BBS Question

[KenL]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance. I just wanted to make sure that it's a normal step along the way. I have a lot to learn and as was said, as long as the shaves are comfortable, I'm happy, but still experimenting. I think that I have a lot to learn in all areas, especially skin stretching. This morning I let the lather sit on my face a bit longer than normal, about 2 min and had a great shave. That was a relief because I strop at night and shave in the morning and last night I got home really late from work and stropped. I was worried that my stropping was poor last night because I was so tired. I guess I did alright because today's shave was the best of the week.

Thanks again,

Ken

[Alembic]

This morning I let the lather sit on my face a bit longer than normal, about 2 min and had a great shave.

Hi Ken,

You stumbled onto something important here. It takes a lot of shaves to develop a sense of "normal". Once you know what normal is for you, it is easier to identify mistakes you are making or incremental improvements you want to make.

If you have no idea what "normal" is, you don't have a baseline to compare your changes and improvements to.

Just keep shaving and this will all be revealed to you.

David

[KenL]

I stumbled alright. When I finally got an ok (irritation free) shave, I kept doing the exact same thing to try to repeat the results. Sometimes I could, sometimes I couldn't. Now, I'm changing one thing at a time to see what happens. I don't know why, but I never really bought the "lather softening the beard." I thought, yeah right, it's mostly lubrication. Now my sentiments have changed. See if I can repeat the same results tomorrow.

[Fbones24]

I have actually grown to appreciate each shave for what it is. Some are better than others. In fact, this morning I had one of my best shaves ever, while yesterday, I had my worst shave in some time. There are many factors that contribute to this.

I look at each day's shave as a new challenge. I love starting my day out with a challenge. In addition, each shave is an educational experience and a chance to learn.

This is how I look at it. If I obsessed about BBS, I would miss out on the exact thing that drew me to Straight Shaving in the first place.

[TheBaron]

It took me way more than 6mo to get my first BBS shave, and once I got it I stopped worrying about it. BBS is always nice but as many have already said, each shave is it's own experience. Each shave I try to get better at technique and improve the shave experience and results but I'm comming up on a year now and I still don't get consistent BBS, although I am getting comfortable shaves on a regular basis.

Granted you wanted advice on shave results and all I have to offer is a simple suggestion. I used to run my hand up and down my face immediately after the shave to check my results. In time I realized that my face hairs are still swollen with water immediately after the shave so the results I was feeling were inaccurate. Instead, try checking your results an hour after the shave and see how it feels. For me the results always seem better after my face has fully dried.