Thread: Whiskers that Lie Flat

I have a question for those guys who have whiskers that lie/grow flat along their face. I have this problem, especially on my cheeks. My whiskers tend to grow back flat along my skin and this leads to problems with ingrown hairs. How do you guys deal with this when shaving? Are you able to get BBS shaves or do you just deal with slight stubble all of the time? Any help is much appreciated!

My first pass is with the grain,Scond is across the grain at a shallower angle& Then I often follow up in problem areas wth a pass against the grain But I use a very shallow angle for this & depending on the grind of the razor i am using at the time I my be laying the blade almost flat on the skin & using a VERY light touch, I will go against the grain.This may leave a slight very short stubble that is not usually visible& I can go closer But the trade off is ,leave a light short stubble & get no irritation Or go closr & get some irritation . I have learned by trail &error to leave some stubble (this is very fine & can usually only be felt with the light touch& not really visible to most people). Also by not going that little bit closer I also aviod any shaving bumps.
I hope this helps .Just take your time& see which method works for you.Paul

Originally Posted by Sharp&Shiny

My first pass is with the grain,Scond is across the grain at a shallower angle& Then I often follow up in problem areas wth a pass against the grain But I use a very shallow angle for this & depending on the grind of the razor i am using at the time I my be laying the blade almost flat on the skin & using a VERY light touch, I will go against the grain.This may leave a slight very short stubble that is not usually visible& I can go closer But the trade off is ,leave a light short stubble & get no irritation Or go closr & get some irritation . I have learned by trail &error to leave some stubble (this is very fine & can usually only be felt with the light touch& not really visible to most people). Also by not going that little bit closer I also aviod any shaving bumps.
I hope this helps .Just take your time& see which method works for you.Paul

I think this is very good advice . Most of my shaves are done this way . If I want BBS , I do my final touch up with water only WTG , and kick my blade angle up a hair .

I second the fact that Paul gave great advice. I have one area of whiskers that lie so flat against my face I'm astounded they don't grow under the skin as a normal course of action. This area is on my right jaw and the whisker grow horizontally toward my right ear.

The method I use is similar to Paul's: I lay the blade flat against my face often with the spine also touching (completely flat against my face). I puff up my cheek to make that area very taught and use very light no pressure strokes to "blade buff" the area clean. I must use lather or light lather to facilitate the glide of the entire blade while doing this. After this type of practice, the area feels smooth (almost BBS) but since the whiskers are growing flat rather than vertically, you can see the sub-dermal horizontal whisker "roots" under the skin if you look closely which I'm fine with. The only other option for removing any visual remnant of "stubble" would be electrolysis or laser treatment which I'm not cool with since I like shaving.

Incidentally, even a Feather blade using this method for that area of my face only pulls or tugs a bit and a honed razor, more so to a degree. This pulling or tugging on that area only would be unacceptable to me anywhere else on my face and would signal time to work on a razor edge. Pulling (or maybe a better word would be "noticeable resistance") in that area for me is unavoidable and doesn't bother me in the least.

Chris L

The finer points of your problem are addressed in Bart's wonderful article in the Wiki: Advanced shaving techniques for the straight razor - Straight Razor Place Wiki

I have the same issue with my facial hair. I do the following routine and the past week I have been getting really good results with it. This is all after the typical hot shower, hot towel routine. I don't use conditioner on my face when I shower, I feel it makes the hair too slick and it sticks to my face more when I use it.

When I make the lather and apply it to my skin I make sure that I use the brush it a lot of ATG motions on my face to make sure the hair has be lifted up well enough.

I strop a lot. About 50 passes on linen and then about 80 passes on leather. This has been a good number for me as of late.

Then I do my first WTG pass. My facial hair grows back towards my ears on my cheeks and jawline as well as on the sides of my chin and the sides of my neck. So I make sure I am truly going WTG on those passes. I then re-lather and go XTG making sure to cross the hair growth.

For my ATG pass I strop again, about 20 passes on leather, re-apply lather again. For the ATG pass I make sure the razor is absolutely flat on my skin. The spine is felt on my skin when I do this. That way the blade can slide under the hair.

After the ATG I do another ATG pass with a VERY light touch and more lather. Once again the spine of the razor is flat on my face with the edge. I'd advice against two ATG passes unless your skin can handle it. I am blessed with very tough skin that doesn't get irritated easily I never really had acne or blemishes, so I don't really get burn either. Also, if you're new to straights, make sure you develop enough to do the second ATG pass if you need it. I need it since my hair lies flat on my face and is wire tough.

I really find the blad flat on the skin helps a lot. I just have been using this the past week and the results improved greatly.

Good luck, I hope this helps you. All good advice has been left here and the wiki is an awesome place to look.

Originally Posted by Disburden

When I make the lather and apply it to my skin I make sure that I use the brush it a lot of ATG motions on my face to make sure the hair has be lifted up well enough.

Good one. I do not own a super badger for the same reason, to wit the stiffer bristles work better for that purpose.

Thanks for everyones responses so far. I definetly use the ATG later technique and I think that helps. I noticed that since this was my first cold winter (used to live in Florida) that the ingrowns were worse. Probably b/c of dry skin?

Anyway, I'll try the suggested techniques and hope they help!

I do a final ATG pass which gives me BBS results and no ingrowns and I do have some whiskers which lay flat to my face.

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