Tacky?

[Nic Bledsoe]

I noticed in viewing Charles Roberts Method Shaving video that he seems to TRY to reach a stage of 'tackiness' with his lather. No?

If so, why? Seems tackiness would indicate too dry-- not moist -

 

[Augustiner]

I noticed in viewing Charles Roberts Method Shaving video that he seems to TRY to reach a stage of 'tackiness' with his lather. No?

If so, why? Seems tackiness would indicate too dry-- not moist -

I noticed this also from the video and thought about it quite a bit. Here is what I was able to come up with logically:

From what I gathered it seems that his approach is to get traction for the blade in order to really engage the whisker. By the way he was talking about "increasing velocity of the substrate" (aka more slick lather), it seems he thinks that if the shaving surface is too slick and slippery then the razor and blade will just slide over the skin without cutting into the whisker. A good analogy for this would be putting chains on your tires in snowy weather so the surface of the tire may dig into and engage the snow/ice thus increasing traction and allowing the car to move. Without chains the surface of the tire is too slick and the tire will just spin in place without engaging the snow.

It seems Charles Roberts has found that in a similar fashion to the above example the razor blade must be able to engage the whisker to a certain extent in order to cut it more effectively. The problem with this that I can see is that it will also engage your skin more and cut it easier. However, if you listen to him he says he doesn't get cut because his skin is super hydrated and therefore soft, supple and pliable. I guess his theories must work in practice because he didn't get cut at all in that video even though he was whacking away at his face with a velocity and ferocity like I have never seen before all while using a fresh Feather blade?

I personally like to keep my shaving surface nice and wet and slick so the blade doesn't dig in as easily but that's just my approach.