Thread: HHT Levels?

In effect, the "Shave Test" is just an HHT with anchored hairs. Not only that, but those hairs, whiskers, are prepared for cutting by all the various preparations we read about here including hot showers, pre-shave oils, hot towel applications, lathering etc. While it is true that hairs differ across different individuals, it is also true that beards and whiskers differ as well, and there is no reason to believe that shave tests are universally valid anymore than to believe that the HHT is valid when using different hairs to perform the tests. The YMMV argument therefore can also apply to shave tests as well as it does with the HHT.

The argument can further be made that the HHT performed properly by someone who knows how to perform it can be even more predictive of quality shaves than the shave test. This is because the ability of a razor to perform a shave is facilitated by all the preparation referred to above while the HHT can be performed with a single, unanchored hair unaffected by any kind of facilitating preparation. This makes it even more likely that a blade that will pass a properly performed HHT will also produce a close shave because the whiskers being shaved are anchored, prepared and not merely suspended in air. That the HHT is more difficult to be successful with than an actual shave only makes it more predictive of a quality shave result and not less predictive.

In addition, in spite of the fact that many don't put in the effort to learn how to perform the HHT and that hairs do, of course, differ among individuals, the HHT is essentially a more objective test for sharpness than the shave test. The shave test is less objective because it is not only affected by the preparation alluded to above but by variations in technique utilized by those doing the shaving. The result is a considerable amount of subjectivity, and that is one of the reasons we often see those new to shaving having difficulty and getting a poor shave out of a pro-honed razor, a razor that would easily pass the HHT.