Guide to wet shaving abbreviations
Shaving Acronyms
Traditional wet shaving has it’s own abbreviations! Have you ever been on a shaving forum or looked at fellow shavers Instagram page and been confused by the jargon and terminoligy? Our mission is to de-code these shaving acronyms so you will never be confused again!
Shaving Forum Abbreviations:
AD Acquisition Disorder – the inability to stop purchasing shaving goods!
ASAD After Shave Acquisition Disorder
ATG Against The Grain shaving pass – the direction of stroke with a razor, against the direction of hair growth
BAD Blade Acquisition Disorder
BBS Baby’s Butt Smooth – the holy grail of shaving! A Completely smooth shave, where the fingertips can detect no stubble.
BIN Buy It Now
BTW By The Way
CCS Close Comfortable Shave – slightly less than a DFS
CWR Cold Water Rinse
DFS Damn Fine Shave – Not quite a BBS, close enough so that you could feel some stubble but not visually see it.
FBU/FBO For barbers use/only
FS For Sale
FT For Trade
FWIW For What It's Worth
HTT Hot Towel Treatment
HWMOM He Who Must Obey Me
IIRC If I remember correctly
IMHO In My Humble Opinion
LE Limited Edition
LOSER Lover of Single Edge Razors
NOS New Old Stock – an item that is still in its original packaging, however no longer manufactured
OP Original Post / Original Poster
PASS The number of times your ‘pass’ your razor across your face during a shave
PIF Pay/Pass It Forward – rather than give items back to a lender, pass item on to a newbie/another shaver
PJ Persian Jar – shape of shaving brush handle made by Simpsons
PM Personal Message
RAD Razor Acquisition Disorder
SAD Soap Acquisition Disorder
SBAD Shaving Brush Acquisition Disorder
SAS Socially acceptable shave – light stubble can be felt in all directions
SOTD Shave Of The Day – often posted as a picture, quite simply, what have you shaved with today?
SWMBO She Who Must Be Obeyed - used when talking about one’s wife or girlfriend
WTB Want To Buy
WTG With The Grain shaving pass – shaving in the direction your hair grows
WTT Want To Trade
WWR Warm Water Rinse
YMMV Your Mileage May Vary – you may have a different result
XTG Across the grain shaving pass – shaving at right angle to direction of hair growth
Shaving Products:
AS After Shave
ASB After Shave Balm
BB Best Badger Shaving Brush
Croap – a very soft shave soap or hard shave cream
EdC Eau de Cologne
EdP Eau de Parfum
EdT Eau de Toilette
PS Pre Shave
PSB Pre Shave Balm
PSO Pre Shave Oil
SS Shaving Soap
Razors:
CC: Closed Comb
DE Double Edge Safety Razor / Blade
HD Heavy Duty
OC: Open Comb
SB: Safety or Slant Bar
SE Single Edge Safety Razor
SR: Straight Razor
Traditional Wet Shaving Brands:
A&E Ariana & Evans
AdP Acqua Di Parma
AV Aqua Velva
B&M Barrister & Mann
DSB d’Ardenne Short & Bell
DRH D. R Harris
EJ Edwin Jagger
GFT Geo F. Trumper
MWF Mitchell's Wool Fat
NSS Nanny’s Silly Soap
OSP The Obsessive Soap Perfectionist
PAA Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements
P&B Phoenix and Beau
RR RazoRock
TFS Tcheon Fung Sing
T&H Truefitt & Hill
TBS The Body Shop
TOBS Taylor of Old Bond Street
W&B Wade & Butcher
Agents! We hope this will help you on your shaving mission, good luck with achieving that BBS shave & don't forget to tag us in your SOTD posts on social media using the hashtag #agentshave
Over