Thread: Grain of my whiskers

New to straight shaving, about 10 shaves in. I'm particularly having an issue finding the direction of the grain near the earlobes on my jawline..it's not smooth when I go "against" it. I'm almost convinced the hair along the edges of my jawline grows down the jaw rather than down the face (ie. Against the grain on the edges is toward the lobe and not up the sideburns area?)

It takes some time to get it all figured out. At 10 shaves in, I personally wouldn't worry.
Right now your focus should be on form and holding the razor at a comfortable/proper angle.
After time everything will fall into place.

My hair grows in weird directions in some places as well, what you traditionally think is an ATG pass is really not.
And a traditional WTG North to South pass is an ATG pass for me in some places on my neck.

Just gotta mess around going in different directions, maybe combined with some stretching to find out what gives the closest results.

I was always obsessed with a close as possible shave, after years that has changed, I get good close shaves, but comfort and skin health is my number 1 concern. In the past that was the other way around. What helped was of course, light pressure and a very shallow angle, I hold my razor relatively close to my face

Both good replys. At this point worry about getting comfortable with holding the razor and getting the blade angle into memory so you dont even need to think about it.

Ive found now days that trying to figure out exactly XTG or ATG would mean id have to break up the face into about 15 different parts to shave it 100 percent correctly. After a while you will learn to combine areas and not worry about some. XTG is the easyest as no mater what dire tion i go, im going XTG on 90 percent of my face.

Your about 90 shaves from getting it close to being proficient. Look up in the search there is plenty of "beard mapping" threads, everyone's face is different. But the advise you have been given about just learn to shave is spot on, you try for this crap about BBS and you will wind up with a raw face. Clean and comfortable is what's important.

Map your hair growth, and practice the ATG IN the different directions, but go slow, do one area for a bit till your comfortable in the grip and action of the stroke.,, concentrate on the stropping, and if you have read the library, you know to be patient. Getting sub par results right now is NORMAL so just keep at it slowly and methodical and one day you'll wake up and blaze thru a shave not even thinking about it. Tc

Whisker grow in all kinds of direction. Some project well above the skin and others lay flat against the skin. Spending a little time figuring out which way it goes, mostly by rubbing your whiskers, and doing the suggested map goes a long way to understanding what strokes to use where to get a close comfortable shave is well worth the time.

When I started out I found skin stretching was the key. It seems to overcome most whisker problems. You just have to experiment with which way and how much. Experience will show you that.

Otherwise, TC pretty much spelled out the formula you need right now.

Thanks to all of you, it is most likely just my inexperience. The shave is comfortable but as said I'm new, so it takes ages to cut it all down lol