The trouble with a new toy is that you want to play with it. This week my new toy is an Aven 26700-300 ZipScope, a cheap USB microscope. I have already posted some close-ups of blades. Those were not very good because the scope can only do about 50x, but perhaps somewhat informative anyway. Then I posted some close-ups of brushes, which might be a little more interesting. Then I started looking at my own stubble. As a courtesy to all concerned I shifted the images to B&W. In full color it looked like a crime scene. All the same... I think spoiler tags are in order.
The first image is from my chin, about eight hours after a very nice shave with La Toja and a Captain CS blade (4). The results were about as close to BBS as I ever get. Even at 50x this area looks reasonable. The hair is densest there, and on my upper lip. It is easy to see the dark hairs under the skin, and that is an area where I have a beard shadow. The direction of growth seems reasonably consistent. Some hairs were cut cleanly enough that I can spot the cuticle and the medulla. On the other hand there are some trapped hairs, and some hairs that were not cut as cleanly as I might like. But it looks pretty good for the fourth shave with a carbon-steel blade, plus eight hours of growth.
Then I looked at one of my problem areas, just a few inches away underneath the chin. Things look much different here. The overall density is probably a bit lower, but the follicles seem to come in twins and triplets. One of them looks like four hairs growing together in one unit. Some of the cut ends look more like they were gnawed off, or shattered. I suppose that makes sense: all that clear space around dense little groups of follicles makes for a completely different kind of shaving. Imagine cutting down a sapling with an axe. Now imagine the saplings are clustered so close together that your axe always hits two or three at once. No wonder that area can stop dull blades in their tracks.
Assuming the mods do not ban me for posting these images, I may check the same areas again tomorrow. It looks like my next shave will use a new Feather. I doubt my face will feel any smoother, but the results may look quite a bit different at this level.
The first image is from my chin, about eight hours after a very nice shave with La Toja and a Captain CS blade (4). The results were about as close to BBS as I ever get. Even at 50x this area looks reasonable. The hair is densest there, and on my upper lip. It is easy to see the dark hairs under the skin, and that is an area where I have a beard shadow. The direction of growth seems reasonably consistent. Some hairs were cut cleanly enough that I can spot the cuticle and the medulla. On the other hand there are some trapped hairs, and some hairs that were not cut as cleanly as I might like. But it looks pretty good for the fourth shave with a carbon-steel blade, plus eight hours of growth.
Then I looked at one of my problem areas, just a few inches away underneath the chin. Things look much different here. The overall density is probably a bit lower, but the follicles seem to come in twins and triplets. One of them looks like four hairs growing together in one unit. Some of the cut ends look more like they were gnawed off, or shattered. I suppose that makes sense: all that clear space around dense little groups of follicles makes for a completely different kind of shaving. Imagine cutting down a sapling with an axe. Now imagine the saplings are clustered so close together that your axe always hits two or three at once. No wonder that area can stop dull blades in their tracks.
Assuming the mods do not ban me for posting these images, I may check the same areas again tomorrow. It looks like my next shave will use a new Feather. I doubt my face will feel any smoother, but the results may look quite a bit different at this level.
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