I use the hht and my daughters hair is like mine. And I only use her hair so it works for me. As was said many use it or don't use it. It can help you if you choose to but there are other ways of knowing when the blade is ready. The feedback from the hone, water displacement undercut etc. as well as experience telling you x amount of strokes will remove scratches from a specific prior grit. ANd the visual will confirm or negate that as you can see whether you did or didn't. Jnats I finish on water so when they start sliding on the stone, I know Im there. Synthetics are more like recipe honing. You know how many strokes to finish it off. ANd this is confirmed by the scratch patterns. AS LONG as the bevel was set properly which is a given. Bevels don't have any recipe. when its set, its set.