Can you shave your face in under a minute? Try these tips from army men

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Whenever Mitchell Moses, 40, a one-time drill sergeant now living in Fort Knox, Ky., sees a guy shaving at Planet Fitness, he thinks: “Man, if you were a soldier you wouldn’t be taking that long." Indeed, men in the military must shave at lightning pace, sometimes twice a day. A hint of stubble is “the first thing that will get you yelled at in the morning," said Matt Semple, 27, a former Navy officer.

“They really drill in: ‘Wake up and shave,’" said Semple, who’s pursuing an M.B.A. at Boston College. Shaving is “part of maintaining discipline in the ranks," said Adam Linehan, 40, who deployed to Afghanistan and is now a welder in Brooklyn.

“We would trade stories and tips in the unit [about] how to do it better and faster," said Stephen Wu, 36, a former paratrooper who’s now a senior barber at Fellow Barber in New York. Even if you don’t have a drill sergeant barking at you to lose the scruff at 6 a.m., you likely still want to complete this tiresome chore as fast as possible—without cutting up your face or suffering razor burn. So we sought timesaving shaving hacks from a bunch of army vets and other grooming pros.

First, some time goals. Moses said it takes him about a minute and 15 seconds to shave these days, “from the time I put the shaving cream on my hand to the moment I rinse my face." He reckons guys who lather up daily could feasibly wrap up in one minute. Overachievers might look to Semple, who says he needed only 45 seconds to lose his stubble when in the Navy.

To rival these times, you’ll need the right razor. Wu thinks an electric model yields the most efficient, painless shave, at least for guys like him with sensitive skin. While serving in Iraq, he used a Wahl foil