Minimizing passes

[PerpetualWonderer]

For all of you guys that do a minimal amount of passes, how do you do it?

I've always been a three- to four-pass shaver, including touchups. Lately though I've been trying to do less passes. Earlier in the week I tried to do a one-pass shave but had to do a lot of buffing. After doing this for two days (I shave every day), my skin was getting sore enough that I took a day off.

This morning I tried skipping the WTG pass and just doing ATG first. I did another light ATG pass and then the XTG pass. That worked out pretty well - I tried to focus on minimizing pressure the entire time and my face feels good.

Does anyone do a single pass w/o buffing strokes or having to go back for cleanup? I'm curious what people are doing and especially on how they balance the number of passes with the amount of buffing/cleanup that they do.

I am currently shaving on a Naniwa 12k blade.

 

[ScottChapin]

I shave on Naniwa 12K. I’m finally getting quite good, but still do 3 passes. It’s a complicated pattern, but I focus on XTG on the jaws and submandibular triangle in the first two passes and on the cheeks in the second pass.

I could never get a BBS shave with a DE unless my second pass was XTG. That leaves me to believe that you cannot arrive without an XTG pass or two with a straight.

Now... my whiskers grow from the center to the anterior under my chin and on my jaw lines. I’m having a particularly hard time at the neck/submandibular triangle radius.


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[PerpetualWonderer]

I shave on Naniwa 12K. I’m finally getting quite good, but still do 3 passes. It’s a complicated pattern, but I focus on XTG on the jaws and submandibular triangle in the first two passes and on the cheeks in the second pass.

I could never get a BBS shave with a DE unless my second pass was XTG. That leaves me to believe that you cannot arrive without an XTG pass or two with a straight.

Now... my whiskers grow from the center to the anterior under my chin and on my jaw lines. I’m having a particularly hard time at the neck/submandibular triangle radius.


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Yeah that's right, Scott. With the DE is was very easy - bullfrog the area to stick it out and I could take the DE any direction it needed to go. But with the concavity of the submandibular area (great word, BTW!), it just doesn't seem possible to run the blade along the valley. The best I can do is hold the skin very tightly there and do two XTG passes.

I see I screwed up XTG and ATG again in my original post... That middle sentence should be XTG 2x followed by ATG.

 

[musicman1951]

I need three passes for a BBS. I have been experimenting with two pass shaves, but it takes some discipline for me to do two normal passes and accept the less than BBS result. My natural inclination seems to be toward being more aggressive since I know I'll only get two passes. That leaves me with less comfort than my usual 3 pass shave.

 

[PerpetualWonderer]

I need three passes for a BBS. I have been experimenting with two pass shaves, but it takes some discipline for me to do two normal passes and accept the less than BBS result. My natural inclination seems to be toward being more aggressive since I know I'll only get two passes. That leaves me with less comfort than my usual 3 pass shave.

Same for me! Less passes literally puts more pressure on to get a good result. Usually doesn't end well.

I've also noticed a similar thing between morning/evening shaving. I'm a morning person so I can concentrate in complete quiet and make sure the pressure is minimized during a shave. When I shave in the evening, I'm tired and sloppy so I end up a bit more sore...

 

[ScottChapin]

It’s all about reduction. The beginning length of the whiskers is shorter at the beginning of successive passes. Therefore the effort required on that pass is less.

I actually shave in 15 minutes with a triple pass. It would take longer with two passes. The shaving is about 2’20” per pass. The rest is lather building, post shave and stropping.


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[macintoshBR]

I do one pass on my neck and two passes on cheeks, sideburn, chin and mustache areas.

The secret for me are:
- have a sharp blade (with a feather SS I can do a 1-pass BBS shave)
- go south to north on my neck on the first pass, eliminating the need for a second pass. My hair grows in multiple directions on my neck, so I learned that it works better this way

 

[PerpetualWonderer]

Okay, that's what I'm curious about. Getting to less passes seems like you either: 1) use a sharper blade; or 2) apply a lot of buffing in the one pass. Doing a lot of buffing though kind of seems like cheating - the skin isn't really getting "one pass."

 

[ScottChapin]

Okay, that's what I'm curious about. Getting to less passes seems like you either: 1) use a sharper blade; or 2) apply a lot of buffing in the one pass. Doing a lot of buffing though kind of seems like cheating - the skin isn't really getting "one pass."

I don’t think of buffing as multiple passes or cheating. To my way of thinking, strokes should get a running start before they engage the whiskers in order to be efficient.

Trying in one non stop stroke causes the blade to bog down. It does do with extremely sharp DEs as well. So I limit my strokes to 1.5 to 2 inches. I start them ahead of the hairline to build the momentum.

There is a little overlap, obviously, but not really extra passes.


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[Jnatcat]

Two passes and done and I only shave every other day, all my straights are done on a JNAT

 

[MurderousCrow]

Re the submandibular area:

I'm a head shaver with a beard, and I trim the edges of my beard closely. In the submandibular area, and other challenging concave areas such as the occiput, I have found a specific technique works very well both with and against the grain. It's essentially an adaptation or version of the coup de maitre stroke (or so I'm informed) wherein one places the blade at a steep angle to the skin, then to cut hair one rolls the razor axially so that at the end of the stroke, the blade lies flat against the skin. When I began using this, I would not move the razor forward at all, but have lately started to do so with small buffing-type strokes. Also works well. I have very rarely cut myself doing this. And it has helped immeasurably to achieve a smooth comfortable shave, especially ATG.

(Disclaimer: It's not a new technique, I kind of happened upon it but it's used widely by barbers using shavettes to tidy the edges of their work.)

Re fewer passes: with a straight I'm probably not qualified to say as my edges are probably fair to middling at best, although they shave facial hair plenty close enough for me. But with my Feather AC SS, like @macintoshBR, I can do one-pass ATG strokes on my face with BBS results.

 

[PerpetualWonderer]

I don’t think of buffing as multiple passes or cheating. To my way of thinking, strokes should get a running start before they engage the whiskers in order to be efficient.

Trying in one non stop stroke causes the blade to bog down. It does do with extremely sharp DEs as well. So I limit my strokes to 1.5 to 2 inches. I start them ahead of the hairline to build the momentum.

There is a little overlap, obviously, but not really extra passes.


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Sorry - I didn't mean cheating in a derogatory sense. I do what you are describing sometimes when I feel like the simple pass wasn't sufficient for some reason. But I do distinguish between just a few buffing-type strokes to get the speed/angle correct vs. working on an area with a lot of buffing (say, skin is seeing 10 or more strokes). When I do a few, quick, light buffing strokes, my skin feels okay afterwards. When I do more than about 10 buffing strokes in one area, post-shave comfort starts getting impacted negatively.

 

[ScottChapin]

Sorry - I didn't mean cheating in a derogatory sense. I do what you are describing sometimes when I feel like the simple pass wasn't sufficient for some reason. But I do distinguish between just a few buffing-type strokes to get the speed/angle correct vs. working on an area with a lot of buffing (say, skin is seeing 10 or more strokes). When I do a few, quick, light buffing strokes, my skin feels okay afterwards. When I do more than about 10 buffing strokes in one area, post-shave comfort starts getting impacted negatively.

I didn’t mean cheating in a derogatory either. I guess I’ve never really buffed in the fashion you describe except.......on the tip of my chinny chin chin. That area is very very difficult.


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[PerpetualWonderer]

Re the submandibular area:

I'm a head shaver with a beard, and I trim the edges of my beard closely. In the submandibular area, and other challenging concave areas such as the occiput, I have found a specific technique works very well both with and against the grain. It's essentially an adaptation or version of the coup de maitre stroke (or so I'm informed) wherein one places the blade at a steep angle to the skin, then to cut hair one rolls the razor axially so that at the end of the stroke, the blade lies flat against the skin. When I began using this, I would not move the razor forward at all, but have lately started to do so with small buffing-type strokes. Also works well. I have very rarely cut myself doing this. And it has helped immeasurably to achieve a smooth comfortable shave, especially ATG.

(Disclaimer: It's not a new technique, I kind of happened upon it but it's used widely by barbers using shavettes to tidy the edges of their work.)

Re fewer passes: with a straight I'm probably not qualified to say as my edges are probably fair to middling at best, although they shave facial hair plenty close enough for me. But with my Feather AC SS, like @macintoshBR, I can do one-pass ATG strokes on my face with BBS results.

Interesting. I'll start experimenting with this stroke...

 

[MurderousCrow]

Interesting. I'll start experimenting with this stroke...

For me, learning to do this helped change the game with my SR / shavette shaving. It enabled accuracy for tidying beard edges, and comfort / BBS smoothness in those concave areas. But like everything shaving-related I suspect YMMV! I'd be interested to hear how you get on with it.

Luke

 

[musicman1951]

I think it depends on your beard/equipment/technique combination, as well as the results you're happy to enjoy.

For me it's been impossible to duplicate the 3 pass results with 2 passes. Maybe that should be self-evident, but I have tried several variations of the two pass shave in an attempt to eliminate a pass. No luck.

 

[Slash McCoy]

With one of my Method edges, or with a Feather DE blade in a shavette, I get pretty close to full BBS on a single pass, and a single pass is all I use. If I try to use a "professionally honed" edge, or a Derby blade in a shavette, I cannot come nearly as close to BBS in one pass, and sometimes with other honers' edges, I have to use multiple passes for even a socially acceptable shave. Sharpness makes a difference. Technique does, too. And complete, full on, no excuses or exceptions BBS is not really needed, and the uncompromising pursuit of it causes a lot of shaving problems. I say, get your razors sharp enough to silently treetop at 1/4" or above, and then back off the passes and relax. Slow down, use good technique, and enjoy the shave. If you don't pass the credit card test under your chin, who cares? If a fools pass gives you a nick once in a while, don't bother with it. Your face does not need to be a battleground.

 

[PerpetualWonderer]

With one of my Method edges, or with a Feather DE blade in a shavette, I get pretty close to full BBS on a single pass, and a single pass is all I use. If I try to use a "professionally honed" edge, or a Derby blade in a shavette, I cannot come nearly as close to BBS in one pass, and sometimes with other honers' edges, I have to use multiple passes for even a socially acceptable shave. Sharpness makes a difference. Technique does, too. And complete, full on, no excuses or exceptions BBS is not really needed, and the uncompromising pursuit of it causes a lot of shaving problems. I say, get your razors sharp enough to silently treetop at 1/4" or above, and then back off the passes and relax. Slow down, use good technique, and enjoy the shave. If you don't pass the credit card test under your chin, who cares? If a fools pass gives you a nick once in a while, don't bother with it. Your face does not need to be a battleground.

I was waiting for your response, Slash... That's what I figured. Sharpness matters.

I guess throughout most of the history of straight-razor shaving, the blades have been relatively dull compared to those possible using modern manufacturing technology. I also have to guess that many straight-razor shavers still use a relatively dull blade that has been optimized for comfort, sometimes at the expense of additional passes.

I see your point about the need for BBS. I work at home so I certainly don't have a need to be BBS every day! I am getting the itch though of experimenting (again) with modern abrasives.

 

[HVenture138]

I do something similar to XTG then ATG except it’s more of a WTG slanted towards XTG then XTG slanted towards
ATG. Also, don’t know what razor you are using but I’ve found I get a bit closer shave with an extra hollow than with a heavier grind. But that may just be my greater attention to stretching; YMMV

 

[ajduplessis]

I don’t think of buffing as multiple passes or cheating. To my way of thinking, strokes should get a running start before they engage the whiskers in order to be efficient.

Trying in one non stop stroke causes the blade to bog down. It does do with extremely sharp DEs as well. So I limit my strokes to 1.5 to 2 inches. I start them ahead of the hairline to build the momentum.

There is a little overlap, obviously, but not really extra passes.


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^^^ ditto