Thread: my face

I tried the cotton ball method but wound up looking like Santa Claus.

Personally I found it easiest to do a standard WTG pass, then wash my face off and feel where there was still roughness. Once I had been shaving with a straight for about a week or so, I was able to get a close shave on most of my face. Once you can get a decent shave from one pass, you'll be able to feel the rough spots and can start figuring out a different passes that will eliminate each area. Once I was getting decent shaves, I was able to feel that there was still stubble along my jawline all going from left to right. Now I do one WTG pass, one XTG pass, and touch up the jawline in a XTG pass going the other direction. I would say that it's difficult to figure out the direction of your beard growth without shaving, then feeling around, shaving, then feeling around, etc. After enough practice you'll know which areas you can cover in one pass, which areas need multiple passes, and which areas need a bit of a pass in a different direction.

If you shave over a particular area, repeatedly, and fail to ever get really close, you are not shaving in the correct direction.

faceturbation does not deserve an explanation . . .

I asked this question some years ago to an old barber..his reply.."wait a week n look in a mirror carefully..looking for all the directions your hair grows"..interestingly enough..I dont shave donward anymore..seems like "scraping" than shaving if I go down then up on my cheeks this works best by me