Anybody here do 4 passes?

I always do 4 passes, to use up my lather. Takes about 25 minutes. I shave at night so no rush anyway.

I do 3 passes and then what I call a "touch up" pass, which is a slightly different direction in some of my problem areas. So I do about 3.75 passes.

2 passes for me atg and xtg i seem to get a very close shave like that.

I've never done four full passes, and I don't intend to. When I started going full on, I did three full passes and (if needed) a bit of touching up. Now, it's two passes and (if needed) a bit of touching up.

Three at night with touch up

3+ touch ups. There's always a spot. . .

Three passes and a cleanup. I shave every day and it takes about 20 minutes.

I use to do three passes and what I called touch ups, but the touch up pass was closer to a 4th pass without cheeks.

My face didn't really appreciate the extra pass so I decided I would only do three and live with the results. I admit it was hard at first, applying balm and feeling the less than perfect spots. They seemed to always be in the same areas and after many months I figured out how to get the BBS with the three passes.

I don't really know how long it takes. The actual shaving part probably takes about 10 minutes, but the whole routine is around 15 minutes (I do my prep in the shower before shaving).

The only times I do four passes is when I need a really close shave for that evening, such as at a black tie event.

I shave at night but I have to do 6-8 passes with a r41 or ikon tech.

4 passes daily. With the grain, across the grain East to West, across the grain West to East, and against the grain. It is the only way I can get an acceptable shave. The other morning I got wrapped up in the podcast I was listening to and forgot the west to east pass. I rubbed my face after the ATG pass and found my face was still full of stubble. Relathered and preformed the forgotten pass and everything was OK. The way my beard swirls, it is the only way to get a clean shave Good soap and a sharp blade make for little to no irritation.

Unless I'm rushed (rare, these days) I will usually keep shaving until all the lather is used up -- that can become 4 or 5+ passes. If I'm using an aggressive razor (R41 or FaTip) I will usually limit myself to 3 passes plus touch ups to avoid razor burn. A 3 pass shave will take me about 20 to 30 minutes -- my ideal, un-rushed shave runs about three quarters of an hour including prep and cleanup.

Passes vary wildly among shavers. Some people won't shave the same area without lather on it. Others will hit the same area three or four times on each pass. I do a two pass shave but often I hit an area a few times especially if I feel like I didn't get it hit well the first time on that pass.

No. I typically do three. Occasionally, two if I am in a rush. Takes about 10 minutes.

Most days, I only do 2 passes. 1 wtg and 1 atg with touch ups as needed. Nice BBS shave and no burn or anything like that. Once in a while for special occasions, I do a full 3 pass with wtg, xtg and finish up with an atg.

Usually 4 passes w. cleanup but on days I'm in a hurry -- two passes: one going down and second shaving up.

25 minutes when I take all my time, clean up, and get a BBS. And I can get 24 hours out of it (at least visually, not for smooching wife). Since I'm a bit blonde and grey haired my stubble from a great shave really doesn't show at all for about 20-24 hours.

But I can easily shave in 5 -10 minutes when I need to and get a shave that's perfectly fine for work or an evening, but not for smooching the wife

I often make a pass with a different razor (all my loaded razors are sitting right there ready for use in a drawer).

I do 3 plus touch-up. I feel around carefully before I decide I'm finished. And yet, in just an hour or two, I find a rough patch, usually on or under my right jaw line. I always double check that area, to no avail. I can only conclude that area of the beard grows faster.

Odd?

I once decided to get a BBS with my Feather AS-D2 and ended up doing at least half a dozen passes. Got a great shave, but never really got a perfect BBS and after about 6-7 passes was starting to get minor irritation in some places. But I still keep the AS-D2 in my rotation for individual passes and occasional touch up, plus AS-D2 is perfect for a quick shave (quick shaves are the time I'm most prone to cut myself).

I used to be systematic as the usual recommendation here was that you had to go in straight directions so, up -> down, down -> up, right to left, left to right. (at least it was my impression, when I was a newbie)

At some point I realized that by going with the 4 passes, I was still missing some areas, so that meant considering diagonal paths to... so I'd be up to 8 passes with this way of thinking.

But after a while I simply worked on mapping my face.

So now.. if I have several day's growth, I'll do a with the grain to remove the "heavy" part, then just against the grain (down ->up), after this, it's all about touching up, feeling with my fingers for the rough spots and simply work on those.

Otherwise, I'm down to a simple ATG, with retouching a few angled areas and I get close to a BBS shave very fast.

Worthy of note is that I simply believe that the least passes done, the better at avoiding irritation.

I generally do two passes, plus maybe one or two more careful passes on the small problem areas, like my chin, jawline, and places on my neck that need closer attention.