What's new

Gentlemanly restraint from BBS

I am mostly doing WTG passes now. I can only do ATG with certain blades. But I find the smoothest blades dont go ATG for me, but give a very passable shave WTG and XTG. I will certainly be revisiting these blades now I am no longer chasing BBS.
 
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.
I use blades from 60s up mostly, very few carbons but the ones I do use are remarkable.
 
I gave up chasing BBS a couple years ago. I came to the realizations that:
1-BBS often requires me to do 3 or 4 passes which led to a raw, red neck
2-In an hour, my face/neck will no longer feel BBS
3-No one can see if I have a BBS shave, but people can see a red, raw, razor burned neck

I now do 2 passes with a little touch up in a couple places on my jaw line and neck. My morning shave has gotten quicker, happier, and actually closer since I learned to focus on good technique for two passes.

Same here, except I never even tried to get a BBS shave, I knew I’d be in trouble if I even tried.
 
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 felt that way for a while, but then I realized that those guys have the whiskers of a hairless cat on a face of buffalo hide. ;)
 
I think I’ve hijacked my own thread with three single pass shaves with the West Coast Shaving 175 gram handle. It was survival shaving, one pass per shave was all I would risk. I shaved yesterday evening, very early this morning, and just 20 minutes ago. The RazoRock GameChanger JAWS and a Supermax Blue Diamond were implicated in all three incidents.

I guess I learned that, while not chasing BBS, I still have standards. The behemoth handle (for me) prevented chasing even CCS. The leftover stubble drove me crazy, stubbornness kept me trying to do better, thus a series of short, ineffective shaves.

And I managed to nick myself on the last shave.

@MrBeez , over to you! PM me an address and I will ship promptly. It doesn’t even have to be your address, if you are having second thoughts.
 
I felt that way for a while, but then I realized that those guys have the whiskers of a hairless cat on a face of buffalo hide. ;)
One thing a barber friend of mine told me, we're not good judges of our own beards. What do we have to compare it to? Who else do we shave? He had a shop catering to a wealthy clientele, some he shaved every morning before they went to the office. He said that unless their beards were painfully obviously thin everyone thought they had a heavy coarse beard, but , again, like he says, average is called average for a reason.
 
One thing a barber friend of mine told me, we're not good judges of our own beards. What do we have to compare it to? Who else do we shave? He had a shop catering to a wealthy clientele, some he shaved every morning before they went to the office. He said that unless their beards were painfully obviously thin everyone thought they had a heavy coarse beard, but , again, like he says, average is called average for a reason.

What I want to know about average beards is this: how common are neck whorls, where it seems impossible
A) to find a direction that is WTG or ATG
or
B) to get all the way to BBS.

I wouldn’t call those areas particularly coarse or heavy, but they are hands down the hardest to shave close. I don’t think they are particularly sensitive, but after I started down the perfect BBS road I always overshaved and irritated my whole neck.
 
What I want to know about average beards is this: how common are neck whorls, where it seems impossible
A) to find a direction that is WTG or ATG
or
B) to get all the way to BBS.

I wouldn’t call those areas particularly coarse or heavy, but they are hands down the hardest to shave close. I don’t think they are particularly sensitive, but after I started down the perfect BBS road I always overshaved and irritated my whole neck.
Chasing a BBS shave definitely lead me to over shaving especially at the bottom of my neck. Not sure if I have true whorls going on but it does get tricky for me to truly figure out WTG and ATG on my neck hence the irritation I think. So not chasing let's me step back a bit and just focus on avoiding the irritation. You just need to be fine with the feel of a little stubble, which I now am, cos it's way better than an ingrown hair.
 
What I want to know about average beards is this: how common are neck whorls, where it seems impossible
A) to find a direction that is WTG or ATG
or
B) to get all the way to BBS.

I wouldn’t call those areas particularly coarse or heavy, but they are hands down the hardest to shave close. I don’t think they are particularly sensitive, but after I started down the perfect BBS road I always overshaved and irritated my whole neck.
You're right, that is the hardest area to shave close, but..
Chasing a BBS shave definitely lead me to over shaving especially at the bottom of my neck. Not sure if I have true whorls going on but it does get tricky for me to truly figure out WTG and ATG on my neck hence the irritation I think. So not chasing let's me step back a bit and just focus on avoiding the irritation. You just need to be fine with the feel of a little stubble, which I now am, cos it's way better than an ingrown hair.
I get BBS everytime without chasing it. I think it's slightly due to my insensitive skin but mostly due to equipment. I have been keeping a daily shave log since 2013 tracking every little aspect and factor and ever since I went strictly vintage, razors and blades, I've been getting BBS every single time. No chasing, no weepers.
 
Caught off base today, buffing with a Gem PTFE razor blade in a fairly aggressive razor. Close shave, a couple very light weepers, and the devil got his due: irritation that is still annoying me an hour later.
 
Still in, although yesterday morning after my usual WTG/XTG two-pass shave I grabbed the SS again to work on a stubborn patch of very short stubble on the left cheek that I probably should have left alone. That said, I used an EXTREMELY light touch and was able to get it completely smooth without any irritation at all, so I guess I still did ok.
 
I’ve had two restrained two pass days without any issues at all. Shavette+Wunderbar yesterday, then pure GameChanger JAWS today.

For my next trick, I will change out the blades without waiting for them to cut poorly or irritate. Shouldn’t be too hard.
 
So I skipped a few days of shaving last week. Gasp! Yes, I know. I tried shaving every other day instead of every day. I must say, I find the shave more enjoyable after two days worth of stubble. So I'm including the skip-day restraint as part of my overall restraining from hunt for a BBS. Meaning I will skip probably two days during the week.
 
In contrast, I seem to have given up skipping days.

First, because my face is feeling great and not demanding a respite. I even shave on Sundays.

Second, now that I’m not constantly rating my shaves I can do two comfortable, effective passes really quickly if need be and get on with my day.
 
My new restrained discipline includes not swapping blades between razors and only keeping two DEs loaded at a time. I change blades when rotating in a different razor.

So the Wunderbar was ready for a rest. I got reckless and put one unit of my newly enlarged inventory of Hi-stainless Feathers into my Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements Bakelite Open Comb Slant.

Aggressive razor + sharp blade = very close shave (whisper it, BBS). Which also featured the unnoticed reopening of an almost healed shave wound.

So my definition of ‘chasing’ now includes putting my most aggressive razors in the rotation. I had also queued up my Muhle R41. (Intending to Feather it too. I’m dumb, right?)

The fresh Feather fled to my Merkur 37C. The PBOCS is shelved until Thanksgiving. I am chastened and restrained, once more.
 
In contrast, I seem to have given up skipping days.

First, because my face is feeling great and not demanding a respite. I even shave on Sundays.

Second, now that I’m not constantly rating my shaves I can do two comfortable, effective passes really quickly if need be and get on with my day.
Ok I got you. And that makes sense. I'm getting more comfortable shaves for sure but you know that feeling when you're cutting just a bit more whiskers after two days? I kind of like that. Of course, this will be very individual and based on how much hair grows back and how fast it grows back. I'm still on the three-pass routine though.
 
My new restrained discipline includes not swapping blades between razors and only keeping two DEs loaded at a time. I change blades when rotating in a different razor.

So the Wunderbar was ready for a rest. I got reckless and put one unit of my newly enlarged inventory of Hi-stainless Feathers into my Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements Bakelite Open Comb Slant.

Aggressive razor + sharp blade = very close shave (whisper it, BBS). Which also featured the unnoticed reopening of an almost healed shave wound.

So my definition of ‘chasing’ now includes putting my most aggressive razors in the rotation. I had also queued up my Muhle R41. (Intending to Feather it too. I’m dumb, right?)

The fresh Feather fled to my Merkur 37C. The PBOCS is shelved until Thanksgiving. I am chastened and restrained, once more.
Cool seeing how folks tweak their routines for comfort!

Btw, one of these days I'm going to get my hands on a Muhle R41 to see what that's all about.
 
Btw, one of these days I'm going to get my hands on a Muhle R41 to see what that's all about.

For me, blood, mainly. I have to watch the angle as I set it on my neck. Might as well load it like this:
B773E7DF-E88C-4F60-831B-2234E34FB1AC.jpeg


But I’m convinced my technique is far more wary than it was, now that I’m using SRs.
 
For me, blood, mainly. I have to watch the angle as I set it on my neck. Might as well load it like this:

Woah!!! You made the DE/Razorine hybrid like the RR switch but the only thing you have to change is the grip. What a visionary.

I have been having a great time. Loaded a feather into my Black Beauty and do not like it. I got a number of weepers and am now sad. Overall I'm having a great time not worrying about how good a have I get.
 
Top Bottom