I have not been able to bring myself to shave with my left hand yet. I am curious what the breakdown is between people who shave wiht both hands vs. those who just use their dominant hand
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I have not been able to bring myself to shave with my left hand yet. I am curious what the breakdown is between people who shave wiht both hands vs. those who just use their dominant hand
Trapper,
Do yourself a favor, don't put off using your off hand any longer. Yes it will feel awkward at first, but you'll soon get over it and wonder how you ever shaved one-handed. There are some angles of attack that are nearly impossible unless you can switch hands.
Just another data point,
Ed
I shave with my right (dominant) hand only and I have to get into some weird contortions to get portions of the job done. I fully intend on starting to incorporate the left hand into my regimen, it's just somehow when that left handed blade starts wiggling around I break into a cold sweat.
-- Gary F.
Both hands here.
Terry
Both hands....still not as confidently with the left, but getting there. Its weird, but I have always brushed my teeth left handed - I think that it has helped with the ambidexterous shaving.
Andy
I am left handed and was a little worried at first shaving with both hands, but I had the advantage of shaving with a DE for a while before getting into straights and when I saw Lynn's video I started practicing with both hands on me DE.
The truth is though, if you start slow you should be fine. The first time just try both hands on your with the grain pass, for the most part your going straight down, that doesnt require much coordination. I think you will find that it was easier than you though in most areas, and you will probably use your dominant hand for certain hard to shave areas for a while which I still do from time to time as well.
both hands.
I started right-only and then switched. Have some scars to prove it, too ;)
Definitely dominant (right) hand only.
I tried it with my left, but never got comfortable with it. And as I get perfectly fine, BBS shaves from my right hand technique. I don't any longer feel the need to change this :)
Both for me, I can get much better angles this way.
Gary
75% right,25% left,working on 50-50. Left seems a little spastic. I would like a new replacement for it among other things.
I'm left handed and I was having trouble shaving with my right hand but after a couple of months, shaving with either hand is no problem. Just keep practicing and it will happen.
The only spot I can't really get to with my right hand is the left side of my neck. Sometimes I try with the left hand with different degrees of success.
mostly right, only left if its a spot i cant get to on the left side. my left hand is spastic too, lol.
-micah
what the hell, i just posted this and it gave me an error page, so i assumed it didnt go. posted it again now theres 3, then tried to delete it and my post count went down 2, but now theres 4!!!!
I shave right handed, but I will use my left hand as assistance to brace the razor in some spots. I find I can do plenty of things just fine ambidextrously, but, I don't grow a dense jungle of facial hair all over my face so my right hand does just fine to cover the needed areas.
I started using both hands and am still a strong advocate of it for most men. The off hand never really got comfortable for me frequently leaving red zebra stripes behind and since those areas that normally benefit from an off hand attack, like my cheeks and neck have such light growth that it doesn't benefit the result to switch, I gave it up about 6 months ago. Now I do the whole face with my dominant hand and don't have the red stripes. :o :shrug:
X
So far I only have about 6 shaves under my belt with the straight, but I'm
a switch-hitter. I started life left handed, along with an older brother,but my
parents forced right handedness on us. This was typical in the 40 & 50 when
we were infants. Left handed kids were like red-headed stepchildren.:shrug:
Then when I was about 9, a family friend lost his right arm in an accident,
and he right handed. Poor guy was about 63 years old, and couldn't do
anything left handed. Since I was a Boy Scout, I figured it was time to
"Be Prepared", buck the system and do most things with either hand.
So I have always shaved "even-handed" as they say in the south, but
I will admit, the first time that cold steel came up real close and personal
was an eye-opener.....in either hand.
when I first started using a straight, I shaved only with one hand ,my right,then I found this wonderfull site and watched Lyn`s video on how its done.let me tell you the first time I held the razor in my left hand I was turning it the wrong way when looking in the mirror and other dumb stuff and it just felt very uncomfortable and quite unnatural.
After about 4 or 5 goes things started to settle down , now I start off with my left hand and shave top to bottom first pass left side then I swap hands and use my right hand to do bottom to top on my left side then top to bottom right side then change and do bottom to top right side with left hand then change to my right again for chin and touch ups. I also re lather in between passes. It is not exactly how Lyn dose it but this way I feel the most comfortable.
So I guess what I`m saying is that if you persist with using both hands it wont take long to master and you will wonder how in hell you did it before
Thats my experience with it any way:hmmm:
Have a good all
Kind regards Peter;)
I use both hands. However, I read somewhere (maybe in an old barber's manual) that when barbers are (or did) learning to use a str8 razor to give someone a shave, the razor is strictly to be used in the same hand. Maybe that only applies to if you are shaving someone else or the true professionals.
Rob
Ive started shaving with both hands only recently and i must say for my tremendous amount of facial hair growth the results have been far better. With one hand i could get a glass finsih on the right side and a sandpaper finish on the left, using two hands i can control the razor a lot better on the left of my face allowing me to really get into and around my jawline. Of course i have that terrible problem of left to right neck growth and as such find shaving against the grain in that area nigh on impossible with either hand, shit happens i guess.
Right now I am 0-handed because I need to get a blade sharp enough to use. But that is another story. I imagine when I do get a good shaver, I will try to learn the 2-handed shave technique. My problem is I have about as much dexterity in my left hand as a drunken puppy:( , so we shall see.
Both hands for me. I watched Lynn's video, and pretty much just do as he does (with a few exceptions). Think of it this way... if you learn to use both hands, you only need to perfect 1/2 as much technique as you would using only one hand. What you do with the right hand, you do with the left. Using only one hand, you have to have two different techniques for both sides of the face.
For newcomers, and those who are just scared to try using their off hand... give it a try. With practice, comes consistency.
Drew
I use alternate hands for my cheeks, jawline, and under my chin, but use my right hand only near the corners of my mouth and upper lip.
Hey, its only a razor, how much damage can you really do?Quote:
Originally Posted by gfoster
I use both hands, it's not that difficult to master and you can get much better angles.
I find it comfortable to shave with both hands... except for a couple areas along the jaw-line that require REALLY fine motor skills -- then it's right hand only for me.
I am ambidextrous for some tasks and dominant-handed for others... but strangely, it's different dominant hands for different tasks. For example, I throw/catch a ball, shoot (both gun and bow) left handed... but I bat, swing a racket, brush my teeth, etc. right-handed. I can shave, write, eat (except for the chop-sticks thing... that's right hand only), hammer, shoot pool, etc. almost equally well with both hands. :shrug:
Trapper,
Before I even took a straight to my face I had a long talk with Lynn. He told me to use both hands and to just start with 2 passes on each side to get the feel for it. I admit to a little strangeness with the left at first but it is like second nature to me now.
I started practicing the two-hand method using a DE. It also gave me a slightly safer way to figure out good points to stretch the skin from.
I'm still working on the two handed shave. It's easy with a DE, a bit tougher with a straight. But I'm gettin' there!
RT
I always suspected you were a freak. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by azjoe
X
I tried using both hands early on, but have evolved to a one handed shaver. It might not always be pretty, but it gets the job done.
Glen
I shave with both hands. I like being able to use identical technique on each side.
For those trying to tame a non-dominant hand, I wonder if the usual beginners advice might apply: start with just the sideburns, then on a later date advance to the whole cheek, and only then begin experimenting with problem areas.
I'm like azjoe; I tend to do different things with different "dominance". Most people I know think I'm left-handed because I write left-handed. I also eat (except w/chopsticks) and catch left-handed. But most other things are predominantly right-handed; throwing, batting, using a racket, brushing my teeth, shooting pool or guns, using a saw or chopsticks. And my other tool use (hammers, screwdrivers, sanders, and now my Dremel) has always been ambidextrous.
So like joe, it was a pretty easy transition for me to adopt a two-handed shave regime, although I'm still working out the details on which hand gives me the best angle on different parts of my face.
Cheers,
My first straight arrived in the mail today and I've not used it yet
But I plan on starting one handed working the left in later possibly by mimicing the actions using a blunt straight to get used the the movements
Actually, I'm a bit of a freak myself. I bat, play hockey and golf left handed and none of it any where near what could be considered 'well', but everything else is right handed. ... well almost everything. I'm a left handed romantic as well. :confused: Lets just leave the rest between my wife and I. :D
X
Two handed and sometimes both handed on the back of the head.
Don
I'm a two handed man with a straight...find it much more comfortable for control.
WTG - right hand -> right side, left hand -> left side
ATG - right hand -> left side, left hand -> rightside
I'm right handed and not particularly adept with my left hand. However, I started using both hands from the start of my str8 shaving and picked it up quickly. Perhaps because the str8 shaving technique was foreign to both hands at first and I had to go slowly, carefully and very consciously. I am very comfortable shaving with both and would not want to try it with only one now.
- Dale
I just started shaving with a straight razor ten days ago and used both my left as well as my dominant right hand, from day one. I figured that since the feel, coordination and skills required to using a straight was altogether different from shaving as I had, with a double edge, it might be better to develop the muscle memory and coordination shaving with right and the left hand, from the start. I shaved my entire face from the first day, with few mishaps. I went very very slowly. I'm still very slow.
Michael-
Two-handed from day 1, and I was surprised how easy it was to use the left. Sometimes I find myself using the left hand on places I would normally use the right hand just to avoid switching hands. Like another poster said, perhaps it is easier to use both hands from the very start because both are doing something foreign.