My over the top setup

So getting started I spent a fair bit on money just buying a couple new razors before I had enough confidence to sharpen up an ebay one and figured well hell if I can spend this on the razors I can spend a fraction of this on some gadgets to really do up the shaving experience.

The 3 things I purchased that might be a bit non standard are

shaving cream scuttle
small coffee maker
small microwave

The scuttle was $45 which I thought was pricey until I first used it. This is one of the most underrated and unsung inventions ever.

The coffee maker was like $14 and lets me have truly hot water for the scuttle and cream and lets me keep that water hot. This is really handy as it's pretty dry here and I'm having to add water to the lather fairly often.

The microwave was $50 and lets me do seriously hot towels. Hot enough so that I have to grab the tag just to be able to hold them while they are cooling off.

I basically follow GeoFatboy's face prep using the microwave to do up a hot towel for use after the first lather application.

Then oil, more lather, and start shaving.

I haven't really been doing 3 pass shaves as such. I'll do a WTG pass and then feel how things are and decide where I need to do a XTG pass if anywhere. I usually have to do under my jaw with an XTG. Then usually I'll do an ATG on my neck and chin.

A few of the vids I've seen show folks with technique that just scares the hell out of me, particularly with XTG strokes. If I tried some of those bold XTG strokes at the jawline I think I'd end up skinning myself. We won't even talk about that one guy that uses two hands and runs the razor down his entire face in one devastating pass. It works for him and that's great but that would leave me just a bloody skull.

Anyway, enough of my banter.
Good Shaving!
ml

You'll find that you can perform those "devastating" passes quite easily with months of experience. If they scare you now, stay away from them until you are ready.

No! Try the two hand thing. It's amazing. One hand pulls, the other hand steers. It's how I learned to make one pass from my lower lip right down straight around the bottom of my chin. It's much easier than using one hand!

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Originally Posted by mdarnton

No! Try the two hand thing. It's amazing. One hand pulls, the other hand steers. It's how I learned to make one pass from my lower lip right down straight around the bottom of my chin. It's much easier than using one hand!

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So if you are using two hands to handle the blade how are you going to stretch the skin? Not trying to be facetious, I'm just curious.

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Originally Posted by Ryan82

So if you are using two hands to handle the blade how are you going to stretch the skin? Not trying to be facetious, I'm just curious.

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I spent the first two months learning the textbook way to do things on various forums, being dissatisfied with the results. The last month has been spent learning how to shave, by discarding a lot of the supposed rules I learned, one at a time, learning what actually works. One of the rules to go was stretching.

Someone mentioned a month or two ago how a barber in India pushed his skin up ahead of the razor instead of stretching it out. Since reading that, I don't stretch, and found a way to make things work. Obviously the guy in the video isn't stretching a lot of the time, too, and it's working for him, so with two solid data points plus my own personal experience, that question should be answered now: stretching isn't necessary, I would say. I'm enjoying the shaving a lot more now that it doesn't include gymnastics, too. There are a couple of places on my face where stretching helps, and that's where I stretch; otherwise, no.

One of the things I've learned about the shaving world is "YMMV". It appears to be a buzz term for "most of what we do is accumulated mythology, not factual, and that's why it's not repeatable science". :-)*

At least here, it appears that most posters actually shave. On another obscure one I hang around it's become painfully obvious that they're all internet experts who've read everything the net has to offer, but haven't done any of it. :-)

*(it took pix of a 12 year old girl giving a shave in a barbershop to help me realize that hair doesn't recognize how much height it has above the knife, and one against the grain pass is sufficient to do the job just fine, and a little more reading to find out that this is the way the old barbers did it, and so then I immediately discarded the three-pass shave. More happiness!)

Shaving forums have made me very cynical recently, as you can see from one or two recent posts. So much smoke and mirrors.

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Originally Posted by mdarnton

One of the things I've learned about the shaving world is "YMMV". It appears to be a buzz term for "most of what we do is accumulated mythology, not factual, and that's why it's not repeatable science". :-)*

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Actually what YMMV means is that you can do whatever you want, however, someone with very sensitive skin &/or a coarse beard may have limitations & may need to follow some established guidelines that are based on experience & not mythology.

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Originally Posted by mdarnton

One of the things I've learned about the shaving world is "YMMV". It appears to be a buzz term for "most of what we do is accumulated mythology, not factual, and that's why it's not repeatable science

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Thanks for your explanation.

Your post actually illustrates the meaning of YMMV very well. All the techniques that you've adapted work well for you, which is great. That's not to say they will work for everybody. That's why we say YMMV.

I also think that you don't give our members enough credit. The vast majority of us do things a certain way because it works, not because we've been told to about the mythical ways and blindly follow that path. There are a certain amount of "givens" or facts in this sport - a good example is stropping. Of course experimentation will always be a part of this, which helps to develop one's own technique like you have.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mdarnton

I spent the first two months learning the textbook way to do things on various forums, being dissatisfied with the results. The last month has been spent learning how to shave, by discarding a lot of the supposed rules I learned, one at a time, learning what actually works. One of the rules to go was stretching.

Someone mentioned a month or two ago how a barber in India pushed his skin up ahead of the razor instead of stretching it out. Since reading that, I don't stretch, and found a way to make things work. Obviously the guy in the video isn't stretching a lot of the time, too, and it's working for him, so with two solid data points plus my own personal experience, that question should be answered now: stretching isn't necessary, I would say. I'm enjoying the shaving a lot more now that it doesn't include gymnastics, too. There are a couple of places on my face where stretching helps, and that's where I stretch; otherwise, no.

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I'm looking forward to hearing about your continued learning in another three months or so.
3+ years in I am still enjoying discovering new aspects of this sport..

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Originally Posted by mdarnton

Snip...

*(it took pix of a 12 year old girl giving a shave in a barbershop to help me realize that hair doesn't recognize how much height it has above the knife, and one against the grain pass is sufficient to do the job just fine, and a little more reading to find out that this is the way the old barbers did it, and so then I immediately discarded the three-pass shave. More happiness!)

Shaving forums have made me very cynical recently, as you can see from one or two recent posts. So much smoke and mirrors.

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Here's a fun exercise:
Grab a whittle knife and a stick.
Cut that stick much like you would cut a strand of hair with your razor.
Grab another stick, do the same thing, then rotate the stick 120 degrees or so and cut from the same height on the stick as your first cut.
Repeat once more.
See any difference?
Now imagine these two sticks trying to find their way out thru your skin without causing irritation...

The three pass shave might not be needed for you, but I can assure you, it is much more than smoke and mirrors to my skin:)

I see the difference on the stick, but I'm absolutely sure the model as you stated it doesn't apply for your hair. It isn't waiting around to be cut three times at the same level from different directions before it severs. Are you trying to create a new myth, or repeating an old one there? :-)

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Originally Posted by mdarnton

I see the difference on the stick, but I'm absolutely sure the model as you stated it doesn't apply for your hair. It isn't waiting around to be cut three times at the same level from different directions before it severs. Are you trying to create a new myth, or repeating an old one there? :-)

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Where do you suggest the strand go in between the passes?
The stick analogy is spot on IME.
The thing you seem to miss is that when cut, the strands of hair will deflect somewhat regardless of how sharp a tool you put to it.
Attacked from all sides, you reduce creating that wedge, instead creating a centered and rounded tip.
No myth in that at all, give it a proper try for a few more months, I'm sure you will see the benefit!

This business of multiple passes being unnecessary brings back the first time I heard of it. The friend who introduced me to shaving forums on the internet was describing his 3 pass shave. I looked at him like he was from another planet. I had been shaving for 45 years, beginning with DEs, going to Gillette 'Good News' for the majority of the time, with the one pass and call it good, my daily ritual.

So I went back to the DE for a time and then to the straight razors. I took up the multiple pass method and found it better, for me, than the one pass had been. Before all this I zipped through the daily chore of shaving without a lot of analysis of the quality or the shave. Results wise I mean. I didn't feel my face/neck to see that I had gotten the stubble to BBS.

Six + years into this I can say that in my individual case I don't need to use multiple passes on my cheeks but I absolutely do on my chin and neck below the jawline. That is to say, that if I only do one pass on the tougher areas I will probably have a good enough result to go out in the world but I'll have stubble I can feel, if not see. To get a close , and a smooth shave, in my individual case I need at least two passes with some extra attention to a few areas.

YMMV .......... :)