Lathering - a poll.

[InHotWater]

1st pass would be with the grain on face and neck
2nd pass would be across the grain for the face, and against the grain on the neck. This 2 pass method seems to work for me, and if I have the time, and don't want to waste all of the fine lather, I may do an against the grain on the face too.

 

[dreadpirate]

Of course, there are some of us out there (present company in particular) that only perform two passes because our lack of technique prohibits any more than that!

1st pass WTG
2nd pass XTG
cold water on the weepers
styptic pencil

 

[cb91710]

3 passes, relather and blade-buff to touch up.

 

[nrv216]

Lately my daily routine is 2 passes; 1 wtg and 1xtg. Like others have said, I do one "conditioning" lather at the end so that is three. On weekends the numbers all go up by one since I add an atg pass.

nrv216

 

[Brownbear]

3 1/2 WTG, WTG, ATG, touch up on chin. Except all passes have an element of XTG because of embarrassing and unsightly hair growth chaos in certain locations. One pass is inadequate, two is acceptable but not satisfying.

Edited to add: one pass would be fine if I had soft girly "whiskers" but I don't.

 

[Face&Head]

I could get CCS to DFS on one pass with a new Feather. Never BBS.

Superior technique doesn't produce one pass perfection. If that first and only pass isn't ATG, there's no BBS.

As I have said before; I'd like to see a video of you shaving. There's no way in hell I could get BBS on one pass.

I usually only do 2-passes with maybe a bit of touch-up; sometimes just one. But I don't give a hoot about achieving a BBS. I don't think there's anything wrong with that as your goal but it's just not something that I care about. "fccexpert" wrote that he did one pass for a satisfactory shave but he didn't say it was BBS. I didn't assume that was his claim. He might enlighten us further in a future post.

 

[cb91710]

"fccexpert" wrote that he did one pass for a satisfactory shave but he didn't say it was BBS. I didn't assume that was his claim. He might enlighten us further in a future post.

He's commented before that is is indeed BBS. It's his own creation he calls "Naturalpass", but his description of the process is a bit lacking for teaching. I suspect it is something that must be shown.

 

[Mick]

Typically 4 passes

BUT....

For the past 2 weeks I have used a classic shaving company Cobra and have gotten BBS with 3 passes.

So... as the old timers say.... YMMV

 

[pal]

I think 3 passes is a standard.

 

[Loric]

I build lather one time, then do 4 passes each with their own application of lather.

 

[smalltank]

I go 3.5 passes with my straights 4-5 with DE

 

[JeffM]

I'm afraid that I don't understand the question. Are you asking how many times you lather or how many passes per lather or 2 separate questions?

 

[sparco]

I voted 1, but I'm new to wetshaving and using a straight razor (Feather AC DX - Japanese style) I will try new things when I get the hang of it. But I don't want to change the routine before I find out what works for me.

 

[cb91710]

I'm afraid that I don't understand the question. Are you asking how many times you lather or how many passes per lather or 2 separate questions?

For me the answer for both is two..sometimes just once.

There's your answer... both, but the OP wasn't sure how to set that up in a poll.
Some might lather once and be able to get a 2nd pass... I can do that with carts by dragging the lather around with my off-hand (which I use to feel spots I missed).
I probably could, but don't do that with the straight because my off-hand is normally stretching. I will do that for the final buffing/cleanup pass.

 

[hig789]

I only do 1 pass with the grain but I lather twice. My beard doesn't grow very fast and I like to shave everyday because I enjoy it. If I don't plan on shaving for a few days I do two passes one with and one across the grain. My skin is so dry that by the time I get to the opposite side I start shaving on my skin has already pulled all the moisture from the lather so I related that side of my face. Hence two lathers for one pass.

 

[Jporco]

With my straights, I do three passes, but lather 4 times. After my third pass (usually a clean up) I then re-lather and let the cream sit on my face while I strop, then rinse my face off with cold water.

I find that the cream helps sooth my skin. But I typically only do this for creams, if I use soap I don't let it sit on my face (to avoid drying my face).