Thoughts on a "Control Shave"

[Doorcube]

Hi!

Read Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis over the summer. Reignited my interest in research and the experimental method. I'm starting a personal shave journal and am considering establishing a Control Shave that is meant to compare products while accounting for extraneous variables. This is developmental, so please share your feedback, thoughts, and ideas!

I define a control shave as a documented shaving routine that is both highly reliable and high quality for you. You determine the definitions of reliability and quality. A control shave setup should meet your standards in each of these measurements...

Ask yourself these two questions:
1. Do you want an excellent shave that you struggle to recreate? (high quality, low reliability)
2. Do you want a reliably low quality shave? (low quality, high reliability)

I say no to both questions. I've had both and try to avoid each

. My Control Shave helps ensure I am ready to experiment with new products. The new products used in my Control Shave help educate me on my changing definitions of quality and reliability. I have a number of soaps, croaps, creams, and brushes to fold into my rotation. Should a product perform consistently well, I might replace it in my control shave for future tests. The main question is: does it provide a more reliable high quality shave? With that context provided, below is my current Control Shave setup:

Days of growth: 2
Pre-shave: Hot shower, exfoliate beard, cheeks, and neck, Proraso green preshave
Razor: Gillette Senator
Brush: Omega boar
Blade: Feather
Soap: AoS Eucalyptus
Post-shave: Cold water rinse, witch hazel, Institut Karite after shave balm

What are your thoughts? What is your current Control Shave setup?

-Doorcube

 

[DEPenguin]

I enjoy this kind of stuff

My control/constant is my Merkur 38C. Like you, I have a number of brushes, soaps, and blades that I rotate all the time. But I am finding my 'reset', to get back on track if things feel off, is an Astra SP in my Merkur with TOBS Cedarwood. My prep and post are the same:
• hot shower with thorough face wash
• warm rinse after final pass followed by a quick cold rinse
• Thayer's witch hazel, then let it dry down
• the AS balm may change day to day

If I hurry the shave too much I always notice a difference in the result, which always gets me to slow down and simply enjoy the shave instead of hustling to the finish line.

 

[Billy T.]

Days of growth: 2 (sometimes 3)
Pre-shave: Hot water
Razor: Rockwell 6S #3
Brush: Yaqi TimberWolf/Tuxedo (both work great)
Blade: Gillette 7 O'Clock Yellow
Soap: Proraso White (used to be Green)
Post-shave: Hot water rinse followed by cold water rinse and any aftershave lotion really

 

[Galaktus]

A days growth, a reliable razor like my trusty Lupo, a good known soap or cream like Palmolive Lather or Arko. I'm only using synth brushes anymore, and a shower before shaving. Blades that make me smile, Lord Platinum, Shark Platinum, or Bic Chrome Platinum. I can switch any of these out (except the shower beforehand and a days growth) to evaluate any new one variable.

 

[GaryTha]

Hi!

Read Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis over the summer. Reignited my interest in research and the experimental method. I'm starting a personal shave journal and am considering establishing a Control Shave that is meant to compare products while accounting for extraneous variables. This is developmental, so please share your feedback, thoughts, and ideas!

I define a control shave as a documented shaving routine that is both highly reliable and high quality for you. You determine the definitions of reliability and quality. A control shave setup should meet your standards in each of these measurements...

Ask yourself these two questions:
1. Do you want an excellent shave that you struggle to recreate? (high quality, low reliability)
2. Do you want a reliably low quality shave? (low quality, high reliability)

I say no to both questions. I've had both and try to avoid each

. My Control Shave helps ensure I am ready to experiment with new products. The new products used in my Control Shave help educate me on my changing definitions of quality and reliability. I have a number of soaps, croaps, creams, and brushes to fold into my rotation. Should a product perform consistently well, I might replace it in my control shave for future tests. The main question is: does it provide a more reliable high quality shave? With that context provided, below is my current Control Shave setup:

Days of growth: 2
Pre-shave: Hot shower, exfoliate beard, cheeks, and neck, Proraso green preshave
Razor: Gillette Senator
Brush: Omega boar
Blade: Feather
Soap: AoS Eucalyptus
Post-shave: Cold water rinse, witch hazel, Institut Karite after shave balm

What are your thoughts? What is your current Control Shave setup?

-Doorcube

In my opinion, you are focusing on the wrong variables. Let's say you start with four soaps, four razors, four blades, four brushes, four pre-shave treatments, four aftershaves, how many combinations are there to be tested. I'm good enough at statistics to say "a whole bunch."

Meanwhile, you are neglecting technique, which overrides everything else. With outstanding preparation and technique, a shaver can use most mainstream products with equal success.

In my opinion, the best place to learn technique is the Excalibur Club Thread. You won't be able to access the thread until you have made ten quality posts. Just read the whole thread.

Outstanding technique results in longer blade life. When you find the maximum blade life for your shaving conditions, you can be certain your technique is excellent.

My everyday setup is:
Preshave: Hot water rinse. Sometimes, I add Dr. Bronner's soap
Brush: Cremo Horsehair
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Van Der Hagen short handle
Blade: Astra SP or Gillette Wilkinson Sword
Aftershave: Rinse with warm water. Mennan Skin Bracer (about once every four days)

Except for a spare razor, I don't have any other products to vary the routine. There is no point, as there is no room above the quality shave I get for improvement that I can't get with the setup I use.

 

[Doorcube]

In my opinion, you are focusing on the wrong variables. Let's say you start with four soaps, four razors, four blades, four brushes, four pre-shave treatments, four aftershaves, how many combinations are there to be tested. I'm good enough at statistics to say "a whole bunch."

Meanwhile, you are neglecting technique, which overrides everything else. With outstanding preparation and technique, a shaver can use most mainstream products with equal success.

In my opinion, the best place to learn technique is the Excalibur Club Thread. You won't be able to access the thread until you have made ten quality posts. Just read the whole thread.

Outstanding technique results in longer blade life. When you find the maximum blade life for your shaving conditions, you can be certain your technique is excellent.

My everyday setup is:
Preshave: Hot water rinse. Sometimes, I add Dr. Bronner's soap
Brush: Cremo Horsehair
Soap: Williams Mug Soap
Razor: Van Der Hagen short handle
Blade: Astra SP or Gillette Wilkinson Sword
Aftershave: Rinse with warm water. Mennan Skin Bracer (about once every four days)

Except for a spare razor, I don't have any other products to vary the routine. There is no point, as there is no room above the quality shave I get for improvement that I can't get with the setup I use.

Appreciate the insight and resource connection @GaryTha. Looking forward to giving the Excalibur Club Thread a thorough read once I cross the 10 QP threshold. I agree that technique is at the heart of the matter. I perceive your setup has remained constant since the start. Is that correct? Maintaining one constant setup would allow one to focus solely on technique.

Again- thank you for your insight!

 

[BigJ]

Great post!!

I have pretty much established my ’baseline’ shave:
1 day growth
Hot shower
Badger brush (any from my rotation will work great)
Wolfman WR1/WRH2 handle
Top-tier blade (GSB, Astra SP, Nacet, Personna lab or Personna red)
Soothing splash depending on my mood (Speick, Proraso, Pitralon, Floid, etc.)

There are lots of possibilities but any combination from the list above ‘guarantees’ a great shave!

 

[GaryTha]

Appreciate the insight and resource connection @GaryTha. Looking forward to giving the Excalibur Club Thread a thorough read once I cross the 10 QP threshold. I agree that technique is at the heart of the matter. I perceive your setup has remained constant since the start. Is that correct? Maintaining one constant setup would allow one to focus solely on technique.

Again- thank you for your insight!

I started with Barbasol and switched to Williams Mug Soap.

My biggest changes were techniques:

I learned riding the top plate works better than having both the top plate and safety bar on the skin at the same time.​

​

I only do one pass now with touch up as needed.​

​

​

 

[Billy T.]

1 pass WTG?

 

[GaryTha]

I should have said one pass with soap. Depending on my mood, the touchups with water could constitute another pass or two.

1 pass WTG?

Hard to say. Since I shave every day, my whiskers are not long enough and I'm not awake enough to see which way they go. The touchup could include xtg and atg. I'd need to video a shave to be certain of what I do.

 

[Starsky]

At this point my baseline shave is as follows. Daily shave.

Hot shower.
Badger two band
Lather: B&M
Vintage Gillette Tech, (I have 7 different ones)
Blade (Bic Chrome, Astra SS, Wilkinson India, Nacet)
Aftershave: Stirling Shave Balm

I find the Shave Buddy app works very well for tracking usage and results.

 

[Brian C.]

I have a "control shave" for testing blades. I use this setup any time I test a new blade in my slant.

It includes the following:

2 days growth
Hot shower and face wash
A WCS 24mm Synth
Willaims Mug Soap
Merkur 37c
3 passes (WTG,ATG, XTG)
Witch Hazel post shave

For my beard, 2 days growth will really show what a blade is made of right out of the gate. This method has lead me to a relatively small number of blades that perform well for me and they will remain my mainstay blades.

 

[GaryTha]

Hi!

Read Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis over the summer. Reignited my interest in research and the experimental method. I'm starting a personal shave journal and am considering establishing a Control Shave that is meant to compare products while accounting for extraneous variables. This is developmental, so please share your feedback, thoughts, and ideas!

I define a control shave as a documented shaving routine that is both highly reliable and high quality for you. You determine the definitions of reliability and quality. A control shave setup should meet your standards in each of these measurements...

Ask yourself these two questions:
1. Do you want an excellent shave that you struggle to recreate? (high quality, low reliability)
2. Do you want a reliably low quality shave? (low quality, high reliability)

I say no to both questions. I've had both and try to avoid each

. My Control Shave helps ensure I am ready to experiment with new products. The new products used in my Control Shave help educate me on my changing definitions of quality and reliability. I have a number of soaps, croaps, creams, and brushes to fold into my rotation. Should a product perform consistently well, I might replace it in my control shave for future tests. The main question is: does it provide a more reliable high quality shave? With that context provided, below is my current Control Shave setup:

Days of growth: 2
Pre-shave: Hot shower, exfoliate beard, cheeks, and neck, Proraso green preshave
Razor: Gillette Senator
Brush: Omega boar
Blade: Feather
Soap: AoS Eucalyptus
Post-shave: Cold water rinse, witch hazel, Institut Karite after shave balm

What are your thoughts? What is your current Control Shave setup?

-Doorcube

If you are going to have a "control shave", my understanding is you would rotate one thing at a time to see the difference. For instance, you might rotate through four soaps, four blades, etc. The problem is, you have six variables. Assuming there are only four choices per variable, I think there are 4096 unique combinations. It probably takes at least 10 shaves to give each combination a fair evaluation.

Since your experience grows with each shave (the 7th variable not named in your list), all previous evaluations are eventually useless. Assuming only four levels of proficiency, your problem has 16,384 combinations.

It's simpler to focus on technique. Poor techniques often draw instantaneous criticism. All a person needs to do is find a technique that is good enough. In my opinion, this takes about 500 shaves with a mindful focus on improving techniques. I base this on how long it takes Excalibur Knights to reach their personal blade life expectancy.

Techniques are transportable to other setups. Personally, I don't change much, so this isn't necessary.

 

[BudgetShaverGuy]

I have a rule: Only one new/unknown item at a time! It's safer this way (especially with blades) and makes it easy to determine precisely what went wrong (if it does which stinks). I won't list everything but any razor, soap, blade, or brush that has worked in the past can act as a control setup. Very simple!

 

[NPK]

It's what I try to do when sifting thru my blade samples.

 

[PreachTheWord]

I have a rule: Only one new/unknown item at a time! It's safer this way (especially with blades) and makes it easy to determine precisely what went wrong (if it does which stinks). I won't list everything but any razor, soap, blade, or brush that has worked in the past can act as a control setup. Very simple!

Same with me. I'm not scientific at all, but if I'm trying a new blade, then soap and brush should be a "known". Lately I have been evaluating soaps. When using a new soap I have to be "aware" of the performance of the other elements. Before I came to my senses and started doing it this way, I would test a new soap and a new razor and blade in the same shave. If something went wrong (and it did), I wasn't sure what the cause was.