Thread: Baby skin smooth. How long does it take you?

Seven months!

Seriously, being in the tough beard group it takes me 3 passes, which equates to about 30 minutes.

With the standard straight razor it is 15 minutes: 3 passes. Two WTG and one ATG.

With the Iwasaki, when it is fresh off the hone, 10 minutes with two passes only.

After around 18 months of straight shaving I can get BBS on 3 passes done with cleanup and balm/as etc. in around 20-25 minutes on average which seems ideal to me.

On a lazy Sunday after breakfast I can spend up to an hour doing a "full monty" with showering, hot towels and so on.

Originally Posted by Chrisl

You guys sporting no facial hair that can do a BBS perfect shave across your entire face and neck to where all of your skin is squeaky when rubbed in all directions with no irritation and no nicks in 20 minutes or less from start to finish truly have my admiration.

Chris L

Absolutely perfect BBS probalby can only be achieved by shavng three times and at the cost of considerable skin irritation. I get very close in one stroke against the grain on cheeks and neck and XTG followed by ATG in other areas. Some day I am more successful than others though.

Normally takes me a little more than an an hour. That said, I shaved in under 1/2 that today, avoiding cheeks & damn fiddly bits behind corner of the jaw. Only been shaving with a str8 for a month though & today was the firsty time I've shaved on consecutive days.

The last BBS (months ago) probably took around 30 minutes or more. My mustache helps the time factor.

Normally it's just one pass with an immediate splash of water and second pass on any stubborn areas. That usually takes about 15 minutes.

Originally Posted by Kees

Absolutely perfect BBS probalby can only be achieved by shavng three times and at the cost of considerable skin irritation. I get very close in one stroke against the grain on cheeks and neck and XTG followed by ATG in other areas. Some day I am more successful than others though.

I get an absolutely perfect BBS almost every day ... It takes me three-and-a-half passes: WTG, ATG, XTG and a SW-NE/SE-NW pass just on the neck, which is a little awkward. I used to have some irritation in the past but don't anymore since I started mixing sweet almond oil in the lather. I also strop before every pass.

I have never gotten a BBS that totally pleases me (absolutely no prickliness when I rub my hand every direction), but I have been satisfied with my cheeks and jawline and only a little disappointed with my neck area for my absolute best shaves. I will call this BBS for the sake of keeping my spirits high. I've only been straight shaving for about 2 months now and I try to be patient. When I was using a cartridge razor, I was allowed to work when only shaving every other day. Now, I can shave every third day and because of this I consider the extra time I spend to be absolutely worth it. Of course I'm still working out the kinks in my technique and maintaining the edge.

All this said, I take anywhere from 50-75 minutes to do a full shave, striving for "my BBS." This is from a five minute shower to stropping (which takes me about 10 minutes so that I can be sure I'm not rolling my edge) to pre-shave prep to three passes (WTG, XTG, and ATG) and touch-up. I also have a very coarse beard and as I am still working out which angles are the most effective, so I use about 7-8 hot towel applications - lathering and shaving sections at a time. And, to boot, I have a goatee, so I haven't even had to deal with shaving the chin or around the mouth yet (that'll be a reality check if I ever decide to shave it). The upside is that, as I mentioned, I consider the time negligible and I have never had worse than very mild irritation.

Sorry for the long post and happy shaving, guys

Adam