Thread: Established Routes

I was wondering if straight razor shavers follow a rigid routine for shaving (the route of the razor over the face), that has evolved and worked over time? Me, still being relatively new, I occasionally, well regularly experiment with routes and stretches but find more and more I am repeating the choice of routes. I'm sure the razor itself does dictate some of this.

I heard the rich and famous shavers (I'm talking massively well-connected people with uber-large JimmyHAD kind of money) hire professional face mapping consultants.

The rest of of find our own way at first by trial and error and, gradually, through a better understanding of personal beard character and amateur face mapping.

http://www.pbjsite.com/shave/whiskarmap/

That whisker map looks like my face cuts the first week I use a shavette a year and a half ago.

Originally Posted by MisterMoo

I heard the rich and famous shavers (I'm talking massively well-connected people with uber-large JimmyHAD kind of money) hire professional face mapping consultants.

The rest of of find our own way at first by trial and error and, gradually, through a better understanding of personal beard character and amateur face mapping.

http://www.pbjsite.com/shave/whiskarmap/

I'm only at this a little less than a year, but I am constantly trying and learning new directions, approaches, grips, stretching and strokes. I find that the more I pay attention to my face between passes, the more I learn about how inconsistent the direction of my beard is. I used to just lather, then re-lather and do pass after pass. Of course for me, a "pass" is never really a classic pass, because I adjust midway through each part of my face depending on what I'm hearing from the razor and feeling on my face. However, I benefit greatly from rinsing between lathe rings and feeling my beard in the process, to see what I've got left and what direction it's growing in. Makes me wonder how I got by just swiping around with a cartridge razor all those years.

Two years in and settled into a routine pattern that changes little. That was after trying this and that.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

Two years in and settled into a routine pattern that changes little. That was after trying this and that.

Bob

Thanks Bob, that gves me something to look forward to!

I've been using a straight since last July and each day I find I am refining the directions the razor and I take over my face. I put that down to several factors. I get bored with the same routine all the time so I shave with a different razor without repeating for about 30 days. I enjoy immensely the challenge of having to recall the path taken with that specific razor. Each razor shaves differently and I have to treat the parts of my face accordingly. That and a strong cup of coffee gets my day rolling.