So is BBS a relatively new phenomenon?

[jdrum3]

I was wondering today if lots our quests for BBS are relatively new, like 80's to current or do you think that from the dawn of tempered steel men have been on this quest. My thinking was that most guys went for DFS, but curious as to everyone's input and hypotheses.

[jamesspo]

Only the Internet can lead people to talk about their shaves, and come up with terms to describe them :) . But I do believe the quest for very, very close shaves (which is how I define BBS) is new, and a product of forums like this. I started shaving with a DE, in the early 80's, and I never did more than a two pass shave, and that was with a very mild razor. I certainly felt stubble ATG, but I never thought to really shoot for anything much smoother. Yeah, I had five o'clock shadow, but that was just the way it was. I suspect most shaved the same way, but who knows. This forum probably self selects for those looking for better than average shaves (and turns them into BBS craving lunatics like myself).

[jpakstis]

Until I found B&B and started traditional shaving, I would usually use Edge gel and whatever Gillette I had, do one pass WTG, then (later) one pass ATG without re-"lathering". I remember when I added the ATG pass thinking that I had a very close shave, but I cannot remember how my face felt to compare with it now, when I do WTG/XTG/ATG. I have a feeling that I usually ended up with similar results, but the ancillary benefits (less pressure, no more razor bumps, nicer stuff) clearly benefits what I do now.

[CrotalusHH]

Until I discovered straights, BBS was a unattainable goal. Whenever I did extra passes and got BBS with cartridges, the next day I would be plagued by ingrown hairs and bumps.

I'm still not there , but I'm closer and getting a little better all the time.

[The Kiwi]

Only the Internet can lead people to talk about their shaves, and come up with terms to describe them :) . But I do believe the quest for very, very close shaves (which is how I define BBS) is new, and a product of forums like this. I started shaving with a DE, in the early 80's, and I never did more than a two pass shave, and that was with a very mild razor. I certainly felt stubble ATG, but I never thought to really shoot for anything much smoother. Yeah, I had five o'clock shadow, but that was just the way it was. I suspect most shaved the same way, but who knows. This forum probably self selects for those looking for better than average shaves (and turns them into BBS craving lunatics like myself).

When I was only 14, the difference between the conditions "before and after" a shave was different. I did have visible whiskers, but they were fine hairs, and quite soft after growing for awhile. Immediately after a single WTG pass, the feel of the invisible stubble left was more noticeable, and the SE razor I ended up using then left much less behind than the DEs I had as family heirloom razors. I only shaved once a week before the color started darkening, and the beard started expanding from my upper lip and sideburns areas.

By the time I was 24, I had a moderately complete coverage of beard, and moderately coarse whisker quality, but I was temporarily shaving with an electric in between the Injectors I used in college, and the DEs I would soon be using. In those days, I don't think any electric could actually get "close" at all. I did become inured to having a noticeable five o'clock shadow by three PM or so each day. The whys and wherefores of the next switch, back to bladed shaving, but with Gillette Adjustable DEs, are too far back to recollect, and as a matter of fact, the placing of a period of electric shaving as 1962/1966 is only fairly recent in rebuilding a mental history of what I was doing that long ago about my beard.

I think that there was a period around when I was first electric shaving when that was a relatively common grooming choice for men and women, and even a DFS wasn't really the goal for most of us men. Thirty years later, with Norelco's rechargeables, I was again using an electric occasionally, and compared to 1964, it managed to provide a much closer shave, although one that was prone to irritate my skin, if repeated too often in succession.

However, at the same time, I was using cartridge razors, and frequently using one or another canned shaving product, commonly an Edge gel for sensitive skin (orange top). When used in a quick-shave manner, one WTG pass plus spot touchups, and occasional DFS was possible, with good skin preparation. I continued to follow past procedures for special events, special dates, and kept a DE out above my wash basin. It was in those days, for me, when I had my own first stirrings of interest in whatever might come after the DFS.

Personally, I still tend to consider that level as sufficient most days, and two passes plus touchups is my usual. However, two passes from my (new to me) Gem Micromatic are very close to the ultimate. It shaves very closely.

[gus1942]

Until I discovered straights, BBS was a unattainable goal. Whenever I did extra passes and got BBS with cartridges, the next day I would be plagued by ingrown hairs and bumps.

I'm still not there , but I'm closer and getting a little better all the time.

I know that many of us get daily BBS shaves without irritation with a variety of DE razors.

[Synthetic Badger]

I was wondering today if lots our quests for BBS are relatively new, like 80's to current or do you think that from the dawn of tempered steel men have been on this quest. My thinking was that most guys went for DFS, but curious as to everyone's input and hypotheses.

It is recent; and, if you ask me, it is above all a recent vanity, brought about, perhaps, by the metrosexual phenomenon and women's magazines. I, as a man, am not a baby. Hence I seek no BBS but a good shave. I believe in the past this was the notmal stance. Unfortunately, influental shaving gurus, such as Mantic and others making videos and writing on the web, advocate BBS as some kind of integral part of the traditional wet shaving experience. A natural path of progression is laid out to eventually lead to the nirvana of consistent and irritation free BBS's, the ultimate target of wet shaving. This is indeed unfortunate and a disservice to men.

[gsurko]

I have always shot for BBS. No matter what I was using at the time. Otherwise why bother?

[Oblique Human]

Not necessarily BBS but a good, smooth shave is a relatively new norm but more like 1780's to the current era. Men have more time and leisure at hand. A smooth face has become a source of personal pride and satisfaction with the technology to forge the necessary tools easier at hand.

For most shavers, a BBS is just an unexpected reward in the daily pursuit of a DFS.

[CrotalusHH]

I know that many of us get daily BBS shaves without irritation with a variety of DE razors.

I never owned a DE until last week. I think my first razor was a mechanical marvel. It had a long ribbon and you got a fresh blade by turning a handle. Don't remember what it was called, but it was cool.

[denfelo]

I never owned a DE until last week. I think my first razor was a mechanical marvel. It had a long ribbon and you got a fresh blade by turning a handle. Don't remember what it was called, but it was cool.

Gillette Techmatic. I had one in 1970, and remember cutting the hell out of myself with it. I also remember it was a bitch to keep clean. I hated the damn thing in case you couldn't tell.

[denfelo]

BBS is a relatively new phenomenon to the extent people seem to want it these days. Most guys in the 50's, 60's, etc. just did 1 pass shaves with touch ups. If you went on a date you might try for a really close shave, but to go around saying you wanted a baby butt smooth face would probably not gone over so well.

[fonkemonkey]

I know from my father's stories of Basic Training for the USMC before going to Vietnam, that they were told "Your faces better be smoother than a baby's ass!" This was before the 80's and before the internet. Maybe some of our own vets could add.

[stuart12dz]

I have always shot for BBS. No matter what I was using at the time. Otherwise why bother?

+1

IMHO, anything less than BBS is akin to taking a shower without using soap.

[dpmtherrien]

I don't think its something "new", rather its something that's been re-discovered.

[mblakele]

The phrase is not new, but I think it was meant as hyperbole. We sometimes take it too literally around here, but this got me wondering. The earliest example I could find in Google Books is from 1870:



Reading the rest of the page, the author is talking about beard and moustache styles. Around the same time we have the Paris barber scene in Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. The rest of the story is a good laugh.




Those early examples avoid saying "bottom", but I suspect that reflects prudish editors not popular speech. By 1936 things are less uptight and we have an even clearer example. This comes from an author and book I do not know: Cecil Scott Forester, Marionettes at Home

...like a man after a good shave stroking his cheeks and telling himself complacently that his face is as smooth as a baby's bottom...

Only the snippet view is available through google on that one, sorry. But the author clearly expects us to be familiar with the situation and the phrase, so it was probably a tired old cliche even then. By 1939 there are examples in print of even less euphemistic speech.

[jdrum3]

Those excerpts are interesting, thank you for adding. However, that leads me to believe it might not be the norm, but definitely desired if one was paying for a shave. It sounds like something desired, but not striving for daily. Interesting to hear that about Marines and wonder about the original argument about proper fitting gasmasks.

[Go West Young Man]

I think it's a creation of the internet culture.
Before you could brag about your shave online, you had two states- shaved and unshaven.
Shaved could be subdivided into 'good shave' and 'lousy shave', but that was about it.

[michiganlover]

I think BBS is a really recent phenomena.

Remember that even today, the average man is looking for a quick shave, and his only goal is to look presentable enough for work. He has no interest in a 15-30 minute shaving routine. Get the miserable task done as quickly as possible is the name of the game.

It wasn't any different in the past, it's why cartridges were an easy sell: provides for a quick shave, with no fuss, and little opportunity to severely cut yourself. We consider the shave to be inferior, but if all your aiming for is a SAS (socially acceptable shave) it doesn't really matter.

Nah, I think for the average male, BBS isn't even anywhere close to being on the radar.