Thread: Does anyone else use two straights for one shave?

It always makes me laugh when I see the Dentist with rubber gloves. It's a knew thing.
All of a sudden they are worried about catching something.

I think I'd be more worried about someone biting my fingers off.

Actually, I worry about what might be on their gloves and the various implements they stick in my mouth.

To all the Dentists out there...Only joking.

Out of curiosity, what edges are you guys whose razor dulls after one pass shaving off? 8k? 12K? Cr Ox? Do you need to refresh them after each shave, or does a stropping put them back in shape?

I always use two razors each shave, but one's for my head and the other for my face. Since talking to my Italian barber (we all need one ), I've started a semi "stropping on my hand" type thing during the shave. It's not heavy or long - a couple of swipes each way - and it's sort of on the heel of the palm. I really can't say if it's doing anything, to be honest, but the barber said it can be useful....

James.

Originally Posted by Chrisl

Do both of you happen to have problems with the first razor you're using seeming to be dull when you get to the chin?

Here's why I ask and why I'm actually agreeing with thebigspender for once (oh, I'm just kidding!): Even razors from honemeisters would slow down and trudge through before I was done with my chin whiskers. I too started to use two razors.

Here's what I found:

• I had never really studied my whiskers enough to realize quite obviously that whiskers grow much much more densely packed on my chin than on the rest of my face.
• More importantly, if an imaginary line was drawn vertically from the center of my lower lip down my chin (dividing my chin into a left and right half), ATG is actually going TOWARDS that center line. That means my chin whiskers have a horizontal growth pattern to them. Which way was I attacking my chin whiskers when I would shave?.......towards the center line of my chin. I was going ATG right off the bat. Some say a razor that is ultra sharp can wipe whiskers ATG with no problem. I'm actually not into shaving with razors that sharp right now. I get very comfortable shaves with no irritation and no razor burn now, so I see no real need to go for "feather-like" sharpness. Don't get me wrong, I like to tune my razors now to where my ultra-fine blond hairs explode with no effort with an HHT (I could never get an edge to pass the HHT using my own hair before a few months back and just figured my hair was just way too fine. Now it's my gold standard, tuning an edge until my own hair cuts effortlessly along the whole edge; I used to use some of my wife's that she donated from her brush).

So..........I agree, a review of technique may be in order if you think your razors are sharp enough. Proper stropping also really helped me and improved my razors. I've not had a need to use more than one razor for a 2 pass shave in a long time (I've never felt I really needed a true ATG pass across my whole face since I get BBS with an WTG and XTG. ATG on my neck is too risky even with straights.

Chris L

I actually like to keep my razors sharp enough so that I can go directly into an ATG pass if time is short, but even so, if my skin stretching isn't spot on, I will have trouble on my chin.
and when I test shave razors that i have honed, they are always tested with an ATG pass.

As for using 2 razors, I used to before I started honing. I use larger razors now that were selected carefully for their shaving ability, and edge retention, and I can actually get away with two shaves without stropping

Originally Posted by Mike_ratliff

I actually like to keep my razors sharp enough so that I can go directly into an ATG pass if time is short, but even so, if my skin stretching isn't spot on, I will have trouble on my chin.
and when I test shave razors that i have honed, they are always tested with an ATG pass.

As for using 2 razors, I used to before I started honing. I use larger razors now that were selected carefully for their shaving ability, and edge retention, and I can actually get away with two shaves without stropping

I was just wondering what razors you use now to keep an edge longer