Thread: Something I've noticed: move my arm rather then my hand seems to help.

Hey guys,

Just thinking about something that occurred to me this morning as I sa shaving. It seemed that if I tried to do movements from the art rather than from the wrist or hand, it seemed that things were much more stable and smooth. Perhaps from wrist or hand causes too much "gouging" action? Does this seem about right to anyone else?

As an old barber told my friend about using a straight.."you must navigate the razor to where you want if to go".

As you shave you are making continual micro changes in the angle and these are made by the hand. Shaving takes a lot of fine motor ability and I don't think that will come from the arm. Its the wrist and hand or so it seems to me.

Well if you are changing the angle of your face... it seems to me that it would work. Not sure how it would work on the old jaw line.

If you ever see a good butcher work when he's not boning - there is little to no hand/wrist movement at all. It's inefficient. But then the left hands moving the meat so...

My hand and wrist move on every shaving stroke. In addition to the mentioned angle adjustments, I'm also making arc motions that involve the hand and wrist.

Gouging one's face comes from not keeping the blade flat while shaving. It takes some practice to not gouge. You will get there.

Michael