Thread: XTG question

I was wondering for XTG do most of you go towards the ear or away from the ear? I shave with both hands and I think my dominate hand (right hand) shaves better that my left on left. I am only a couple months into SR shaving but still have plenty of questions.

The more important way to look at it is does the hair growth lean towards your chin or towards your ear. In my mind what i am trying to do is get more against and less with the grain so to speak. My whiskers grow out at an angle pointing generally towards my ears, so my cross grain is from my ears towards my chin, although it actually starts further forward than my ears, about an inch and a half from the corner of my jaw, which is where the growth starts to angle. I follow that stroke to not quite the tip of my chin or just past the edge of my mouth. I also pull my skin up and do that on the bottom/corner of my jaw and under my chin. It all started with a very elaborate face map and then experimented from there. I have shaved the other way and gone from my chin to my ears but get a closer shave the other way. There is no harm in trying different things in an attempt to get closer with less effort. Skin stretching is a big factor in my shave quality. A really great shave and i am about two days from 5 o'clock shadow.

+1 on rezdog advice. For me my cheek hair grows almost straight down. From jawline down basically runs from chin to ears. To answer your original question though, I shave xtg from ear to chin on cheeks. Under jawline its all over the place.

Everyone is different. The best thing you can do is map out your growth pattern and once you have it figured out you will see that pattern will dictate how you do the xtg stroke. It's different for each individual.

I can do either way, but for some reason I go away from the ear...grab my ear, stretch, and short strokes XTG after the WTG pass...then close everything up with an entire ATG pass from neck to just below the eyes.

I also find, I have to do an ATG scything type pass under my jaw line and neck area, my beard grows what appears to be a 45 degree angle, so only a scything pass at the end will catch any stragglers...that's if I want to go BBS...as you've probably read, mapping your beard and understanding how it grows can be instrumental in knowing what type of passes will be most effective in different areas of your face...that's if you want to get really obsessive about this shaving thing.....

Phrank it sounds like your beard an mine grow about the same way. Your method is exactly what I do to get BBS. An yes I am obsessive about this shaving thing. LOL

Thanks for the advice everyone.