Thread: Right-handed reach-a-cross

I'm a righty (Political Views, too), so I naturally use that hand for most tasks. However, I cannot seem to get the required angles on the left side of my face by the old reach-a-cross method.
Do most shavers here switch up hands when they meet this crossroad OR do you remain strong and stay the course with the same hand? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Dan
USMC

I used to reach across as I was more comfortable using only my dominant hand for the sharp blade but I ran into the same problem as you have. Now I do switch hands and find that my shaves have just about equalized from side to side. The greatest sticking point for me was not the sharp blade in the off hand. It was getting my dominant hand to stay out of the way and still do the equally important stretching job adequately. Once the enemy has gone to ground sometimes you have to go against the grain and let your sinister side loose, the dexter might just be to above board here.

I started as a right hand only guy. I found it was pretty easy to make the transition to using both hands to shave. I still use my right hand exclusively for some parts of my shave, mainly against the grain on the neck & chin. Do whatever is comfortable for you. You may actually find your shave is better with your off hand, simply because you'll be extra super careful and light while shaving with it initially.

I don't have any issues with using left or right hand. Even if the first pass (WTG) on the left cheek with left hand is not up to par , I will usually follow with a XTG pass using the cross hand (right hand) method. For me the only tricky parts are the neck and jaw line --but this has improved also. It's all doable with a little practice.

Justin

You can also use a "reverse free hand" stroke to get the off side of the face without changing hands. You can look it up in the files/permanent archive/barbers manuals. There are about 4 different strokes commonly used with a straight razor. Learning only one is very limiting.

This is one of the best shaves I've seen in a while. Notice he uses the freehand stroke throughout, but he uses both the Standard and the Reverse freehand stroke. He uses the reverse while shaving the off side around 1:17 and 1:33 seconds in.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DSmRjlY8rdA