List your perfect BBS setup!

Let's face it. Not every time we shave do we end up with that coveted BBS. For some of us, perhaps we go for BBS as often as possible, but reality will dictate that every now and then, at the least, we don't get BBS. We may be in a rush, we may not want to risk cutting up our face as much, maybe we have a few raw spots from yesterday we don't want to upset again, or maybe we're just not using the right equipment that day.

But let's imagine that it's a Sunday morning, we have all the time in the world, and today we're determined to get as close and as smooth of a shave as is humanly possible. What equipment and products do you go for? Here's my ideal setup. Please share yours!

1. Hot shower
2. TOBS Jermyn St. Shaving Cream
3. Edwin Jagger Large Silvertip brush
4. Mühle R89 black handle razor
5. Polsilver Super Iridium blade
6. Crown Shaving Co. After Shave Tonic

1) Hot shower
2) omega 10049 boar. There is something about this brush that expensive badgers can't achieve.
3) biotique bio palmyra. The performance of this product speaks for itself.
4) edwin jagger de89
5) gillette 7 o clock permasharp stainless (Indian green)
6) alum + Any ASB

I can get a BBS with my other setups as well, but this setup guarantees it.

1. Hot shower
2. Noxema as a pre shave
3.Semogue SOC
4. Cella
5. Old Type
6. Gillette Silver Blue or Indian Black

1.Hot Shower
2. Noxzema Pre-Prep
3. F.S. 26mm S.T. Badger
4. Trufitt and Hill Cream
5. Muhle 2011 R41
6. New Dorco Blade
7. Osama Alum Bloc
8. Adidas Deep Energy A.S.
9. Adidas Extreme Power Cologne

hot shower
Barbasol
Axe Razor

Effortless BBS just about every time.

My last BBS with a DE
Gillette New
AOS cream
Personna Red blade on shave #10

1. Hot Shower
2. Muhle Medium Silvertip
3. Art of Shaving Non-scented Shave Cream
4. Moss Scuttle
5. Edwin Jagger Georgian DE w/Personna or Feather Razor Blade
6. Thayers Original Non-scented Witch Hazel Toner

1. Hot shower
2. Shavemac 2 Band
3. Becker Scuttle
4. Proraso Red
5. RR SLAB or Stealth
6. Feather
7. Alum Block
8. Clubman Pinaud AS

I always strive for a perfect (BBS) shave. I get there most of the time and if I don't, I am close enough that I don't worry about it as it would not be visible and very few people I know reach out and stroke my face

I will either shave after showering or wash my face twice with glycerin based soap.

soap, cream, or shave stick (any brand) works for me

Any brush in the stable works for me

Any razor I own works for me

Any blade is fine

Typically only AS splash when I am finished.

I cold water shave in summer and warm water shave in winter.

I always do 4 full passes and a 5th clean up of anything I might have missed.

Does not matter whether I am "just shaving" or getting ready for a special event I always use the same method for my shave as it always works for me.

I have DE, SE & SE Injector razors; I can get a BBS with any of them if I want.
Any brush I have
Tabac soap or Biotique Bio Palmyra cream
Shower first.

1. Shower/shampoo
2. MWF/dollop of Bigelow Cream/5 drops glycerin uberlather in scuttle
3. Friodur 70 1/2 shave ready honed 30 linen/60 leather on 2.5 " TM latigo
4. Keep lather moist, rehydrate lather in scuttle and reapply to face as needed to keep it wet. I shave in sections and repass WTg, then XTG, then ATG stretching skin
5. Relather whole face, one clean up pass using Vision with feather blades.
6. Test face with fingers for stubble rinse face with water, dry.
7. Remoisten and do final search for stubble then touch up using Slant with feathers ATG on streatched skin.
8. Thayers Lemon WH.

The SR alone gives me a closer softer skin shave than the DE alone. The DE pass and cleanup gets the fine stubble patches I cannot quite get with my SR.

The SR shave with spot touchup on wet skin using the Slant is my everyday shave.

AS splash is the final test, the level of burn tells me how well I have avoided skin irritation. My fingers tell me whether it is a BBS or DFS.

HTH

Shower first
B&B Essential Boar
Mug lathered C.O. Bigelow
NEW LC w/Colibri handle
Astra SP on it's second shave (for some reason a blade's second shave is better for me than the first)
2 passes w/ touch ups
Cold water rinse
Alum

R41 or Cobra Classic with a Feather blade loaded
Nancy Boy Signature, Strop Shoppe Barbershop, or MWF
Face lather using SOC boar or CH1 & continue with 3 pass shave
Cold water rinse
Fine Snakebite AS

1. Any soap I have
2. Any brush I have
3. Future set on 3 (only razor I use)
4. Persona Lab Blue or Med Prep (only blades I use)
BBS or so close as to make no difference every time

1. Hot shower
2. P.1604
3. Alum
4. Geo F. Trumper Coral Skin Food
5. Proraso Balm with witch hazle.

Hmmm fun question. Here's mine (but please be aware this is by no means my "only" combination… just one I really like at the moment).

R41, 2011 model
Mounted to UFO Kaiser handle
New feather blade
Custom 26mm 2-band keyhole brush
Tobs Grapefruit
Dirty Bird Scuttle 1.5x
Captain's Choice North

What a fantastic combination.

I have several soaps, brushes, and razors that I can get BBS with but the combo I reach for the most would be:

Shower
B&B Essential Boar Hair
Barrister and Mann Shaving Soap
Gillette Old Type
Personna Med Prep Blade
Alum
Ogallala Bay Rum and Sandalwood

Shower
SOC and Georgetown G12
Castle Forbes Lavender
ATT R2 first pass
ATT R1 second and third pass
Med Prep or PolSilver SI blade
Thayer's unscented with aloe
Clinique M Lotion

Great lists! Keep em coming!

Very well,
1.Warm shower
2.Castor oil preshave
3.Biotique BioPalmyra
4.Muhle R41
5.7'oClock super plats
6.Nivea aftershave splash (Fresh active)
7.Biotique Bio Wild grass

1) Hot shower
2) Semogue 1305
3) La Toja stick
4) 1940's Super Speed
5) Gillette Silver Blue
6) Clubman Original