Thread: Shaving direction

AE, no need to be sorry. What you don't want is to be a super sonic sneezer like I am. When I feel a sneeze coming on while shaving the first thing I do is hold my arm straight out from my body with the razor pointing away from since my kind of sneeze is huge contraction followed by ear splitting explosion of sound. My cat runs from the room every time.

Originally Posted by Steel

So the take away (for me) is that with a dialed in blade I am awarded a quick and smooth shave with no burn but I would be careful doing this unless you know your edge and technique are stellar.

Very true. If the blade is not sharp, then I'm in for a very uncomfortable shave. This is why I tend to limit the number of shaves to 3 per blade.

Originally Posted by Haroldg48

Patrick -- I'd guess you & I have different beards. I could never go ATG, even as a teenager. As an adult I couldn't go ATG with any razor, from DE to injector to cartridge with 1,2,3 or 4 blades...even as a 2d pass. Still don't, and don't need to. Everybody is different (my version of YMMV).

Being of Asian descent with mixed blood, I did not have much facial hair as a teenager. I only had to shave the moustache, and the chin area. As I grew old, I started to have "longer" sideburns. But, up to around 30 years old, I could shave once every two or three days. Of course, the younger you are, the less coarse the hair , so shaving against the grain was easy for me. One pass against the grain was enough to provide a clean shave with very little irritation using just water.

After 30, I started to have more, and coarser, hair including my neck area. While I can no longer shave with just water.

I used to start against the grain but now find it easier and more comfortable starting with the grain.My second pass is against and if I find a stubborn area, I find it helps to do short X strokes starting with say, top right to bottom left then top left to bottom right. Anything that I've missed gets finished off with a gentle scrubbing action.

Forgot to say, I use a DE razor when I do the X strokes and scrubbing action.I would never do them with a straight!

If your approach differs from the standard wtg, xtg, atg technique, it's no problem if that's what works for you. If I shave really close one day, the next day I can go xtg on the first pass.

Originally Posted by Wayne1963

If I shave really close one day, the next day I can go xtg on the first pass.

Almost the same as you. I will start with an XTG pass with a day or two growth. More than that, I will start with a WTG pass, because it's more comfortable.