How do you judge how close your shave was?

[robertj298]

I have several Razors that will give me a BBS shave right after the shave but
when critically judging a razor I notice with some razors 3 or 4 hours later
you can start to feel stubble while some will take almost 12 hours to feel
stubble

 

[Patrice]

Hi Robert, well you described it, I don't how we can measure it otherwise.

 

[know1special]

Lady Of The House lets me know.

 

[Old Navy_1]

I call up my old Master Chief and he runs a credit card across my face. LOL!

b/r

ON_1

 

[EclipseRedRing]

I ask my wife but in truth I do not care how close the shave is as long as I enjoy it. A very close shave means a longer wait until the next shave, and I enjoy shaving too much to do that.

 

[giftofbab]

I ask my wife but in truth I do not care how close the shave is as long as I enjoy it. A very close shave means a longer wait until the next shave, and I enjoy shaving too much to do that.

I’m the same. I don’t really care haha. My skin can’t really handle it anyway so I don’t go for BBS. I just go with a nice shave and that feels good and smooth in the direction I shaved (WTG/XTG). If I go against the grain anywhere but my cheeks, when I rub my hands on the stubble, it’s almost like my stubble is stabbing my skin. Not to mention itchiness, bumps and overall irritation most times.

 

[Phoenixkh]

The razors I'm using on a regular basis all give me 12 hours if I do my job well... if not, the shaves last 10 hours. I don't try for BBS, because... I don't think my skin will ever feel that smooth, not matter what I do. I have 70 year old skin.... I rest my case.

I look for zero stubble, all areas as smooth as I can get on that particular day. And I do agree... I want a relaxing shave... that is smooth, comfortable yet close. Over this past year, I can only remember two bad shaves.... one with a Kai in a England Flat Bottom Tech where I'm sure I didn't check the alignment. All the other shaves with the EFBT were good. The second was with my Green Cult 2.0 Level 2..... I had a dud Personna blade, I'm sure... because when I put in a different blade, everything was well. And I've used Personna Comfort Coated blades in it before and after the offending blade.. so all is well there.

I have some less than amazing shaves, of course.... with a few razors I either didn't master and no longer have or a razor I have but still haven't mastered. I wouldn't call those bad shaves... just less than stellar ones. I do keep learning with every shave. You'd think we could learn all there is to know in a short amount of time... it's just shaving, after all. I only know, I learn something new every shave.

 

[Calyshaver]

Wipe your face with a dry cheese cloth and so how much it snags

 

[Old Navy_1]

@Phoenixkh ...I hear ya! From one old guy to another, if I get a "Close, Comfortable Shave (CCS)" or even a "Damn Fine Shave (DFS)", I'm a happy camper. I've gotten a few "Baby Butt Smooth (BBS)" shaves, but I can only verify it when one of the grandbabies are here. Smiles. I think my expectation are lower than many of the folks here and therefore, I have a lower threshold of success. Afterall, it is just shaving.

b/r

ON_1

 

[Ron R]

I like a smooth face after shaving if possible, it is hard to get every little whisker but some days it happens for a true BBS. I use the cotton ball test to see if it would snag on parts of the face years ago but now I just mostly use feel and I cheat a little with a balm after shaving to retain skin moisture and the whiskers are rooted deeper so they sink a little below the skin surface you get a BBS that usually lasts a little longer also.
You know you had a close shave around 5 oClock pm (11 hrs later) by a feel test and also in the morning when you do a similar feel test and it indicates less stubble height meaning the previous shave was a close one.
I like to shave more now in my retirement days and do not like the sand paper feeling! Never thought I would ever say that but it is more a enjoyable hobby for myself and a person does not have to spent a small fortune if he chooses that path of enjoyment but if you have the funds some of the gear out there is very nice to the eyes and accurately made now a days out of some exotic metals that where hardly used not that long ago.

 

[Golden Green]

Running my finger against the grain is how I determine how close my shave was.

I shave daily and aim for a perfectly smooth face every day. Depending on how many passes and touch ups I do, that feeling will last anywhere between 6-12 hours.

 

[rbscebu]

I use to aim for a BBS all over result when I started SR shaving. After a few months of daily shaving I was achieving my aim. The problem was that 24 hours later I had little or nothing to shave. I was still basically BBS.

I solved my problem by dropping out the ATG pass (except the upper lip) and replaced it with a second XTG in the opposite direction to the first. This left a very faint roughness felt ATG after the shave but none of my girlfriends complained.

As for "measuring" closeness of shave, I do that by feel at about 12 hours and 24 hours after the shave. This is done in all three directions; ATG, XTG and WTG.

 

[65Mustang]

I judge closeness by simply rubbing my hands against the grain after complete dry down.

Ain't gonna lie. I like chasing the baby. Even if it means 48 hours between shaves.

 

[jason2]

I use my fingers to feel where I need to touch up.

But to gauge how close or aggressive a shave was my neck will let me know. Starting with a little redness. Then with a lot of redness. Then with burning feeling. Then with welts.

Next is my Alum stick. How much feed back it gives let's me know too.

And my stubble will be right back to needing shaved the next day no matter how close I shave.

 

[BigJ]

Great discussion!

For me, the main thing is to enjoy my shaves!! Anything beyond that is a bonus.

These days any of my ‘traditional wet’ shaves is far superior to what I lived with during my cart days!!

 

[Trawlerman]

I don't chase BBS anymore. For me it means ATG and quite often that leads to irritation and I can honestly say that with a BBS shave there's always somewhere that is not 100% smooth.

The big test for me is blood. If there are weepers or blood spots its too close.

 

[BobbyB]

I know it is a close shave when either my witch hazel or A/S only generates a small amount of stubble.

 

[njpaddy]

I stopped caring about BBS, or how long it lasted, once I achieved BBS the first time. Now every DE shave, no matter how close, is a great shave since I no longer have to dig out the ingrown hairs left by carts. Some are closer than others, but it doesn't matter.

 

[user9]

For smoothness I always wait a little while, 10-15 minutes, before assessing anything. It seems as though my skin, understandably, flinches a little bit when being attacked by a razor, perhaps to some greater or lesser degree depending on what I use (or how I use it), and immediately after shaving is a bit lower than the hair line. Once it senses that all is clear, it seems to bounce back above the hair line an seems smoother than it did right after rinsing. This doesn't happen all the time, and I still cannot identify a pattern, but it's definitely a periodic observation of mine.

Hair, on the other hand, is fearless and continues relentlessly to grow; usually by noon I can start feeling it making its way back above the skin line no matter how good of a shave it was.

 

[MovingToMars]

When the sun hits my leg and I'm blinded by the light, it's a BBS. When I slide into bed like I'm made of Teflon, it's a BBS.

I'm kidding, I already know during the shave by feel, both with the razor and my fingertips. I automatically check to see if my angle is still correct. No discernable stubble against the grain is the goal. (Not attainable with every razor and blade combination, I have to say.) The level of discernable stubble against the grain determines how close the shave is. Though closeness isn't the only important factor in determining the quality or even the durability of the shave. I'd also like it to be comfortable, which leads to healthier skin in the long term.

In my experience, a good shave doesn't last as long on damaged, dehydrated skin. I think that's why my results with a DE-blade are both better and longer lasting than back when I was shaving with a 5-blade cartridge, even though you might expect that to be the other way around. I can get a BBS result with both, but because my skin was perpetually dry when I used cartridges, the results didn't last as long. I imagine razor burn from the wrong razor/blade combination would lead to much the same issue, regardless of initial closeness.