Thread: Why go WTG at all?

I think granular orientation depends a great deal on the toughness of the beard, the degree of tilt to the hairs, the toughness (or lack thereof) of the skin, the topography of the section of the face in question, and the attitude of the shaver. My beard is very, very tough, so going WTG for the first pass helps me avoid a lot of heartache later. On some parts, I find myself doing multiple WTG passes, rather than otherwise, simply due to the difficulty of the stroke.

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I do a WTG pass on my chin only where hairs are thickest. I could get awy with one pass ATG but that would be less smooth and more damaging to the skin.

Well, for me (like many others I believe) it's a matter of redness/irritation, if I go with the aggressive approach my neck gets a little bit beat up as I'm very prone to irritation there. I also find the shave itself much more comfortable if I do a WTG and XTG pass first.

Generally the idea with a straight is to do a couple of passes with no pressure to avoid irritation. If I try to go directly ATG without doing a WTG pass, my hair will stop a blade in it's tracks regardless of how sharp I have it. (and believe me I can get a blade sharp.)
If you want a really comfortable shave, do several WTG passes, with good skin stretching and prep. I can get really close to BBS going WTG alone, and have absolutely no irritation. I only need the ATG for my chin and under my jaw line. For an absolutely true BBS, I do 2 WTG, 1 XTG, and 1 ATG pass, overkill for most days. It all depends on you though, if your hair is fine enough, I don't see why a single ATG wouldn't work...

First, so much depends on your beard. I'm sure going ATG first would shred some guys and be a breeze for others. I had the same experience as you with cartridges - starting ATG seem to catch more. I think that can work with straights too but I mildly prefer starting WTG.

I always start North/South on my face - which is WTG. On my neck, North South is ATG, and sometime my first pass is ATG and sometimes its WTG. Both work well for me and just depends on my mood and how good I think my prep was (if I'm using a really ready razor and favorite soap I'm much more willing to go ATG first). I'd say I tend to have less irritation if I start WTG and that's what I'd recommend, but not by much.

I actually don't go ATG the grain at all on my upper lip and chin - just too harsh there.

It's beard reduction, not instant removal which makes the key to a great shave.

My experience matches Viola's. If I try to skip the WTG pass, I get a brutal, painful shave, even though the WTG pass by itself doesn't appear to remove very much hair. That's my face, YMMV

Originally Posted by Seraphim

Try it and see.

If I'm rolling on consecutive day BBS shaves, I can skip the WTG and proceed directly to XTG, as there isn't much stubble in my way. After that an ATG gives yet another BBS shave.

If it has been >24hours, I always start off with a WTG. Out of habit I suppose? I guess I also buy into the idea of "beard reduction", not trying to chop it all down at once.

Exactly what he said!!

I have changed the first pass to a combo WTG and XTG. I use the XTG where I can get away with it. In trouble spots I do a quick WTG, relather then go XTG

Then I do 1-2 (usually 2) ATG and re-strop between passes. It seems to have improved things. I just don't seem to get there w/o 2 ATG passes.

At one point I was doing WTG, XTG in 2 directions, and 2 ATG. I ended up with a great feeling shave, but a sore face. Cutting 5 passes to 3 has left me with a pretty darn nice shave and a less sore face.

I've been trying the ATG-only shave for awhile now, and have to say I still think it works better than doing WTG first over most of my face. I found I was chewing up my lip on one side and also having to do my chin a couple times, so now I do XTG on my lip and chin first, then ATG (and ATG only everywhere else) and I've been getting some DARN close shaves with very little irritation.