Thread: Hanging Hair Test, parlor trick or useful?

But before you put the razor to your face you want a way to test the edge. HHT is the best for me.

I find it useful, and prefer to use it with thick hair. It's not the only determining factor of sharpness in my book.

Honestly, it never worked for me. The hair makes some kind of sound, and that's it. I don't use strops or lapping films, but I don't think this really matters. Still, I get very good shaves from my non HHT passing razors.

"All models are wrong but some are useful."

The usefulness of any test boils down to the sources of variability, their relative magnitudes, and which ones can be controlled.

There are many sources of variability in a straight razor shave - how well the razor is stropped, how good the beard prep is, how sharp the edge is, how experienced the user is, how the beard grows etc etc.

This is why people tell you that if you want to use any test (HHT or otherwise), it needs to be calibrated using many test -> shave -> evaluate iterations under the many and varied shaving situations you encounter (difference razors, hones, soaps, increased ability through time, etc.) At least when you simply focus on yourself, you can control one of the biggest sources of variability - person to person variation. The longer you have been at it the better the test will be for you. Moreover, the more things you have tried (hones, creams, strops, razors) the more generalised the test will be for you as well.

It has been brought up many times in the past, but the idea of using a standardised HHT material (like fishing line or similar) in an attempt to make the test more universal and repeatable is a good thought, but ignores the basic fact that the main source of variability in these tests is not how they are done and with what material, but rather in what the test means for individual's shaves - in other words, individual to individual variation swamps the variation attributable to the mechanics of the test. It always has and it always will.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

... It has been brought up many times in the past, but the idea of using a standardised HHT material (like fishing line or similar) in an attempt to make the test more universal and repeatable is a good thought, but ignores ............

I think using a standard material is a good idea, and have experimented a little with very fine monofilament. While I haven't found a good material, if found I believe it would improve the HHT usefulness for the entire community. HOWEVER! The use of a standard material would still require calibration thru much use.

The main advantage it would give the community would be an enhanced ability to explain the HHT use to others. And, I haven't given up on finding a standardized material.

Originally Posted by LarryAndro

I think using a standard material is a good idea, and have experimented a little with very fine monofilament. While I haven't found a good material, if found I believe it would improve the HHT usefulness for the entire community. HOWEVER! The use of a standard material would still require calibration thru much use.

The main advantage it would give the community would be an enhanced ability to explain the HHT use to others. And, I haven't given up on finding a standardized material.

I can already explain the HHT mechanics and what it is used to do to anyone who cares to ask, as I am sure is the case for anyone who has ever used or tried the test. I do not need a standardised material to do so. As such I see no benefit in pursuing a standardised material.

As I stated above, finding a standardised material for the HHT is akin to holding one pebble still during a landslide - the relative magnitudes of the things that effect the usefulness of the HHT as a shaving proxy really do boil down to that kind of comparison in my opinion.

The only benefit I could see to creating a standardised material for the HHT would be a commercial one for the person who created it, if they could convince the shaving public of its usefulness. And given some of the things I have seen advertised on the shopping channel, perhaps there are people out there who would buy into it.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

... The only benefit I could see to creating a standardised material for the HHT would be a commercial one for the person who created it...

If you subscribe to the belief that the HHT is a parlor trick, then OK. But, if you believe the HHT has value, a standardized material would at the least help those who can't find hair that is suitable.

Besides, how do you help someone over the phone when you don't know whether a successful test with their hair consists of vigorous vibration of the hair or (more commonly) effortless cutting?

I've found it valuable to utilize different sources of hair. I can fine tune my edge results by first using
sturdier hairs and then moving on to finer hairs. Unfortunately, the ladies at work are getting tired of
filling my little sandwich bags with their hair.

The point is that sometimes hair variability can be a plus, and you can use it to your advantage.

I still fail to see how having a standardised "hair" would help the telephone issue... why cannot they describe how the hair was cut? Then you'd know whether it vibrated or not, or whatever it is you are looking for.

I like the fact that straight shaving and everything associated with it is not standardised. It is one of the main reasons I took it up in the first place. I know this HHT standardisation is a small thing, but standardising to make life easier for the user is exactly what commercial enterprises like Gillette did over a century ago and which lead to the decline of the straight.

I think people are more than capable of learning to use the HHT on their own and getting something useful from it by taking the time and trouble to calibrate their results. We have all done it, what is different about the new batch of people that makes them different to us? Explaining the mechanics is easy: it is not a difficult concept to describe holding a hair against an edge and seeing if it gets cut. If you cannot find hair, there are other tests. In fact, tests are not all that necessary unless you hone a lot of razors - that is the only reason I do them. If I am honing my own razors, I simply test shave them and avoid the proxy shave step altogether.

James.

I've said this before, the HHT gives me some assurance that my edge is not rolled or such and therefore a "green light" to shave with that razor. As we always say in this forum, YMMV.