Shaving a Light Beard

Hi All,

I've read some things in forum discussions on DE adjustable razors stating that one can adjust them depending on the toughness of one's beard, taking a more or less aggressive angle to compensate. How does this translate to the straight razor? I might add here that I have a light beard, not overly light, but on the light side. Taking that into consideration, using 30 degrees as our standard blade angle, would I want to move my blade to a greater or lesser angle? Secondly, is there a particular style of blade or straight razor that works better on a light beard?

Happy shavings,

Anthony

Well, considering that we get to choose each and every angle at every second of our shave... I am of the opinion that the SR is vastly superior to that silly "change the angle" trick the DE has.

I'm clearly biased.

Oh, right, answer the call of the question... If its that light, you can just go XTG for your first pass. Some brave souls go ATG. SR shaving is all about experimentation with blade angles. Its pretty fun. I recommend it.

I used to say hollow would be better, but after shaving with some wedges, theres no difference. In fact, them wedges are some damn fine shavers. Damn fine. But so are the hollows I have... So many razors, so little beard... :| Even less time.

I would stick with the 30 degree approximate angle particularly while you learn. As you get more practiced with the blade, you will find that you will probably decrease the angle somewhat while shaving across the grain. And for shaving against the grain, you angle can become almost flat. Stick with shaving with the grain since you have a light beard and it sounds like you are learning.

The SR has a much larger range of "adjustment" than a DE, and you can vary the aggressiveness in an instant.

You generally don't want to go with too steep of an angle though because it's tough on the blade and your face. But with a light beard you can go XTG or even ATG on your first pass if you get your angle right, though you'll probably find with a straight razor that you don't need the ATG pass nearly as much as you do with a DE; in many places on your face an XTG pass with a straight razor will get you BBS.

There's no special relationship between blade type and hair type. I used to think that heavy beards and heavy blade went well together, but eventually I realized that once the blade was sharp enough then I didn't need the mass and stiffness to help me "plow" though the whiskers. One of my favorite razors is a Puma "Pour Barbe Tres Dure" (aka "for very tough beards"), which is a 5/8 full hollow razor.

leighton said:

I used to say hollow would be better, but after shaving with some wedges, theres no difference. In fact, them wedges are some damn fine shavers. Damn fine. But so are the hollows I have... So many razors, so little beard... :| Even less time.

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Wedges and other heavy razors are generally recommended when the question is "what razor will work best for my heavy beard? I have wires growing where the stubble should be" since the extra heft helps push the blade through the hairs ... but as leighton suggests the opposite is not required for light beards ... so any blade you like is just fine; I am unaware of any light-beard-specific advice you could get there. Just focus on getting it honed and stropped to perfection and you will be fine!

You can probably use anything you learn with as long as you remember to use a strop and get a honed razor.

Light bearded guys just get away with less passes.