Thread: Shaving Others

Howdy all,

So I've been shaving with a straight a few years now. But it's only been recently that my brother has been interested in my razors. It started with a shave a few months ago. Then when I went away for vacation he started using my boar brush and L'occitaine soap.

I don't think that he'll start shaving with a straight any time soon I think he likes the idea of it tho.

So how many of you shaved others? How were your experiences?

None of my chicken $hit mates will let me come anywhere near them with a blade...So I made one little slip and that fulla died, but that were years ago now...


Mick

I would not recommend you try it even if they let you near them. I am told that there is a big difference between shaving yourself and another person. My own opinion is that this is a job best left to a barber.

Yes leave that to us... when you shave yourself you can feel the pressure of the razor on your skin and you can adjust. On another persons face you cant feel your pressure which leaves a greater margin for error.

Some time ago I shaved my brother. It was not the most confortable of experiences for any of us, but I did manage to give him a close nick-free and irritation-free shave. I was very proud. But it was a thing to to once and only once. The lack of a propper chair was an issue, though...
And yes, I've left that to professional barbers ever since.
It was something I needed to do, though and my brother was willing enough and interested enough to trust me with a sharp blade arround his face and neck...

Yea the lack of a proper chair was what made it difficult. But other than that it was easy.

Just stretch the skin and use light pressure. Same rules apply, the only time it gets tricky is with some angles.

I understand you saying leave it to a professional. But you didn't just wake up and automatically know how to shave someone else it took practise. Which is exactly what I'm doing now.

Originally Posted by basil

it took practice. Which is exactly what I'm doing now.

I had a notion to give it a shot too, but I was thinking I'd start with the back of a neck...not as many angles... Now to find a first victim.

Just a warning here guys about shaving somebody else. When you shave, there's two points of reference for pressure and angle. The first is the feeling in your hand and the second is the feeling on your own face. If you remove the feeling of the blade on your face, it really does give you a sense of 'shaving in the dark' since you have a harder time judging your technique.

I tried, once, to shave someone else's face and it resulted in a wicked cut to my BIL

Not having the proper chair makes it much harder. barbers are always readjusting the chair in height and dropping the back up and down and spinning the whole chair around to get to different part of the face. I can't imagine trying to shave someone without those adjustments. It seems like you're starting off with 2 strikes against you.

Ive had the provelage to try to shave one person, It was the forth of july and one my my uncles buddies were up , he decides he needs a hair cut so he ask me to shave his head for him , so i do (with electric clippers) and afterwards he ask if i could try to gve him a stright shave, he was fasinated that i use a stright razor, any way he sits down and i lather him up and then put a warm towel over his face and wait five minets and then re lather and start shaving , What a bad way to test your nerves, But long story short his beard was cut and no cuts.