BBS daily or not?

[kbuzbee]

Okay, a newbie question but....

Do you folks go for a BBS shave daily, occasionally or never?

A recent thread from FUD described (very nicely) his one pass BBS. I've not even come close to this yet (though it would be wonderful) but it raised the question in my mind.

For me, my WTG pass now removes most easily visible beard. If I feel it after that, I feel pretty universally sharp stubble. A second cross the grain pass lessens that by about 1/2. So far I can only do about 1/2 of my face against the grain and over 1/2 of that is now BBS. But I really like it very smooth so, for now, I usually follow up with a final (light and quick) pass with my Fusion. The Fusion never shaved this nice by itself but as a final cleanup, it does a wonderful job. My assumption is eventually I will be able to get this smooth of a shave without the Fusion "crutch" but will I? Should I? Do you? Do you folks do (1? 2? 3?) passes and live with the results, or do you keep at it until everything is "perfect"??

Just trying to set expectations as much as anything.

Thanks all!

Ken

[zepplin]

When I 1st started I just had to do the BBS every shave, and as a result, many of my shaves were too close and I suffered as a result of pushing the shave too agressively. I just had to reach over and finish up with that DE! Well, I weaned myself off the DE, and now I will do a one pass shave about every 3rd time. - and that's cool. A lot of times the decission to only do one pass is dictated by how good that 1st pass was.

Steve

[Dewey]

Hi Ken,
Welcome to the land of straights! Straights are certainly a lot different than Multi cartridges and even DE shaving, in my opinion. I go for a pretty smooth shave every day. One thing I have noticed is that I get as smooth as possible at the sink and that within an hour of my shave, it feels closer than it did when shaving. Kinda weird. I have heard that it has to do with the amount of prep, etc. I could never get BBS in one swoop with a straight - too wirey and coarse of a beard!! (Though, you may remember the thread at SMF where everyone was trying a Gem single edge using only one atg pass and it's results were pretty amazing - but that's not the shaving experience that I want to do everyday!)
For me - and this has changed - I do a N-S pass then a S-N angling toward the ears and a mostly toward centerline of the chin (E-W and vice versa) then a clean up on the right side of the throat due to sideways growth and I am pretty good to go - nearly BBS everyday.
Don't forget the importance of sharpness! and Good Luck!

[pilothaz]

I am more of a two pass kinda guy. This works all over the face for a BBS except for just on my right side beside my adam's apple. I have to finish that little part off again with another angle for the ATG.

Other then that, I am so fresh 'n so clean

[Dewey]

PS Are you switching hands or are you a one-sider? I switch - I don't think there's anyway I could reach everything with the proper angle from just my right. Others say they can, though.

[izlat]

Sometimes I shave once / week

No, not BBS every day and every shave. In the areas where I have an option, I almost never go ATG. In other areas I have swirly growth, so there I end up doing ATG one way or another, regardless...

I go for BBS only when I feel like it. Otherwise, I still get smooth, but my beard shows through the skin anyway...

Cheers
Ivo

[kbuzbee]

PS Are you switching hands or are you a one-sider? I switch - I don't think there's anyway I could reach everything with the proper angle from just my right. Others say they can, though.

Thanks!

I do switch. In fact, I've been experimenting with various grips and directions. Most are standard but a few I haven't seen anywhere (my fear, of course, is there's a reason for that ) The big thing I can't seem to do right now is pull the skin tight. It is slippery from the prep and cream and makes the pulling hand slippery, requiring me to wash it off before switching (to avoid holding a slippery razor! )

As to other technique components - prep, stroke, angle, stropping, sharpness etc, etc.... I'm working on those (but, of course, all advice is most welcome) but along the way, I thought this would be a good question to make sure I'm not working toward a goal that just can't be hit. Thanks for the input that BBS is a regularly (or semi-regularly) attempted and attained goal - usually in 2-3 passes (if I'm reading correctly).

Appreciate the feedback,

Ken

[kbuzbee]

I go for BBS only when I feel like it. Otherwise, I still get smooth, but my beard shows through the skin anyway...

Thanks Ivo, I think mine is less dark than yours and is mostly not visible after a decent first pass (of course, this could simply be my terrible eyesight )

Once a week, huh?? I can go a day sometimes but it drives me nuts after that... I tried a beard in college. Took a month to get used to it but man, that had to be the ugliest beard in the history of facial hair Short it grew every which way and long it formed a massive curl at the bottom. Oh well, it left in the Spring, never to return.

Appreciate the input!

Ken

[jimmyman]

I have to admit that I go for BBS everyday all three passes, WTG, XTG, ATG. Maybe it's just another form of OCD, I dunno . But, there are some days when I will do one or two passes, and skip the ATG, sometimes even the XTG. And there are weeks where I will go a day or even two without shaving but those weeks are the exception and not the rule.

[izlat]

Hey Ken,

What can I say - when I was a teen we thought it's cool not to shave regularly, and the girls liked it. I hated shaving anyway My wife actually loves me with stubble...

But since I switched to straights I love shaving. Go figure

Cheers
Ivo