Thread: Try shaving your chin............First.

It's common practice to use the traditional method of starting a shave with the cheek first. I've found that often, if my prep isn't as it should be (lack of time, dry winter air literally starts to dry my face in seconds, etc), if my razor isn't perfectly sharp (you get the idea) by the time I get to my chin whiskers, the blade at times just isn't up to the challenge. I've often stopped to re-strop for the upper lip and chin, but it's not ideal.

Recently, I decided to start with the upper lip and chin area first. I've found this to be much better and much less irritating. It's actually fun shaving my chin where before, I kind of dreaded it. I don't have to re-strop in mid shave anymore since my cheeks really don't seem to care if the razor isn't absolutely perfect; my chin does care, believe me, it cares.

Does anyone else do this? I figured "why am I saving the most difficult area for me to shave until the last rather than giving that area the razor at its sharpest? For me, it doesn't matter a lick that I'm not following the paint by numbers barber manual instruction in the sequence I use to shave my face.

Chris L

as this was posted I almost did just that, but decided I shouldn't buck conventional wisdom until I knew more.

Come on, Jerad, buck conventional wisdom; buck conventional wisdom!

When I came back post shave and saw this I said to myself "I should have done it." Next time I will.

I like to let my chin soak in lather for a while before touching it... so I wait till my second pass to hit my chin. I also give my chin a hit of fresh lather right before...
as for restropping, it depends on the razor. with my Henckels I can do 3 passes without stropping.

I'm going to side with Mike on this one. I really like to give the lather as much time on my chin as possible. I usually do my whole face and neck first and leave the chin and apple for last. I am extra new at this, so, my lather is junk in those 2 spots by the time I get there. I'll re-wet my face and relather the whole thing, shave my chin and apple, and relather that area again. For the record, the chin is my only real trouble area.

The reason I have tried the chin first is for the very reason you mentioned: I can uber lather and slather my chin and upper lip with the idea that it's just softening my whiskers in those places all the more. You know, for me it really doesn't? No additional softening affect by having the lather stay on my chin longer. My beard is the softest at the end of a shower and as soon as I step out, even when I keep my face wet and fly to get the lather worked up and on my face, you can almost hear the whiskers dry out; so, lather dries quickly as well. That's Minnesota in winter with forced air heat and no humidifier in the home.

Your idea certainly makes sense (leaving chin until last for extra lather time) and that's probably why that's the standard approach. For whatever reason though, for me it hasn't been working. Maybe this summer will be different.

Chris L

Chris,
I like your logic. Would like to hear more from the others.

I can go over my chin 3 times but it still looks like 1 day old stubble. I find it best to take sideways passes but it still inferior. I might give this a go. Only thing I notice, is that after stropping and building a lather my right hand is shaky, so I do my left side of my face first to give it time to recover! I guess it will be left side of my chin first!

The whisker softening thing is probably only true if you don't shower before you shave. If you shower first, then your beard is probably about as soft as it's going to get.

My only reason for not doing my chin first is that I find it a little awkward to shave it while I have lather all over the rest of my face. I like to have bare skin available so I can stretch it as necessary.

Still, I should give this a shot.

Josh