Thread: Yes, another Newb's First Time

I will try this method next time I shave in a day or two. My razors have not been popping hairs like that maybe they have not been sharp enough. Hopefully the Swaty hone I have won off eBay will help that.

Originally Posted by matt

what is the proper way to pop arm hairs. I have been trying with a wapienica it does get arm hairs but only at the surface of the skin. I am trying to get the hair to cut at the top bu just grazing over the top of the hair.

The armhair test, like the hanging hair test and every other test, isn't 100% reliable. I've got great-shaving blades that don't pop hair very well, and some lousy shaving blades that do. The vaunted feather blades are only so-so on my arm hair.

That said, I try to get the razor sharp enough that it will pop the tips of my arm hair with or against the grain, and on the softer hairs on the inside of the arm it should pop them going against the grain, and catch-and-cut going with the grain. But I don't care how it pops arm hair as long as it shaves well.

You might want to invest in some decent DE or injector blades and try your hair tests on them, this will give you a pretty good baseline to work for. Don't use the Gillette DE blades; ASR makes good DE and injector blades, and are widely available in grocery stores, walmart, and pretty much any drugstore.

The W&B I have been using pops hairs OK, but doesn't pass the HHT very well. So, last night I did 5 laps on the 1 micron and 10 more on the .5 chromium oxide. My shave this morning was so much smoother. This is all one big experiment.