Shaving with one hand or both?
- Thread starter Animag771
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I have used two hands from the start and I'm not ambidextrous in the least. I thought it would be harder to learn to use both hands but it's really not. It's different but not hard.
Agree. I believe that was bad advice. If you go too far beyond your skill level you make mistakes, get cut and possibly give up. You learn faster with a series of successes not mistakes.
- Thread starter
- #44
I have to agree. I'm slowly working my way up to the more difficult areas, as I feel more confident. I think if I tried shaving my whole face with the straight the first time, I would have ended up with so many nicks and irritation that I'd have to delay my progress to let my face heal.
Here’s one for this thread. I am left handed and shave with both hands. On my WTG pass, my right cheek isn’t shaved as close as my left. Can’t figure it out. Maybe with time it will work itself out.
I spent a few years in touch with the competitive archery world. There are a lot of professional coaches that highly recommend an advanced shooter looking to break a plateau in performance switch handedness. Re-teaching the hands to do the opposite jobs is much easier than you think, and you instantly un-do the bad habits you may have picked up along the learning curve the first time. There is a temporary setback in performance, which is exchanged for a boost to ultimate potential.
Perhaps you are more tentative with your right or not quite so precise with the angle?
Personally I find that the WTG pass has little impact on the final result though. As long as I have a close shave by the end of the XTG if I am going to shave ATG the WTG doesn't matter too much.
Must be the angle. It will eventually work itself out I expect.
Well to be honest when I started not so long ago I only used my right hand, but out of the blue I started using my left hand aswell and found it easy to swap hands.
The point is every one if different what works for you wont work for the next man, you will find your own comfort zone along the journey with using a straight razor.
One day you might use your left who knows you might not but its fun journey dont give up that's the key......
The point is every one if different what works for you wont work for the next man, you will find your own comfort zone along the journey with using a straight razor.
One day you might use your left who knows you might not but its fun journey dont give up that's the key......
I have recently taken up straight razor shaving after several years of using single edge razors exclusively.
I'm left handed and hold the razor in my left hand exclusively. I find that by using different grips I can reach both sides of my face with no problem.
Oddly enough, if I nick myself (fortunately this is becoming increasingly rare) it usually happens when shaving the left side of my face.
This doesn't mean that I won't try two-handed shaving at some point in the future - I'm still very much a noob at this. Holding the razor in my right hand feels really awkward, but so did holding it in my left hand when I first started.
As others have said, go with whatever feels more natural and don't overthink it.
--Bob
I'm left handed and hold the razor in my left hand exclusively. I find that by using different grips I can reach both sides of my face with no problem.
Oddly enough, if I nick myself (fortunately this is becoming increasingly rare) it usually happens when shaving the left side of my face.
This doesn't mean that I won't try two-handed shaving at some point in the future - I'm still very much a noob at this. Holding the razor in my right hand feels really awkward, but so did holding it in my left hand when I first started.
As others have said, go with whatever feels more natural and don't overthink it.
--Bob
I’m very left handed and it only took me a week or two to adjust. Since you aren’t using fine hand motions it isn’t too difficult.I have recently taken up straight razor shaving after several years of using single edge razors exclusively.
I'm left handed and hold the razor in my left hand exclusively. I find that by using different grips I can reach both sides of my face with no problem.
Oddly enough, if I nick myself (fortunately this is becoming increasingly rare) it usually happens when shaving the left side of my face.
This doesn't mean that I won't try two-handed shaving at some point in the future - I'm still very much a noob at this. Holding the razor in my right hand feels really awkward, but so did holding it in my left hand when I first started.
As others have said, go with whatever feels more natural and don't overthink it.
--Bob
Funny, isn't it. When I first read that I was incredulous. Of course running a naked razor around your face requires very fine... wait...
Thinking about the actual motions for a moment longer, I realized it's a lot of control of gross motor type movements. There's some coordination required, but yeah, it's not as hard as it initially feels to get your off hand to play ball.
- Thread starter
- #53
So far I've been adjusting pretty well. Although the shave on the right side (main hand) of my face does seem a bit closer.
Exactly and once you are used to doing it you will begin using finer motions but, at least in my case, you don't notice it. Everything just seems to start coming together and off to the races.
That makes sense, meaning it sounds quite plausible.
Whether one uses one hand or both I think it is a little bit like switch-hitting in baseball where the reason for developing that skill is to get a better angle of attack against the pitcher. But with shaving the concept is on "steroids" in that (to state the obvious) one's arm has limited mobility and it is nearly impossible to hold/shave at certain angles if only using one hand. Using both hands greatly increases the range of options.
Good analogy.
It's really odd, everyone seems to have that same experience of smoother shaves on the "strong" side or the side holding the razor - except for me. I shave right hand only and one of my trouble spots is along my right jawline. My left jaw is BBS after a WTG (ear to chin) and ATG (chin to ear) pass but the right jaw needs a third pass, 45° from the bottom of the jawbone toward the bridge of my nose. I have no idea why.
I suspect the ATG pass on the left side is the difference. I also use my right (dominant) hand to perform an ATG pass on the left side which is usually quite nice. The right side requires more focus/concentration to get as close of a shave, especially close to the ear/side-burn.
Exactly! Up high it feels I need more shoulder rotation than possible to get the the razor angled where I need it. The 45° pass solves the problem really well though, without contortions to my right arm.
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