As many of you know, I have a thick beard and very tough hair. This means that in my DE razors only Feathers will do and my straights have to be much, much sharper than usual or I get a lot of pulling and tugging. I think that hair diameter is the biggest indicator of hair toughness. A big hair has a much larger surface area and a much thicker cuticle(the hard outer coating). There can be considerable variation in hair diameter on one persons face and very different diameters from person to person. Just feeling your beard won't give you a solid measurement of toughness. You really need to look at your hair under a microscope.
In order to gauge my own beard toughness I've taken some off-cuts from shaving and put them under the microscope. I find my average hair to be around 200 microns wide. This is near the top end of the normal range. However I also found many hairs thicker than this. I found a few, one of which I will now show you, that are positively monstrous. I have several of these, maybe a few dozen, scattered around my face and boy can I sure feel them when they razor hits them!
I present the monster hair!
I measure this tree of a hair to be around 460 microns!!
That is a normal head hair next to it so that you can get an idea of the difference in size. I had to make two micrographs at different focus settings because it is so big that I can't get both in focus at once!
So the next time somebody on the forums says a blade is not sharp enough for him and you think "He is crazy! That blade is too sharp!", remember that some of us have trees living on our faces.
Joe
In order to gauge my own beard toughness I've taken some off-cuts from shaving and put them under the microscope. I find my average hair to be around 200 microns wide. This is near the top end of the normal range. However I also found many hairs thicker than this. I found a few, one of which I will now show you, that are positively monstrous. I have several of these, maybe a few dozen, scattered around my face and boy can I sure feel them when they razor hits them!
I present the monster hair!
I measure this tree of a hair to be around 460 microns!!
That is a normal head hair next to it so that you can get an idea of the difference in size. I had to make two micrographs at different focus settings because it is so big that I can't get both in focus at once!So the next time somebody on the forums says a blade is not sharp enough for him and you think "He is crazy! That blade is too sharp!", remember that some of us have trees living on our faces.
Joe
. I've been getting not-so-great straight shaves partially because I'm a newbie and the honemeister I use likely doesn't have as tough a beard as I do. But a Derby works wonders and I'm going to take the Feather plunge this evening!
I'll definitely post info on my Feather debut!
