How smooth is smooth?

Most if not all guys on this Forum aim for a smooth face. I go for a shave that results in BBS.

Once I had this very good shave, was excited and felt great. After about an hour, just to check the shave result profoundly, I rubbed my face and noticed that some small parts of my skin still felt a bit like glasspaper. All in all this was not inconvenient.

Due to this experience, I have a question. If you people have had that great shave you consider BBS, are you still noticing, very slightly, some rough spots?

Or are you one of those that have such a smooth face that even when stretching the skin and rubbing it, everything feels soft ?

Thanks in advance for the input.

I normally stretch and feel against the grain to assess the shave. I am OCD about it and go for smoothness over comfort...... I heard a good definition of BBS is to take a cotton ball and if it leaves no fibers when rubbing all directions of the face = BBS

I generally find patches that I "missed" on one of the final passes.

If you want OCD results, I suggest that you thoroughly inspect your wet semi-lathered face before putting your gear away. You may end up with razor burn from a 4th pass, but you will learn a thing or two that will help you in the future.

I do this occasionally on my Sunday shaves. Always learning...

You have to a lot of faceturbating to figure out which way to attack your whiskers.But smooth is smooth no matter which way you rub your face.And the smooth,smooth feeling lasts about 6 hours but you cant see any growth.

I had to back off on faceturbating because my vision was going.

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Originally Posted by ace

I had to back off on faceturbating because my vision was going.

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Nah, that is just the territory that comes with age!!!!

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Originally Posted by ace

I had to back off on faceturbating because my vision was going.

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My vision is fine but it always makes my nose run?

I generally will have just a bit of stubble on the jaw line that most seem to have difficulties with starting out, but as long as I can't see (it doesn't look like a dark patch) the stubble...it's all good. My neck will not get BBS, I would have to do 4-5 passes, and under my lip I get little bumps if I go ATG just once, so I just deal with it :shrug: As long as it's comfortable, and no burn...I'm a happy camper.

BBS and closeness of shave are two mutually exclusive conditions. I can shave with an electric razor and be totally BBS but 4 hours later stubble is starting to sprout. I can shave with a straight and have some areas that seem to be a tad rough but 12 hours later that hasn't changed one bit. Depending on my beard length and the razor I use sometimes I get total BBS and sometimes I don't. I really don't fret over it.

I don't do much against the grain so there is alway a little roughness in that direction.

Michael

In my experience there are 'trouble spots' that will always be more difficult to get bbs. In my case the same spots tend to be the ones that need a bit more attention to get totally smooth to the touch. Some of these I've figured out and they no longer need any extra attention. Other spots, all on the neck/jawline , are still difficult to 'get' on the first or second pass. If I feel like it I do a water pass on those and if not I call it good enough. BTW, doesn't matter if I'm shaving with a straight or a Merkur slant with a Feather, the same areas are tougher that the rest.