Light medium or heavy beard?

[Ratso]

I’ll start with a quote from an unrelated post.
“Unfortunately I have no objective measure for how tough my beard is. It is mostly gray at this point, and seems to me to be rather tough, but I have nothing to compare it to.”

That pretty much describes me except that my beard is white. I guess if I had an extremely light or heavy beard it would be easy to evaluate. I’m somewhere above medium, but not what I’d consider super heavy. So where does that leave me? There is no standard for beard rating I know of. When people provide evaluations of blades and razors it’s nice to know what type of beard they have. Sometimes that’s provided. Sometimes not. Even when it’s provided what formal rating system is used? Ha ha. Seeing numerous ratings for a product is a good indication I guess and I enjoy everyone’s input and appreciate their efforts.

So, here is my proposal for an official standard for beard rating.
Get a set of Gillette Super Speed razors. You know, light, medium, and heavy. (Now the commercial is playing in my head) yes I’m that old. Use each razor with your favorite blade. Whichever razor gives you the best shave determines your beard characterization. The red tip is my go to. I must have a heavy beard. Easy peasy .

 

[silverlifter]

I thought everyone had heavy beards, problem areas, and super sensitive skin?

 

[garyg]

I thought everyone had heavy beards, problem areas, and super sensitive skin?

Nice one - though I have always posted a heavy beard, no problem if I do 5 passes, and I'm less sensitive than most ..

 

[rbscebu]

I thought everyone had heavy beards, problem areas, and super sensitive skin?

You would think so based on many posts in B&B. With a proper good technique and a super-keen edge, that is no such thing as a heavy beard, problem areas or sensitive skin when shaving with a straight razor.

 

[silverlifter]

With a proper good technique and a super-keen edge, that is no such thing as a heavy beard, problem areas or sensitive skin when shaving with a straight razor.

To be fair, that sentence could end at "skin".

 

[razorhead63]

I’d say my beard is medium or so, more heavy on the neck. Yes it feels tough too, mostly white now. I favor mild razors but most any razor in my modest collection works on it. I’m so used to shaving now that I forget what it looked like when it was grown out.

 

[GR5233]

I would say that my beard is on the lighter side of medium and somewhat slow growing but can shave every 24 hours

 

[BigJ]

Most likely, my beard is in the ‘medium’ range (along with the general population distribution).

Certainly, my hairs have become more wiry as I have gone gray.

 

[santamariasteve]

Intuition is your best indicator. There is no universal standard.

Give it your best guess of light, medium, or heavy, and you'll probably be right.

 

[musicman1951]

Mine was probably somewhere in the medium range when I was younger, and is a bit nastier now.

There are shavers with beards so heavy they get one shave from a Feather. Mine's not that heavy.

 

[Brutus]

“According to a study published in a Swedish Psychology journal (Acta Psychologica) a whopping 93% of Americans consider themselves above average drivers.
In another similar study by McCormick, Walkey and Green (1986) drivers rated them 80% above average.”


Similar to above, to me it seems that more than half of the shavers believe that they have a tougher than average beard.

Needless to say, above assumptions are all statistically impossible.

There are many reasons for the “copper wire” delusion, but to me the leading cause of this misapprehension is poor beard preparation, the importance of which most straight shavers understand only too well.

I am not going to descend into any pseudo-scientific rabbit (badger? ) hole, but whatever the true precentage is, buying a set of Gillette Super Speed safety razors will not solve it or establish any meaningful standard.



Thanks, but no thanks.
I’ll pass.



B.

 

[lasta]

No beard, I'm always clean shaven.

I thought we are all on the same boat

 

[Ratso]

“According to a study published in a Swedish Psychology journal (Acta Psychologica) a whopping 93% of Americans consider themselves above average drivers.
In another similar study by McCormick, Walkey and Green (1986) drivers rated them 80% above average.”


Similar to above, to me it seems that more than half of the shavers believe that they have a tougher than average beard.

Needless to say, above assumptions are all statistically impossible.

There are many reasons for the “copper wire” delusion, but to me the leading cause of this misapprehension is poor beard preparation, the importance of which most straight shavers understand only too well.

I am not going to descend into any pseudo-scientific rabbit (badger? ) hole, but whatever the true precentage is, buying a set of Gillette Super Speed safety razors will not solve it or establish any meaningful standard.



Thanks, but no thanks.
I’ll pass.



B.

You passed up a golden opportunity to buy more razors. I was hoping my idea would become the de facto standard for beard analytics. Oh well, another startup gone bad.

 

[brucered]

From my experience, anyone who has trouble shaving claims to have "coarse beard and sensitive skin", when in fact, it's user error and bad lather.

We all have sensitive skin and coarse beard hair. Especially when there is a razor blade dragged over it.

 

[rbscebu]

I performed a very scientific survey middle of last year, a B&B poll, that found only about a third of B&B member considered that they had sensitive or very sensitive skin for shaving.

From reading posts on B&B you wouldn't have thought so.

I thought that I had sensitive skin and a tough beard when cart shaving. Once I developed my SR shaving technique, my whiskers became like fine silk and my skin like elephant's hide. Absolutely amazing how a person's body can change.

 

[Brutus]

You passed up a golden opportunity to buy more razors. I was hoping my idea would become the de facto standard for beard analytics. Oh well, another startup gone bad.

On the contrary, having wet-shaved as long as I have, I have at least two or three (each) Super Speeds, Fatboys, Slims and Super Adjustables lying around that I no longer use.

If more people come up with ideas like that, I may one day reap a nice profit…


B.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

There's a couple things at play here. One is coarseness, i.e. how thick the individual hairs are. The other is how densely packed together they are.Some guys have both. My dad hasn't shaved in 40 years, but he could often only get through half his beard with one blade. (I can't remember what brand it was but he finally found one that would last for a full 2 pass shave). Grandpa, on the other hand, could shave for 2 weeks on a Bic disposable. Dad's beard is very coarse and moderately dense.

Mine is not terribly dense but moderately coarse, especially the chin and mustache area, where it's also denser. I need a very sharp blade to get a comfortable shave on the chin (the mustache doesn't get shaved at all).

My skin isn't very sensitive but the chin is prone to breakouts, especially if my edges aren't up to snuff. Masks seem to make it worse. So I'm wearing a goatee at the moment.

 

[steveclarkus]

My beard has gotten coarser with age but it has never been particularly dense - I could never grow a full looking beard. I use straight razors so I can’t compare blades etc. I can’t stand whiskers on my face and have always shaved daily. I don’t have sensitive skin.

 

[Lather and Razors]

Arab guys generally have thicker facial hair than the European men’s.
The genes played the huge role of facial hair texture.