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Number of Passes - What is Traditional?

I do 3 pass + touch up daily for a bbs or close to it. Luckily my face is immune to the beating after a few years with straights. Timeless ti 95sb/GSB with MnM claddagh or st James applied with a Stirling best badger fan leaves my face like I was a toddler again with zero rash.
Takes maybe 15 minutes soup to nuts since I no longer have to strop. Definitely worth the extra 10 minutes I used to save with canned gel and carts.
 
My father’s advice was to shave with the grain. I started shaving in the mid 70’s with a Schick injector and foam. Just like dad. He later switched to gel and a 2 blade cartridge. I have tried shaving with just about everything over the years. I started using an Old Spice mug and brush in the early 80’s with disposable Blue Bics in the shower. That’s when I learned about shaving a pass shave wtg and atg. The results lasted longer and no irritation. Sometime after that I bought my first Gillette butterfly adjustable DE with a black handle.


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The number of passes varies with the person. Also as we grow older our whiskers get tougher, so more passes are needed by a senior citizen than by a teenaged boy.

Three passes are the general standard for most adult middle aged shavers. But the bottom line is to shave until you're smooth, and then quit. For me it's 3.5 passes.
 
The number of passes varies with the person. Also as we grow older our whiskers get tougher, so more passes are needed by a senior citizen than by a teenaged boy.

Three passes are the general standard for most adult middle aged shavers. But the bottom line is to shave until you're smooth, and then quit. For me it's 3.5 passes.

Three passes does not seem to be standard, however. Perhaps on forums it is but it seems that now and in the past, the idea of a 'three pass shave' is quite foreign amongst those who do not visit forums. The question I posed is more about what was commonplace in the past when shaving with a safety razor was not considered a hobby but a normal act.
 
I started shaving in the 1960s. At that time it was one pass only. I remember watching my dad shave in the 1950’s. He also was a one pass shaver. My big brother was 10 years older than I. He also was a one pass shaver. I only worried about multiple passes when I discovered B&B. Way back then, if you needed to you would shave again in the evening.
 
Three passes does not seem to be standard, however. Perhaps on forums it is but it seems that now and in the past, the idea of a 'three pass shave' is quite foreign amongst those who do not visit forums. The question I posed is more about what was commonplace in the past when shaving with a safety razor was not considered a hobby but a normal act.
Outside of we forum sorts, I think it was about the same for any given "then" as it is now.
 
In the 70's I watched my Dad shave a lot and he always did a WTG and ATG with maybe a touch up. He was career Army so he shaved everyday and it had to look good.

I started shaving with disposables and carts in the 80's but always did 3 pass shaves otherwise I had stubble.
 
When I started shaving my parents had divorced and Dad wasn't around to teach me. But I still remember him using an Atra and shaving with Edge gel. All my memories were of him doing a one pass shave.

When I started I used the left behind Atra blades like Dad. I did a one pass. Mom was not happy saying it wasn't close enough. I then tried his old DE's and it still wasn't close enough according to Mom. On a quest I started talking to my best friend (same age as me) asking what else can I do. His Dad happened to be shaving nearby and popped his head out of the bathroom (I can still see his lathered face) and told me to use a straight razor. He used them as a young man but couldn't anymore as he explained he had developed "the shake" which would cause cuts etc. He was using a cart at the time. But he swore straights gave the closest shave.

Long story short I procured a straight and tried to shave with it. A little at a time starting with the sideburns and cheeks. Not knowing the angle it didn't work. The way I figured it out was after watching a documentary on WWI which showed a soldier shaving in the trenches quite clearly. I could discern his angle and it hit on me. He did a one pass like my Dad.

When I mimicked the soldiers angle I got the razor to shave. And from there it was just a matter of trial and error for technique that got me to point where Mom said it was close enough.

For years I used only a one pass shave. Then, before B&B, the earliest forums appeared and the concept of a two pass shave was presented to me. It was in the context of how barbers would do a second pass to get even closer on their customers. I mastered that and did it for years.

Now I'm back to a one pass. My skin has become more sensitive and the one pass with a light touch and an aggressive angle does me just as well.

I think most guys did a one pass back in the day hence the barber's practice of a two pass to give greater value. Who knows though as no one I ever knew ever talked about it.

Chris
 
I started shaving in the 1960s. At that time it was one pass only. I remember watching my dad shave in the 1950’s. He also was a one pass shaver. My big brother was 10 years older than I. He also was a one pass shaver. I only worried about multiple passes when I discovered B&B. Way back then, if you needed to you would shave again in the evening.
To right mate if one go will do it
Then your done
“Like this post It’s done”
 
I watched my grandfather and used his Schick Krona as a first razor. It seems to me that he shaved down and across then with detail on his chin and moustache area. If I remember correctly it was more like he was swiping this way and that.

Admittedly, I didn't take shaving too seriously before finding this forum. I've learned how to get a quality shave and to use various means to attain something better than what I settled for before. I have a tendency to shave too fast and not do a good job. Slowly I am changing.....LOL!!
 
I think we do a lot more than "they" ever did back in the day.
A previous discussion on the same topic Were multi-pass shaves the norm "back in the day?"
Some historic documentation via Razor manuals Razor Instructions.
Thanks for the info.
I should only add that I believe one can get a sense for common shaving techniques by watching films from any such era. While obviously fictitious and using a razor with no blade or a blunt cut-throat, the actor nevertheless would usually shave using the same strokes he learnt in life. Unless it's intended to be comedic or otherwise unrealistic, of course.
Perhaps some one has compiled a list of such "self-shaving" scenes...
 
Me neither. That’s the whole point of the thread. But we’re “retro” DE shavers who grew up as cart shavers. Did you shave with a DE razor back before cart razors became ubiquitous? That’s the question being put forth.
Now that I have read the whole thread again,

I did start out with a DE, mid 1970s, but I did not have a mentor (dad already dead), so I had to work it out for myself.

It was a circa 1930s Gillette open comb (brass, probably nickel plated originally, but not by the time I got it).

I just lathered up, and scraped away multiple times at each area (nominally WTG, N-S, but that wouldn't have been WTG on my neck), until I thought they looked presentable enough.

It was not formally multi-pass, just multi-scrape, and non-visible stubble remained.

This is just anecdote, not data, but I'd be surprised if anyone non-mentored would do much better. I did work out the hot facecloth thing, and I don't think anyone told me about it.

I only got subverted into using carts in the mid 80s, when my job meant that I was time-poor, and well paid enough to swallow the cost.

When you were trying to beat the clock, carts did look appealing.
 
I started shaving nearly 50 years ago, & it was one & done. Back then it wasn't "passes". If I did a poor job I lathered again & shaved again. The only reason I would shave a second time is user error the first time around.
 

Chandu

I Waxed The Badger.
I would be suprised - could be wrong - if the term "progressive beard reduction" ever appeared in any shaving literature from any shaving product vendor. To me, that term screams internet invention. Likely someone writing a long how to post on shaving.

If any of you have ever seen the term other than in the forums, please share.
 
I would be suprised - could be wrong - if the term "progressive beard reduction" ever appeared in any shaving literature from any shaving product vendor. To me, that term screams internet invention. Likely someone writing a long how to post on shaving.

If any of you have ever seen the term other than in the forums, please share.

The first time I’ve seen the term is just now, in your post!
 
I wasn't ever really taught how to shave, just kind of worked it out for myself watching my dad. I wound up doing what we now call a two-pass shave, one N-S and one S-N with cleanup, with a Good News and a can of whatever foam or gel was on sale when I needed it. If I was in a hurry, I'd do one pass S-N and cleanup. Results, well...I got the hair off, but it wasn't always pretty or comfortable.

Now, after having been on this forum for a few years...I usually do a two-pass shave, WTG and ATG with cleanup; if I need a shave that lasts well into the evening, I may throw in an XTG pass before I go ATG. The end results are much better now, though, because I don't use pressure, pay attention to the direction my hair grows, and can build a decent lather from soap or cream. Little things make all the difference.
 

Whilliam

First Class Citizen
Perhaps some one has compiled a list of such "self-shaving" scenes...
There's always William Powell offering Myrna Loy "a slice of throat" after she bumps into him while shaving (on a moving train, no less) in "After The Thin Man."
 
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