I know this might be a somewhat less important facet of shaving, but I figured I'd ask. What do you all do with your offhand while you're shaving? Are you stretching the skin and feeling for stubble? Do you just let it rest? I ask because I find that my offhand is pretty lazy... I've been shaving for almost two years with a safety razor but my offhand is still inept. How important is it to use that offhand to get a BBS shave?
It's your hand. Employ it your way. Sometimes I stretch my skin, somtimes I just rest it next to the sink.
I'm an ambidextrous shaver, so the hand that is not in use simply hands around. I'm not a big stretcher.
I'm right handed and me left hand is next to useless (LOL). I shave exclusively with my right hand with occasional stretching with the hapless left hand. Herm
My dermatologist told me that stretching the skin is not a good idea. As it is, for some reason which he and I as well as two neurologists cannot figure out, I get horrible pain if I try to stretch my skin while I'm shaving. The pain is simply unbearable.
Whoa, Steve....That's some serious skin stretching if you can rest it next to the sink! My skin tends to be less elastic and it just snaps back in place after stretching.
Okay! That's some pretty good feedback so far. It's good to know that I'm not alone on my offhand use. I've noticed on most YouTube videos they make using the offhand seem a necessary step, so it's good to set myself straight. I still need to experiment more, of course, but I've got a good baseline on it now...
Since I'm left handed, I use my right to stretch the skin of my jawline as that used to be a problem area for me. Other than that it just sort of hangs there.
I guess I'm going to have to pay attention to what my offhand is doing while I'm shaving. I'm sort of negative ambidextrous so I'm guessing that maybe I shave with both hands depending on the angle of attack required. I've never really paid attention or thought about it. Just thinking about it now as I compose this post, I'm sure that I hot water rinse, apply PSO, and brush on lather with both hands (one brush, alternating hands). I just don't know if I alternate my razor between hands or if the offhand is used for holding skin taunt while whiskers are being cut.
I use it stretch my skin when needed. 80% of the time I shave with straights, I use both hands with straights and lots of skin stretching. Can't imagine straight shaving without skin stretching. Skin stretching also improved my DE shaves.
I think most people hold a second razor in the other hand to shave faster. Thats why people own multiple razors With a little practice, after you do a shave stroke down, rather than holding the angle for the next stroke, angle it the other way and shave with the upstroke too. Thats how DEs are designed to be used. By combining these two techniques, you can shave in a quarter of the time.
That seems like the old rub the tummy, pat the head trick. With my coordination, I would end up doing the same motion with both hands. I am not sure my little circles I make with the tooth brush would work too well with a razor on my face.