Thread: Any chin shaving tips?

I had a very close chin shave on saturday.
1) Sharp
2) Sharp
3) Sharp
4) Short gentle strokes rather than mowing the lawn.

-Bob

Grow a beard?

It's what I do.
(Actually, I've sported a beard for a good 6+ years now, but now I'm glad I do.)

I bite down on my lower lip and pull my neck skin down to keep it taught, and small strokes at varying angles.

My chin is very thick like most of us, and i've found that I really cant do a true ATG pass on my chin just yet. What works best though is if I really angle my razor at a 45 degree angle or more and go straight up. I dont mean the spine is 45 degrees away from my face... thats kind of hard to explain.
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the slant bar represents the angle of my razor

Originally Posted by Shaun

My chin is very thick like most of us

who you calling thick?!

The chin and upper lip tend to be the most difficult places to shave with a straight.
The method that works best for me in both of these areas is to stretch the skin, and do very short scything passes.

The best explanation I can give of scything would be to allow the nose of the razor to drag or trail behind the rest of the razor by a small distance.

this is a bit of an advanced move, and one needs to be very careful to make a scything motion and not a slicing motion.

On the chin I always start with a basic north south pass. this doesn't remove a lot of hair, but it helps.
next pass I do is from the tip of my chin working outward. again this is more of a WTG or XTG pass, and won't get the tough ones.
3rd pass I work from the outside in, this is where skin stretching and small strokes start to get important.... I don't shave more than an inch at a time, and keep my fingers almost under the spine of the blade while stretching the skin tight. (Working from the sides like this makes it easier to maintain your blade angle.)
4th and final pass... Here's where it gets difficult to explain, you need to look at the remaining hair. this is a direct ATG (against the grain) pass, which means you will most likely be going from south to north, but not always. Skin stretching is critical for a close shave here, as is a very sharp razor. (I usually restrop my razor before this pass) pay close attention to the angle of your blade, go directly ATG, very tight skin stretching, and I usually do a 1/2 inch patch at a time using a light "scrubbing" pass.


The upper lip is similar, in principal, as I go from outside in, inside out, and finish with the ATG.

Well once ive selected the appropriate chin from my personal collection..lol...seriously , i usually sport a goatee and have been removing every few months for practice, i find that like some of you the hair changes direction, so i go down and then across the grain, making monkey faces to flatten out my chin...but i do approach it very carefully as i still worry about the nicks i have made in the past.

basically i take most care on my chin , so go slowly but a good prep and a keen edge is the best way for the stubborn bits and a wee bit of patience and youll get it, cos none of us shave with str8's for speed, do we now. In a world of convenience and speed this forces us to slow down.

good luck, simon

Worked better yesterday--I did a follow up pass w/ my old DE as a test (XTG) and it didn't cut anything additional. Progress. I did do about 4 passes total, though. Think I've figured out my neck, though--smooth, clean and no irritation/ingrowns! Passed the Bay Rum test perfectly! (WTG, 2 XTG in both directions)

See avatar. Tho' the beard has been steadily shrinking over the past couple months. At the end of April I'll be playing John Adams in the Wm. Gibson play American Primitive and by then it will all be off; so these chin shaving tips will come in handy.