out... sometimes you have to re-think how you shave a spot due to the particular nature of the straight... I can't do a pure E/W pass on my neck with a straight... most guys can't. Still, I can do diagonals that get me pretty darn close to perfect in that area. Sometimes you need to try switching hands to get it right... sometimes you need to do something without switching hands... it all depends.

So drop the crutches, don't obsess with getting perfect shaves, only try to improve on the last shave you had and before you know it, you'll be wondering what all the fuss was about. :mrgreen:

And yes, a good sharp blade makes a difference, I need to touch mine up a bit more often than what most fellows admit to. In my case about every 5 shaves or so with a typical carbon steel blade. Nothing drastic, just a few swipes on a barbers hone does the trick once the razor has been honed properly.

Regards

Christian
Previously lost, on the way to the pasture. Now pasteurized.
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Occam
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Post by Occam »

Yes I think I have to convert over for a while, but I can't get the standard of shave needed yet to do so. It's early days so I know it will eventually happen if it's meant to be...

Is shaving longer stubble easier with a straight?
Ben

Merkur Futur in Au.
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