Learning WTG first, then (and only then) XTG, ATG, or not ?

Hi all,


I'm currently starting wet shaving (about 10 shaves I believe).

I know this wasn't the advised way, but I couldn't help myself, so for all my shaves (from the first one), I always do 5 passes:
- north to south
- ear to nose
- nose to ear
- south to north
- touch up wherever needed.

First, I thought that I would thus learn 5 times faster. And, second, I was lazy to map my beard, so instead of doing WTG, XTG, and ATG, I decided that this system would do it :)

Everything went well so far, but I read on many many posts that people do exclusively WTG when they start, then, once this is mastered, they add XTG, then, once this is also mastered, they add ATG.

So my question is:
- is it better to learn all passes all together (either WTG/XTG/ATG or NS/EN/NE/SN)
or
- is it better to learn successively and progressively the different passes
???


Thanks
Christophe.

Oh my....5 passes. Hmmmm... that truly is plenty of razor exercise.

I do one pass, WTG, and a bit of touch up here and there......and I'm good for 12 hours of smooth.

It's not about how many passes you do.....its about what you do with each pass. If you use short and meaningful strokes, you may find that you cut your 5 down to 3. Once you truly perfect your razors angles and skin stretching, you make knock that 3 down to 2, or even 1.

In answer to your question, I highly recommend that you map your face. Learn your passes one at a time, and master the stroke and angle of that pass. Otherwise, you may just be spinning your wheels. ??

The razor gods have dictated WTG as the way to start. Stray from that path and they'll talk your razors into doing you harm. Ask my razors! Heck, ask my face!

Yeah, I am fine with two WTG and a bit of touch up. I am only at 6 months at this now so, what do I know?

The general conclusion I got from reading up on this is that just like every other aspect of this, there is no objectively defineable number of passes or types of passes. Each face is different, with different skin and facial hair patterns.

Successive and progressive is probably the wise course of action, but it depends entirely on the users comfort level. I seem to recall going XTG fairly early on (a couple shaves in), but can't recall when I attempted ATG for the first time. But if you went for a full 360 shave and didn't cause major damage (irritation and bloodshed) then more power to you.

Be patient and go easy and don't try to rush the process or you can overwhelm yourself and become discouraged. Take things step by step as outlined in the shaving Wiki. I believe in slow and short strokes and easy on the pressure, let the razor do the work, don't try to force it.