Thread: I thought I knew my face!

Well, I should say I thought I knew my neck, after all, I've had the same one for 38 years now.

I've ALWAYS had a single patch on the right side of my neck about the size of a quarter that's been prone to irritation every since I've been shaving. The reason I went to a straight in the first place and have never looked back is that a straight shaves my neck cleaner than any other method with little to no irritation. Around that one patch, I have to go so lightly with the straight to avoid irritation.

Then, for the first time in all my shaving years I really looked at that area very closely after not shaving for a few days. Duh, only in that one small area do my whiskers grow UPWARDS! It all makes perfect sense now. Every shave I've been going ATG from the get go on that one patch and angering it! I can't wait to shave tomorrow and just shave that patch with an upward stroke (WTG). I know it's going to make a difference.

Moral of the story....really really look at the direction that all your whiskers grow. What you find may surprise you.

Chris L

Good tip. I imagine a lot of guys simply assume their hair grows a certain way.

Like you, my neck has a couple of areas where the hair grows in a spiral, almost. Which means hair that grows in every direction. Kind of a pain when I first started with the straight, since it was tricky to get a BBS result. But I learned how to tackle the touch areas after a while.

Update us Chrisl, I am curious to find out how your first attempt goes since your revelation. I am still mapping two areas on my neck that appear to change with the wind. How tightly I stretch the skin and how much coffee I drank that morning seem to affect its direction as much as anything else

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Update us Chrisl, I am curious to find out how your first attempt goes since your revelation. I am still mapping two areas on my neck that appear to change with the wind. How tightly I stretch the skin and how much coffee I drank that morning seem to affect its direction as much as anything else

Update here:

As I suspected, the small patch of upward growing whiskers on my neck when shaved in an upward direction on first pass responded just wonderfully. Thankfully, this patch is at the bottom of my whisker line on my throat (no whiskers below it, just smooth neck skin). That means I can make the upward pass and hit that upward growth area 1st thing. I knew I was past that upward growth area and into the "normal" neck whiskers even with lather because even with a very light touch, the normal whiskers had more of the resistant feel of trying ATG on 1st pass.

So....finally, that one little patch problem I think is solved.

Chris L

congrats! I really recommend spending time mapping it all out and seeing whats goin on there, it helps a lot

i have the same thing on my neck. i always hated shaving there. i still get a little irritation if im not careful.

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!

Originally Posted by DaveF

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!

Dave, you're a smart man and nothing of an idiot! I thought about doing the same (face map) and I think after hearing how well it worked for you, I want to do it. I have a bathroom to myself that my wife won't go in so I have no problem posting my face map on the wall next to the sink for reference!


Thanks for posting, Dave.

Chris L

Interesting reading and useful thoughts here. Yup, if we were dogs we'd have some strange-looking fur.

Rich

I absolutely agree with you Chris, looking _very_ closely and finding the true grain
of your beard is an absolutely critical step to getting great shaves!

- Scott