Shaving a beard

[rajun50]

If I grow out a long winter beard, the only way to take it off (for me) is with my Feather SS Artist Club straight razor. It's wicked sharp and can cut through a beard like a hot knife through butter. I'll then take a quick pass with my Schick Injector to get any spots I missed and I'm good to go.

 

[JZY1]

First, trim your beard. I use wahl trimmer

Then use the razor.

​

 

[groomingcritic]

View attachment 654440

I use this all the time when trimming by beard, should work for you.

 

[SilverHawk]

I bought 5" hair scissors many years ago to trim and cut off my beard. I used it yesterday to trim my mustache. Then lather and shave the rest

 

[EternalBachelor]

I took my No Shave November beard off last year with just a Fatip Grande, I believe. It took a lot of time and patience. The resulting shave was actually pretty smooth, without any nicks or cuts. It also took a lot of lather lol. If I had to do it again, yeah, I probably would have used a trimmer beforehand. I do routinely shave off a week or so of beard growth, and that's not too bad, but after two or three weeks you'd probably want to use a trimmer, a straight razor, or a shavette.

 

[Wid]

Last time I shaved my beard I used a straight razor and it came right off. No trimming required.

 

[Ad Astra]

nevermind. I thought it said, "shaving a bear," and assumed it was going to be interesting.


AA

 

[John Rose]

I generally just hack at it for 30-40 minutes, and eventually it's close enough to a decent shave that I stop. It's not a great shave, or even a good shave, and the irritation reminded my of my cartridge days. The (DE) razor was constantly clogging.
[snip]
Anyway, besides just never growing a beard, how do I avoid the miserable shave experience when it has been a couple weeks since I last shaved?

I used to have a full beard and decided to reduce it to a circle beard (now it's down to a just moustache, but I digress). I hacked the majority of it off with scissors, down to about 1/2" or so. Then I lathered up and went at it with an open comb DE razor (a Fendrihan Scientist). It all came off with no clogging that wouldn't come out in one or two swishes. The first pass got most of it off, then the second pass got it closer. I stopped there that night because I didn't want to irritate real estate that hadn't been shaved in several years.

I do have an electric hair clipper kit, but I just wanted to see how the OC would work without using it first.

My son is in the habit of going with out shaving for a week or more, and would then use a disposable. I got him an OC to wean him off the disposables, and he said he was mightily impressed at how easy it was to rinse between strokes. I had gotten both of us a RazoRock OLD Type, a great razor for the price. Not too aggressive either.

 

[cgr86]

I found this one to pull on the hairs a lot. I went with the Master clippers for a few bucks more and it's less flimsy and cheap feeling.

Speaking from personal experience as someone who is lazy and would routinely skip several days to several weeks between shaves....

You'll want to use beard trimmers like these to get as close to the skin as you can before you take a razor to it. I can't imagine taking off 2 weeks worth of growth with just a razor.

These are the pair I've got, they are about 40 bucks on Amazon. Made my Wahl.

View attachment 643087

 

[Toothpick]

I've actually got these now: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058SY1XQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Wahl Lithium Ion Stainless Steel Groomer #9818

Better than the ones I used to have for sure. I never really liked that rubber grip. The hair would stick to it.

 

[cgr86]

ah yes , those have a more powerful motor and are more likely to pull less on my course beard.

I've actually got these now: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058SY1XQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Wahl Lithium Ion Stainless Steel Groomer #9818

Better than the ones I used to have for sure. I never really liked that rubber grip. The hair would stick to it.