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Gentlemanly restraint from BBS

After two months of almost daily shaving, I planned to skip shaving some days. With the restraint, my face is already feeling so good that I don’t need any recovery days.

I am changing blades more often, using witch hazel regularly, seldom using alum to test for irritation... and I’m looking forward to each day’s shave.
 
Gents I concur - for me not chasing the BBS has made me slow down and focus on technique. Great to hear that seems to be the result others are seeing. I still get pangs to hunt sometimes after feeling my neck an hour or two after a shave but I think of the comfort-level factor and I think, "why chase?" Doing a sort of diagonal pass instead of straight out ATG works for me. I still do admire the folks who manage the BBS without irritation though. But hey, in the end, it's whatever works for you is good. Shave on! And thanks @Tanuki for starting the thread. Will be interesting to see folks discover it.
 
I'm lucky, I don't attempt to achieve anything but a shave and the results are always, always BBS. Never any irritation and I get an average of under one weeper a month. I keep a daily shave log and have since 2013. It hasn't always been this way. My "luck" changed back when I made the change to vintage blades only.
 
Extra bonus - I take some of my newly freed shave time and do the back of my neck a couple times a week. Will this trend hold? Previously I shaved it about once between haircuts, or when SWMBO reminded me.
 
I'm lucky, I don't attempt to achieve anything but a shave and the results are always, always BBS. Never any irritation and I get an average of under one weeper a month. I keep a daily shave log and have since 2013. It hasn't always been this way. My "luck" changed back when I made the change to vintage blades only.

So how old is vintage? I recently unwrapped and shaved with a Blue Blade with King’s portrait on the blue wrapper. They put some steel in the blades back then.
 

Flintstone65

Imagining solutions for imaginary problems
Extra bonus - I take some of my newly freed shave time and do the back of my neck a couple times a week. Will this trend hold? Previously I shaved it about once between haircuts, or when SWMBO reminded me.
I have to admit that I don't relish the contorting, but I absolutely hate the furry-neck look on me. I'll let SWMBO use a cart, but she uses so much pressure and such choppy strokes (it's like she's chopping vegetables), that I don't dare let her near my "safety" razors. So I've learned that with a careful hand, I can do a pretty decent job myself using whatever razor I shaved with at the time.
 
Had a work trip and decided to take my cartridge razor as I have some un-used blades that needed using up. An easy way to restrain from a BBS shave.
 
A little slippage today. I stropped my inexpensive Dovo ‘Best Solingen’ into its best edge yet and gave it a little more face time than best practice allows. Just a little too much of a good thing. Just a little sting from the alum.

A little here, a little there and a little warning. Face still feels great, a little more restraint tomorrow!
 
Had a work trip and decided to take my cartridge razor as I have some un-used blades that needed using up. An easy way to restrain from a BBS shave.

Cheater! :001_302: :001_302:

I did use a disposable (just once) on a recent trip by air. Probably 10 years and 10 shaves on that razor. Definitely not BBS, definitely exercised the disposability option when I got home.
 
A little slippage today. I stropped my inexpensive Dovo ‘Best Solingen’ into its best edge yet and gave it a little more face time than best practice allows. Just a little too much of a good thing. Just a little sting from the alum.

A little here, a little there and a little warning. Face still feels great, a little more restraint tomorrow!
Too funny I also found myself slipping this morning and I paid for it but not too bad. Since OCtober ended I've been using my Baili BD179, which was my first razor and a very mild one, and more forgiving. Figured if I do slip up then I won't pay for it as much. Been doing a diagonal pass for the lower half of my neck as my restraint, and this time I got a little too ATG so I have one of those annoying razor bumps. Is it an ingrown hair right away then - that bump? Not sure what to call it but I hate those bumps. Tomorrow is another day though. May the force be with me.
 
Too funny I also found myself slipping this morning and I paid for it but not too bad. Since OCtober ended I've been using my Baili BD179, which was my first razor and a very mild one, and more forgiving. Figured if I do slip up then I won't pay for it as much. Been doing a diagonal pass for the lower half of my neck as my restraint, and this time I got a little too ATG so I have one of those annoying razor bumps. Is it an ingrown hair right away then - that bump? Not sure what to call it but I hate those bumps. Tomorrow is another day though. May the force be with me.

So you are restraining yourself from that honkin’ huge WCS handle!

I am restraining myself from shuffling DE blades among razors, but there is no reason not to do some handle swapping. I plan to dig out my version of that handle and see if I can manage a restrained shave while fighting gravity.

Nine pound hammer + GameChanger JAWS will require great restraint tomorrow.
 
So you are restraining yourself from that honkin’ huge WCS handle!

I am restraining myself from shuffling DE blades among razors, but there is no reason not to do some handle swapping. I plan to dig out my version of that handle and see if I can manage a restrained shave while fighting gravity.

Nine pound hammer + GameChanger JAWS will require great restraint tomorrow.
You mean have that WCS 110 handle too? They have a 175g one. Can you believe that?
 
I think I have the 175g version. I’m still in BOSC, but they let me out of the asylum once a month for supervised day trips.
 
I dug it out. They cheated me out of 3g. There are four nice, restrained 43g stainless handles hiding in there, somewhere.


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If I am still alive after tomorrow, I would be happy to mail it to you. Or I could bequest it to you and you probably wouldn’t get it until Christmas, after probate.
 
I dug it out. They cheated me out of 3g. There are four nice, restrained 43g stainless handles hiding in there, somewhere.


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If I am still alive after tomorrow, I would be happy to mail it to you. Or I could bequest it to you and you probably wouldn’t get it until Christmas, after probate.
Hahaha good god man. I honestly did consider the 175 before I ordered the 110 but I thought, "na, maybe I shouldn't over do it" :) But ya know, I'd totally try it if you're up for it. I'd return the beast after a month or so. We'd be in the heavy-lifters club!
 
I never have chased BBS...I am a WTG XTG kind of guy and that is good enough for me.
Same. Anything else results in irritation, bloodletting and - eventually - ingrown hairs. I'm settled in at two passes (WTG, XTG) for a DFS and totally satisfied with that. If I'm in a hurry, it's one pass of WTG on the cheeks and XTG on the neck - SAS and done.

Congrats to the guys who are making the effort to step away from the ledge. :)
 
Same. Anything else results in irritation, bloodletting and - eventually - ingrown hairs. I'm settled in at two passes (WTG, XTG) for a DFS and totally satisfied with that. If I'm in a hurry, it's one pass of WTG on the cheeks and XTG on the neck - SAS and done.

Congrats to the guys who are making the effort to step away from the ledge. :)
I do admit, I feel a little less-than compared to the guys that get the BBS without the irritation, but man I've been trying for a year this December for BBS and as much as I try, the ingrowns hit me. Must. Step. Back.
 
I've been doing 2 passes (WTG and ATG) for nearly a year now. I shave 5/6 times a week and find going ATG irritates my skin after day 3.

I changed to 3 passes a few days ago - WTG followed by 2 XTG passes. It's not BBS, but it's certainly a DFS without irritation! I don't think I'll hunt BBS again.
 
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