Thread: I might have to plead insanity

So I have noticed this for awhile but have been reluctant to post it because it sounds a bit strange....even to me, and I am the one who is posting it. I shave when I feel like it and just for fun usually do a 3 pass shave, or 2 1/2 to be more accurate. Ok here it is....infrequently do I get the legendary BBS shave.....at the end of a shave when I am touching up I reach a point where I just say enough but can usually feel some fine stubble in the regular problem areas. Then cold water splash, alum, aftershave. Some time after the ritual say 20 minutes or 1/2 hour I'll reach up and run my fingers over my face and wonder what happened to those problem areas because they are no longer a problem. Has anyone else experienced this? Or should I plead insanity?

Nope you're not insane! Or more accurately, if you are then so am I.
Seriously though, I think it's because the beard hairs soak up water and expand before and during the shave. Then when they dry out afterwards they shrink back to normal size. That's my hypothesis anyway

I vote for Insanity...

Probably something to do with the softnees of the skin during the shave & the feel of the skin after it firms up post treatment minutes later.

Nope, that's perfectly "normal". Well, at least it is for most of us. I always assumed it was because we'd just pulled on the hairs a little in the course of cutting them and they later retracted. However, it could just as easily be the effect of drying as Guitarguy suggested. The only other option might be that our skin swells slightly due to being scraped by sharp steel but I think that's less likely to alter the skin-hair positioning. Whatever the reason, it still feels great even after many years of faceturbation.


rs,
Tack

my theory of our insanity:
is with the cold water shave or after shave wash/splash the skin tightens slightly forcing the hair follicles to push out feeling more stubble
then when the skin warms & relaxes the hair follicle regresses back reducing the stubble length
JHO & YMMV

no same with me,, in the beginning i kept trying to get the little stubble here and there that I could feel ,, now I know when enough is enough and it always comes out BBS after a short while tc

Lyn mentions it in one of his shaving videos, IIRC he hypothesised that it was the oils returning to the skin that resulted in the shave getting smoother.

I think you ARE ******, but what do I know?