Thread: Beard Prep and Edge Retention Experiment

Jimbo,

This will be interesting as I'm an "a" prep guy and hope that the "a" prep will be as effective as "b". My life, while not all that complicated, needs to "b" no further complicated.

I'm into this and look forward to the results. But then again I'm into the whole subjective shaving experience myself. Kudos James!

Originally Posted by Bruce

Jimbo,

This will be interesting as I'm an "a" prep guy and hope that the "a" prep will be as effective as "b". My life, while not all that complicated, needs to "b" no further complicated.

Bruce, I am with you mate! It has been pointed out that, logically, proper and adequate prep. will, ceteris paribus, not be as harsh on your edge as inadequate prep., and I do concede that point (no pun intended, but pretty cool nonetheless )

But what I am interested in is whether the difference is practically significant (as opposed to statistically significant). If we are only talking an extra 10 shaves, I personally am prepared to forgo the extended period of non-honingness to remain comfortably in my current prep rut. But if we are talking a substantial increase in longevity, I myself may rethink what I do prep-wise. I will leave it to each reader to decide whether what comes out of this "observational study" can be construed as a "substantial increase" or not.

James.

Well, I am feeling comfortable with the increased prep routine so far - adds about 5 minutes to each shave so it is not too onerous. I will continue the pilot until Saturday to make sure I am completely on top of it, and commence the actual trial starting Monday next week.

On a side note, the increase in prep has given me a small, yet noticeable, increase in what you might call shaving smoothness - hard to quantify of course, as I am using a variety of razors atm.

Also, I have rethought the razors I will use for the experiment - I do not know why I did not think of this earlier, but I have a seven day set of JR 5/8 wedges with clip-on (single) handle. These appear to be ideal for my current purpose, as they are as uniform as you are likely to get in terms of manufacture, type, and wear. So I am changing the protocol from Bengalls to a randomly selected set of 4 of these JRs.

James.

[in response to the question what would make it... more scientific, or whatever it was]

Alternate shaving protocols each day. Probably goes without saying.

A second person to blindly rate your two razors for sharpness to confirm your findings.

Some objective means of establishing lather lubricity, vicosity, foamicity etc-icity.

Of course, it'd be even better if you were blind to the prep technique, but drugging you and having someone else do it is impractical.

Originally Posted by BrentonC

[in response to the question what would make it... more scientific, or whatever it was]

Alternate shaving protocols each day. Probably goes without saying.

A second person to blindly rate your two razors for sharpness to confirm your findings.

Some objective means of establishing lather lubricity, vicosity, foamicity etc-icity.

Of course, it'd be even better if you were blind to the prep technique, but drugging you and having someone else do it is impractical.

Those are good points. For the first one, I decided to perform each prep. treatment for 6 consecutive days followed by a rest day to minimise any residual effects on my skin from the other prep method - you know, just in case I get some burn or whatever, it would not leach over into the other beard prep treatment - and also to try to assess medium-term effects of the prep routines. But I do see the point of a daily alternation.

The problem with experiments like this is that there is a very constrained population to infer about (me, my beard, my soap, my strop, my brush, my selected razors etc). So your other points, while valid, are unnecessary embellishments in the present case. If this experiment was being replicated over many shavers, in an attempt to expand the inferential sphere, then consistency of all these things would be vital.

But it is just me. And as I have said, my shaving routine is at a point where any variability in the (non-treatment related) ingredients to the shave process (lather, stropping etc) will at least be consistent across treatments, if not minimal compared to the variability due to the treatments. This is my biggest concern here in fact - that any signal might be swamped by noise - but if my edges last long enough, the old sample size thingy will kick in and hopefully I might get some kind of result I can trust.

But in the end, I am doing it for the fun. If it doesn't work, or the results are inconclusive, at least I had fun doing it. And those who come after me can treat what I have done as a pilot and improve from there.

James.

Just curious James. How long between honings as a rule? Methinks using Bengalls, this experiment may run quite some time

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Just curious James. How long between honings as a rule? Methinks using Bengalls, this experiment may run quite some time

lol! Yes, a good point Oz, and one that I have been thinking about. I could be at this a while - more like months than weeks I think, based on previous between-honing times.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I could be at this a while - more like months than weeks

The anticipation is almost too much to bear!

But good things come to those who wait, and I like good things Good on you for this sacrifice, Jimbo

Originally Posted by Jimbo

lol! Yes, a good point Oz, and one that I have been thinking about. I could be at this a while - more like months than weeks I think, based on previous between-honing times.
James.

A shame Zeepks are at the other extreme. Might have saved time