Quote Originally Posted by DaveF View Post
I read this thread a few days ago and it has been simmering in the back of my mind. Last night, I actually got a pen and paper and spent 15 minutes or so truly analyzing my beard and drawing little arrows on the paper to represent growth direction. Yes, I felt like a world-class idiot.

HOWEVER, I learned a very surprisingly things about my beard. For one, it does not grow symmetrically. In other words, the left side of my neck does not have the same growth pattern as the right side. In addition, there are a few places on my neck where it looks like all of the hair grows in the same direction, but feeling the stubble I realized that the hair was sometimes growing in the exact opposite direction in places! In other words, it grows N-S on one spot, and 1 cm to the left it grows S-N!

This morning, I took out my (carefully hidden) sketch of my face with arrows pointing every which way, and for my first (WTG) pass, I carefully followed the drawing. My next two passes (XTG and ATG) I did as normal, but the beard reduction from that first pass rewarded me with the most comfortable shave in recent memory.

Like Chris, I really thought I knew my face. I have been shaving it for many years, and I had developed a routine that I thought took into account all the directions of my beard growth. But actually taking the time to sketch it out on paper was very revealing. I highly recommend taking the time to perform this exercise...the results may surprise you!
I did that too! When i first started i drew a detailed map...not sure what happened to it tho. It kinda made me want to grow a beard cuz it made me look awesome, but unfortunately it doesn't grow in as well as the picture looked...good thing i like shaving!