Thread: Shaving Conundrum

Originally Posted by nick111

Typically I've done a few XTG but mostly WTG about 6 times on one location, with smaller passes on each stroke, i haven't really looked into XTG, and usually i strop about half as much as you've suggested, in fact I just nicked my strop a bit 2 days ago
But what I'm really worried about is right on my jawline, i feel like if i try to, I'm going to slice my jaw right down the line like a piece of cutting paper.

This is an area of my face where I naturally go ATG. The trick for me is in the stretching. Along my jawline my whiskers grow from chin to ear. As I shave my cheeks WTG I reach over my head with my free hand and pull the skin up from my cheek bone. This pulls the jawline up onto cheek area and it gets shaved XTG. On the next pass I shave from ear to mouth with the same stretching. This is XTG for my cheeks but the jawline that's pulled up on the cheek gets ATG in the same pass. Then as I shave my neck (which grows in several directions) I tilt my head to the side (left for shaving right side, right for shaving left side) and tilt my chin up, stretching the skin on my neck and pulling the jawline down onto the neck. I shave down and back to get as close to WTG as I can, then on the next pass with the same stretching I use a kamisori grip and shave up toward the front. As the blade gets to the jawline skin it cuts ATG and I use a little scything as I finish the stroke. The result is a jawline where I (or more importantly my wife) can run a hand from ear to chin with no sandpaper feeling.

Several vids on stretching/shaving technique talk about this, but it all depends on your growth patterns.

Hope it helps!

That's a great post by Big Jim. Lots of detail... re-read it and try to recreate the passes he describes on your own face, using just the side of a finger. You'll probably find that your own growth directions differ and that an exact replication of Jim's passes wouldn't work best for you, or might even get you into an ATG pass that you're still avoiding.

I've been at this for a couple of years now and am still refining my anchor points (where I put fingertips to stretch the skin), stretch directions, and shave pass directions. There was some discussion a few months ago about the merits of faceturbating, by which you learn the grains of your growth at the same time you give yourself pimples and go blind. Not a bad thing to do in moderation.

One refinement I've experienced is that I do my neck first, bottom to top, so that my first anchor points are outside the lathered area. As I work upward, the shaved skin is basically dry because the blade removed the lather along with the barbs, so I always have good traction. Finally, as Big Jim discusses, you can always pull a challenging spot of skin over to a nice flat spot (like from jawline up to cheek) and work it there. That's how I manage my adam's apple.

Another trick is to use a bit of washcloth between your finger and your stretching anchor point--this gives you more traction for a stronger stretch, especially if it's inevitable that you've gotta stretch from a lathered or wet spot.

Good luck, and don't rush it. The shaves get better every week.

ATG is not as creepy as you think, if your right handed start on your left side because you can see everything, and when you get the the right side just turn your head slightly, just go slow.