Thread: Barber shave vs shaving yourself

I have been watching some shaving videos. I noticed that a lot of the videos of gentlemen getting shaved by a barber shows that the barber goes against the grain on the neck or at least the lower half of the neck.

Is there a reason why?

Should I be doing this instead of WTG on my whole neck?

I can see if they were doing this on the second pass but on first pass is something I never thought of doing.

I would guess most barbers use the same process on everyone, and from what I can remember of barber manuals, that is how it's taught. The hair in that area grows in different directions for different folks, so I would guess they choose a pass type that is easier/more comfortable to do and then stick with it.

As for what you should be doing - experiment and see what works best for you. Whatever that is is the right way to do it.

I go WTG and ATG. Only two passes. I seem to get a little irritated on the third pass. Go with the flow and try out stretching your neck different ways. That's what did it for me. Good luck!!

I do 2 ATG passes on the neck. My beard grows left to right. Wtg and xtg did nothing, so thatswhat I do and it works. You have to get the stretch down. I pull up to raise the stubble first pass atg and then I pull sideways for the last pass. It works very well. Until I did that,I couldn't get bbs on the neck.

Here are some videos of what I am referring to.
Straight Razor Shave - YouTube


The Straight Razor Shave Lecture with Donnie Hawley - YouTube This video, it sounds like barbers do 14 major strokes/movements. one movement is bottom of neck up.


And another
http://youtu.be/imhemCIMzk0


I realize it is whatever works for you. I am just curious about why it seems that most barbers start at the bottom of the neck and go up. I do realize it may be across the grain for those that have hair growing horizontally so I guess it is not against the grain. It still is across the grain for the first pass.

ive never watched or had a barber shave me , but as i read this post i kinda thought that it would be easier for a barber to perform a whole shave ATG or at least one pass ATG much easier then i can ...lol

A barber who is experienced will pay attention to the lay of your hairs growth. Depending on how your hair grows is how they will shave you. Most, not all, hair at the bottom of the neck starts growing up towards the chin, that is probably why he started that shave that way. Barbers have a way better vantage point while shaving someone. They are not looking in a mirror. They can move around your head and make angles you simply have a difficult time doing. They can stretch the skin better because they can move around you. I have had a couple shaves and the barbers shaved me just how I told them too.

I don't know about barbers these days however back in the day barbers were taught to map out your beard. They have standard strokes but how they use them will be dictated by your hair growth.

I have thought about this too, and I came to a common sense conclusion that starting at the bottom of the neck (no matter which way you passed the blade) allows the hands to stretch the skin on an area that does not have any lather, so there is no slipping or sliding of fingers. As you move up the face, you are moving into a new area, which has also been cleared of lather. Just my thoughts.