The old-style single-pass shave redux

[Bargepole]

Right. I don't normally do experiments -- I futz around, which is a different matter altogether -- but the stars were in conjunction on this one:

(1) A thread in the Soaps forum about single-pass shaves;

(2) the instructions in my NEW IN BOX TOGGLE hahaha which referred to the "once-over-quickly", and

(3) someone linking to the Cary Grant Shaving clip, which I'd forgotten about.

First off, we can be sure that Grant (a) knew how to shave well -- back in the day, a movie star was always well-groomed -- and (b) knew how most men shaved.

It wasn't the luxury three- or four-pass number we luxuriate in here, with re-lathering in between passes. That would have been thought a bit effeminate back then: too much attention to appearance, marks a chap as a bounder what what.

Nor was it particularly systematic, if you look at the clip.

But of course it was what men did. (Couldn't have someone watching the film & thinking "Lord, that Cary Grant don't know how ter SHAVE! That be the last 30¢ *I* ever spend on his dang movies.")

So we have pointers to The Old-Style Everyday Shave.

(Oh - and the TOGGLE instructions say, quite emphatically, diagonal strokes are best.)

Okay. Rig:

A fairly small plain brush: Simpson Tulip 1, pure badger.
A soap rather than a cream: Erasmic stick.
A middle-of-its-life blade: Israeli Personna on day 4.
And the Toggle at the #3 setting.

No special prep. Soap and water in the bath.

Lathered up on the "face" for about 90 seconds: a medium/dry lather.

Shaved diagonally ear-to-chin in very short, quick strokes -- about 1/2 inch and, for you musicians out there, about 180 beats/minute. Almost like blade-buffing but lifting the razor at the end of each stroke (WARNING: Newbies: do not try this -- especially not with a slant or a Futur wide-open -- until you have angle control or you will hurt yourself.)

Against all received wisdom ("Never touch blade to unlathered skin") I overlapped the strokes about 50% I'd guess. Presumably the skin was still wet from the first pass 1/3rd of a second previously.)

The whole process took about one minute - including lathering, rinsing etc, less than 4 minutes start to finish.

Not BBS but as good as a M3 or Fusion, easily, without any pulling or irritation.

Unable (of course) to leave well alone, I relathered and did the same thing N-S - very light, very fast, overlapping strokes.

Result: 95% BBS in an extra 60 seconds.

Bonus: splashed on Trumper Milk of Flowers alcohol-based aftershave. Not a trace of stinging.

I find this kind of interesting. It may be something to do with the more ballistic, as opposed to careful, approach of blade to beard, or the overlap getting the bristles before they can retract, but it contravenes most of my Canons of Fine Shaving yet sure as hell delivers the goods.

Tomorrow I'll up the ante: new Feather in a Slant. But looks like those old-timers knew what they were doing, which reinforces our collective opinion that all the "developments' since the DE have been about eliminating the need for skill rather than improving the quality of the shave.

(Just thinking it over - the answer may also lie the wrist movement. I.e., the wrist does NOT move once the angle has been set.)

[Leisureguy]

Extremely interesting experiment---and now, of course, I must try. Coincidentally, I had already set out my Erasmic shave stick (Xmas booty) to use this morning. Many thanks.

[mparker762]

A lot of straight shavers shave like this - take a look at Lynn's DVD for an example.

I do something a little different, I shave an area (like a cheek) with the grain, then spin the blade sideways and shave it across the grain without relathering. If you make your lather correctly and don't dawdle then there's still enough moisture and lubrication left to do the second pass quite happily, and it gets you as close as a water-only pass but much more efficiently. I'm not sure this technique would work with a DE because of the narrower blade and need to rinse frequently means the first areas you shaved would dry out before you finished the cheek, but on a straight where it's just one stroke down then one across this works very well. I do the cheeks and throat like this, and shave the chin and upper lip with the same technique but each pass is cross-grain in different directions.

[fallingwickets]

Not BBS but as good as a M3 or Fusion, easily, without any pulling or irritation.

Thank you, thank you thank you.

I thought I was going mad when others of far more experience than me doubted the end result of a one pass shave in comparison to what you get with a fusion m3 etc etc etc

Clive

[ScottS]

Not BBS but as good as a M3 or Fusion, easily, without any pulling or irritation.

Thank you, thank you thank you.

I thought I was going mad when others of far more experience than me doubted the end result of a one pass shave in comparison to what you get with a fusion m3 etc etc etc

Clive

Always remember that each face is an individual thing. What works well for some won't work well for others. For example, I can't get away with this.

[Brett G]

Michael,
I did an experiment very similar to that early last year. I had just bought a Gillette 1904 Double Ring and decided to pay homage to the shavers of old with a single pass shave done over a bowl of hot water while standing fully clothed in my bedroom (few bathrooms back then, mostly outhouses.) I found it to be one of the most educational things I have ever done shaving-wise.

Like you, I used a small non-descript brush (Col Conk travel job) and a cake of soap (Burma Shave.) I loaded the 100 year old Double Ring with some no-name uncoated Indian blade that was the best modern approximation of the old "No Honing No Stropping" that I could find. All I did was wet my face, wet the brush, swirl it on the soap, lather on my skin, and make a single carefully executed pass using those short overlapping strokes that you described. I would liken it to shaving with an electric razor. While it wasn't the best shave I've ever had it was surprisingly close immediately afterward. I did stubble up much quicker than normal and had a noticeable five o'clock shadow by mid afternoon. I understand that many fine gentlemen would shave again in the evening before putting on their dinner clothes. That makes sense as the one pass shave is so easy on the skin that I could have easily tolerated another go around later in the day.

Moral of the story: Yes, I love my daily three pass BBS affair; however, it is not necessary to scrap your skin raw in order to get a decent shave.

[Leisureguy]

My replication: Also used the Erasmic stick, with an Emperor 1 Super brush, and a 1940 (no notch in center bar) Gillette Milord, carrying a Feather razor that had seen a couple of shaves.

It's a MUCH faster shave than I usually do. I did catch one nick at the corner of my mouth, but not a bad one and it was due to an awkward bit on my part. Nothing to do with the technique.

I did diagonal pass first, then the with-the-grain pass, which for me didn't do much more reduction. So I wimped out and did a quick against-the-grain pass. Still, it was a much quicker shave, and with the final ATG pass, quite smooth.

I start the electric kettle before the shave, and then afterwards check the water temp before making coffee in the French press. Normally, it's around 196 F. Today it was 203 F. So: a much faster shave.

I finished with the Peach Thayers I just received. Delightful. (I've asked Honeybee Sue to whip up a batch of Peach shea-butter shaving soap, BTW.)

[mparker762]

Always remember that each face is an individual thing. What works well for some won't work well for others. For example, I can't get away with this.

The technique as describe for DE or as used by Lynn with the straight doesn't work for me either. It doesn't shave any better than one long pass -- the overlaps get me nothing. I have to hit the whiskers in a different direction to get any benefit.

[fallingwickets]

Well then Gents, I guess after 44 years of searching for my slice of luck, I finally stumbled upon it.: A face worthy of a one pass shave.

I think I'll celebrate my good fortune with an ice cold Becks.

Clive

[Bargepole]

I start the electric kettle before the shave, and then afterwards check the water temp before making coffee in the French press. Normally, it's around 196 F. Today it was 203 F. So: a much faster shave.

Now if we knew the volume of water in your cafetière, the surface area and the ambient temperature, we could work out precisely how much faster

But interesting, no?

[bernards66]

Michael, Well, that's not really that much different from how I shave every day. Of course, I started shaving with a DE in the early '60s ( the exact era of that Toggle ), and that's pretty much how it was still done. Men did either one or two passes. While it's true that I do three passes today, that is a fairly new thing with me, and is the result of 'shavegeekness', being on these forums, and so forth. But for the first 20 years, I did one pass, and for the next 15 or so, I did two. My strokes are not much longer then that, and I have ALWAYS over lapped them. The strokes are quick and short. I learned that from watching our hometown barber shave customers when I was a kid. I do get a somewhat closer, more long lasting shave doing my current three pass shave ( two N/S passes & the third on the diagonal ), but you have to be a little more careful, lest you invite some irritation doing the three. Sounds like it was an insightful experiment for you. Excellent post.
Regards,
Gordon

[Bargepole]

Oops. I missed something in the Gillette Toggle leaflet - the meaning of the phrase "once-over quickly". It's what semiologists would call a "signed phrase" -- something which acts as a sub-set of a wider meaning which isn't always mentioned explicitly.

Okay. Having fulfilled my ambition to get semiotics into shaving, let's press on.

The booklet refers to a "once-over-quickly" because there is, it implies, ANOTHER sort of shave: the "proper" shave of which the "once-over-quickly" is a sub-set. They don't feel the need to mention it because they assume we all know what the "proper" shave is.

So my experiment in recreating the everyday shave was founded on a false premise. All I did was recreate a less-than-proper shave. I still don't know how the "proper" shave went (except for the Cary Grant clip); did ordinary Joes -- for whom the shave was something to be got over with -- do our multi-pass, relathering Zen shave? If not, what DID they do? I knew I should have paid more attention to watching my grandfather shaving...

(My instinct is that most men did a "once-over-quickly" but that's just instinct and not much use.)

[Blue As A Jewel]

See? We are all lying bastards

[mparker762]

The barber manuals mention two basic shaves (this was for straight shaves, but you DE guys can interpolate): the professional shave which is done with the first pass with the grain using lather and the second across the grain using water only, and a "once-over" shave to be used if the client is in a hurry that is done like the OP described.

Edit: Nevermind. I reread the barber's manual and it actually describes the once-over shave as exactly what I'm doing (cross-grain strokes over an area immediately after doing the with-the-grain strokes). The "quickly" is important because the cross-grain stroke must be finished before the skin and residual lather have dried out, and you've only got a few seconds.

[fallingwickets]

Edit: Nevermind. I reread the barber's manual

I came back to read the link, but you had taken it off already. Any chance you can repost it?

Thanks

Clive

[mparker762]

http://www.straightrazorplace.com/compo ... /Itemid,3/

The relevant section is on pp 16-17 of the "barbering text 2000" document:

"The once over shave takes less time for a complete and even shave.
For a once over shave, give a few more strokes across the grain when
completing each shaving movement. This will assure a complete and
even shave with a single lathering."

Y'all might be interested in reading the rest of it even though it's more oriented towards open razors, especially you feather shavers. But there's lots of good information on shaving from the guys who teach the guys who do this for a living. Further up on page 16 is a discussion of "close shaving" or shaving against the grain, for example.

[drmoss_ca]

You're getting into a topic I have broached before, and not always with any welcome. Our forefathers had bad shaves. The idea that Cary Grant was perfectly shaven is about as real as the interest he displayed in his leading ladies.
Consider this - most men, if they were shaved at all, were shaved by a local barber on a Saturday for church on Sunday. By the mid 1800's it was often the case that a man would have a second shave midweek. The Royal Navy's ships had a razor on board, and someone would shave the crew on Sunday morning before the Articles of War were read out and the day's real business (laundry and the making of the day's treat - figgy duff) began. Only the well to do had their own razor, and a gentleman would expect his manservant to shave him. With increasing prosperity, it became more common for a chap to own his own razor and shave himself by the last quarter of the 1800's. It was this, the non-professional use of a difficult tool, that created the need for a 'safety' razor - precisely because the ordinary chap shaving in a hurry and without the time, energy or money to spend on hones and strops, found it hard to get decent results from a straight razor. The first transitional and disposable blade razors must have been revelatory. It's clear from early Gillette adverts that the razor was intended to be used for a single with-grain pass, and gave a result as good or superior to the home-honed and self-wielded straight. But the adoption was not universal. Both my grandfathers used straight razors into the 1930's, but my father was told by his father to use a safety razor, and as you know he used the same razor from 1940 until his death in 1999. He always did one pass with the grain, and as I sat on his knee as a small child he would encourage me to test his shave - rubbing against the grain was 'cheating' - of course you could feel something that way, do it right, lad.
Our obsession with not feeling any stubble in any direction is modern, and we achieve it, sometimes, to the detriment of appearance. In the end, we must decide whether feel or look is the most important criterion for judging, for it is the rare and lucky man who can do a three or four pass shave and have a face as unblemished as Cary Grant's shaved with the grain and viewed through a CinemaScope anamorphic lens.

Anyway, congrats on prying a toggle from the Goldfather's hands (the necessary lucre now allowing him to retire, I understand).

Chris

[Duggo]

You're getting into a topic I have broached before, and not always with any welcome. Our forefathers had bad shaves. The idea that Cary Grant was perfectly shaven is about as real as the interest he displayed in his leading ladies.
Consider this - most men, if they were shaved at all, were shaved by a local barber on a Saturday for church on Sunday. By the mid 1800's it was often the case that a man would have a second shave midweek. The Royal Navy's ships had a razor on board, and someone would shave the crew on Sunday morning before the Articles of War were read out and the day's real business (laundry and the making of the day's treat - figgy duff) began. Only the well to do had their own razor, and a gentleman would expect his manservant to shave him. With increasing prosperity, it became more common for a chap to own his own razor and shave himself by the last quarter of the 1800's. It was this, the non-professional use of a difficult tool, that created the need for a 'safety' razor - precisely because the ordinary chap shaving in a hurry and without the time, energy or money to spend on hones and strops, found it hard to get decent results from a straight razor. The first transitional and disposable blade razors must have been revelatory. It's clear from early Gillette adverts that the razor was intended to be used for a single with-grain pass, and gave a result as good or superior to the home-honed and self-wielded straight. But the adoption was not universal. Both my grandfathers used straight razors into the 1930's, but my father was told by his father to use a safety razor, and as you know he used the same razor from 1940 until his death in 1999. He always did one pass with the grain, and as I sat on his knee as a small child he would encourage me to test his shave - rubbing against the grain was 'cheating' - of course you could feel something that way, do it right, lad.
Our obsession with not feeling any stubble in any direction is modern, and we achieve it, sometimes, to the detriment of appearance. In the end, we must decide whether feel or look is the most important criterion for judging, for it is the rare and lucky man who can do a three or four pass shave and have a face as unblemished as Cary Grant's shaved with the grain and viewed through a CinemaScope anamorphic lens.

Anyway, congrats on prying a toggle from the Goldfather's hands (the necessary lucre now allowing him to retire, I understand).

Chris

Excellent and informative post!!

Duggo

[Bargepole]

[ . . . ] It's clear from early Gillette adverts that the razor was intended to be used for a single with-grain pass [ . . . ]

Anyway, congrats on prying a toggle from the Goldfather's hands (the necessary lucre now allowing him to retire, I understand).

Chris

Yes, I was struck by the rapid sequence of events between (a) my clawing away The Goldfather's Toggle (Sounds like a Harry Potter title) and (b) his retirement...

But to your first point, yes, concedo, BUT the 1958 leaflet for the Toggle specificall distinguished the "once-over" from the (undescribed) normal shave, and tells the user to dial down the razor. I suggest that's clearly telling us that there was another method as well as the once-over. What's your opinion?

[bernards66]

Michael, As I mentioned above, from what I remember of seeing men shave with DE razors during the 1950s and 60s, it was either a one or a two pass deal. If it was one pass, it was on the downward diagonal. If two, then the second pass was more or less S/N. My uncles etc. didn't seem to use brushes, but rather, those brushless creams; Barbasol, Burma Shave, and so forth.
Regards,
Gordon