Thread: Shaving Around A Goatee?

Hi-

Wow - I'm glad the site is back up and running.

I was wondering whether any members with goatees could tell me how they shave around their beards. It seems like the technique I use with DE razors doesn't translate to the straight razor. With the DE, I always finish by shaving the 1/4 inch border around my goatee. I angle the blade so that it is parallel to the edge of the beard, and then shave right up to the edge. By doing this all the way around I can keep it pretty well defined.

With the straight, I can't even find a hand position that lets me get the blade close without nicking part of the goatee. Since my chin and neck aren't flat, the blade won't lay parallel, and every other angle I try doesn't work.

Are there different hand positions that work better? Blade technique? Are different types of blades better or worse?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

--Dan

I have a full beard that I trim around but when I get to the area that you are talking about I straighten up the mustache line by shaving XTG so that the toe of the blade is upward and use the heel to trim with...With a sharp razor it will actually clip off one hair at a time.....

A sharp square point works well.

bj

I may be the odd one out here - I shave my cheeks as close to the sides of my goatee (really a Vandyke, but I'm not here to quibble). When my cheeks are mostly done, I go across the grain with the razor vertical to establish the sides of the goatee (i.e. moving from about 1/2 and inch from the side of my goatee towards the side to establish a proper vertical line). When my razor hits the beard proper, it usually stops on its own.

For the underneath bit, I shave as closely as possible on my WTG pass, and then go ATG using the same technique as described above, but with the razor in a horizontal position. Where the goatee rounds under my chin, I continue with the horizontal technique but making very small strokes and rotating the razor slightly with each stroke to create the round.

Hope that makes sense...it's really hard to describe in writing, while it would be super easy to just see it once and replicate.

Mark

I have the same problem. (i use a rounded point)
I wind up spending 30% of the shave time messing around my goatee and have not thus far found any method which seems foolproof.

To make matters worse my hand and the razor gets in between my line of sight when i use a mirror making things even more sketchy.

The method i mostly use is that i trim my sideburns then i work down diagonaly from my ear to my chin on the jawline.
once i have things squared on each side i use that as a reference to shave from the side of the goatee downwards towards my throat.
Then i just tidy up under my chin going from the goatee to my neck.

I get decent results but getting angles right and actualy seeing what im doing is a bit of a nightmare.

A friend of mine uses a matchstick/toothpick and draws on detail after he lathers up then works around the lines to make sure hes never squint, ive tried this too but it doesnt seem to give me any different result.

Hi-

Thanks for all of the input so far! Mark - your technique sounds excactly like what I do with a DE. How do you grip the razor on those passes where you're shaving right up to the edge of the goatee? I've tried straightening it out, flipping the handle up or down, and it always seems to get in the way. I haven't yet tried only the heel per Glen's suggestion -- I'll do that tomorrow.

BJ- I'm using a rounded off square. It's a Griffon Carbo-Magnetic that has seen the hone a fair bit, so the square point isn't perfectly square. I've got a few other razors from Ebay and my own set of hones on the way. I think I do have an actual square point in there. Once I Dremmel the corrosion off of it I'll hone it up and see if it helps.

Chroma- If you don't have one already, you might want to get a shaving mirror. I have one of the four-bar linkage extendable ones from Ikea like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/IKEA-Extendable-...QQcmdZViewItem

When I use it with my regular bathroom mirror it helps me to see the blind spots. My hands still get in the way some of the time, but the mirror definitely helps.

--Dan

To shave in the vertical position, I simply hold the razor in my off hand (so if I'm shaving the left side of my goatee, I use my right hand, and vice versa). The grip I use is just a normal grip with the scale at roughly 90 degrees to the blade. The bevel, obviously, is pointing away from your ear in the vertical position.

Hope this makes sense - again, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Mark

On my first pass, I move my thumb up the jimps until it meets the heel of the blade. Then I use my thumb as a sort of "feeler" to gauge where the blade is. I don't get too close though.

On my XTG pass, I do similar to what Milton said, blade vertical, in opposite hand, moving towards the goatee. That straightens up anything I may have missed the first time.

Works pretty well for me.

I use Milton's technique however; about every two or three weeks, I trim my goatee down and shape it up with my old DE. I find that for everyday stuff I can get away with using just the straight but, every two or three weeks my goatee sorta gets out of control and I have to give it a trim. I'm in the process of growing it out, length wise. Right now, it's almost to the neck/collar of my shirt.

-Pary

Originally Posted by Milton Man

I may be the odd one out here - I shave my cheeks as close to the sides of my goatee (really a Vandyke, but I'm not here to quibble). When my cheeks are mostly done, I go across the grain with the razor vertical to establish the sides of the goatee (i.e. moving from about 1/2 and inch from the side of my goatee towards the side to establish a proper vertical line). When my razor hits the beard proper, it usually stops on its own.

For the underneath bit, I shave as closely as possible on my WTG pass, and then go ATG using the same technique as described above, but with the razor in a horizontal position. Where the goatee rounds under my chin, I continue with the horizontal technique but making very small strokes and rotating the razor slightly with each stroke to create the round.

Hope that makes sense...it's really hard to describe in writing, while it would be super easy to just see it once and replicate.

Mark

Same technique here. Get as close as you are comfortable with on the first WTG pass then on the ATG or XTG bring the razor in right to the beard line. If I am really primping for a special occasion I might do a final go over with just water where I actually shape by taking off one or two hairs at a time allowing my to have that perfect rounded shape I want.