Thread: Cross Shaving vs. Off Hand?

Originally Posted by DBurnette

I'm starting off the bat with the off hand. It has been surprisingly quick to progress. I'm not great yet with my left hand, but am now comfortable and continuing to improve. I find it well worth the effort. There are a few trouble spots that are much easier to get to with the off hand in my case as well.

I agree here. I started off using my weak hand also. Seems to have done some good things.

What ever makes you comfortable!!

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

Originally Posted by MichaelM

So, I’ve been shaving for months now with my str8 and I’ve been getting great results. The one shortcut I took on my learning was to NOT using my off hand for the non-dominant side.

So my question is, now that I’ve gotten the swing of things using a cross shaving technique – should I spend the effort on the off hand? What are folks thoughts on this? What folks out there use both hands, vs. a single hand?

Thanks!

Michael

The answer is what ever works.
I was advised to use both hands way back when
and it was worth the bother.

It is easy, awkward, hard, impossible for some folks to
use the other hand so it depends on you. I do advise
shaving the easy bits with both hands and then
use what ever works for the rest. With time both hands
will feel right (or not).

I've been using my Right so far, but I am pretty good with my left hand after a lot of surgery on my right, so I'll have to give it a try.

From the start, I was following the wiki (after a pretty disastrous first two shaves). So I started with the off-hand on the off-side by shave 3. I'm really glad I did. I now have both hands and sometimes find the left (off) hand helps even on the right side.

Some what like learning to fire a handgun left handed, I discovered that with the off-hand, i paid more attention to correct technique, I was more deliberate, more attentive, and my left hand in some ways shaves better than my right.

So I would encourage anyone to develop the off-hand as much as you can comfortably.

Here's a suggestion: Buy a cheapo Gold Dollar or Kriegar straight. Then round the edge on it good, so it couldn't cut anything but butter. Then use it as a practice razor. Lather you face up and using that smooth-but-totally-dull razor, use it to train your hand. When you can easily swipe lather off your face, you can try the real thing.

Learning the off hand would be very useful. It will be hard though because you will know you can get a much better shave reaching across. What you can do it shave off hand, then touch up with the cross.

One thing I've noticed is that my jaw line is much easier to stretch and shave when I reach across, so I use my right hand on the left side of my jaw, and vise versa.

I do both, with both hands. Just hold the razor however it gets you the best angle.

When I first started I did not think that I could use my off hand and tried the cross shave. I quickly found that I could not do that and switched to my non dominant had. Now this is the only way I can shave.

Originally Posted by Silver2

I broke my right arm at 14 and realized that I would have to master doing everything with my left. God fore bid I ever lose my right arm,
Now I can do everything except write well.
I think everyone should learn to use there off hand, You never know when you may be forced to use it on a constant basis.

Silver2

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Personally, I think using your off hand gives you more options when you shave and can make things easier however it's an option and not necessary.

I agree with both. I do, however, use both hands myself. For Cutthroat as well as DE shaving. I've been using DE of late because it's new to me and I need to get used to it. I think I prefer the quality of a straight shave though.


Mick

I've also switched to using both hands even when using my DE razor. Might be good practice to build that dexterity..

It does improve your form in the long run-