Thread: Shaving the chin area

When it comes to shaving this area do most go atg or xtg. Just got rid of the goatee and I am having a tremendous amount of trouble here. Any help is appreciated.
David

I used to have not trouble going WTG on my chin, but XTG and ATG were a sure way to draw blood. ATG on my lower lip was easy, but the chin can be a hard spot to get. I found that decreasing the angle helps a lot on the ATG pass. Just try to do a tiny bit at a time.
For the XTG pass on my chin I pull my cheek back and then shave from near my fingers to the center of my chin. Where ever I have trouble with this I find I am using to high a blade angle.
I hope this helps a little.

Hello David. Your chin will tell you how sharp your blade is. You need your sharpest blade to do a good job on the chin. I stretch my skin behind the blade and go from ear to chin on both sides.

bj

After many mornings walking around with a red chin, I found this works for me:

1. First pass WTG (pretty much straight down), only a grimace to stretch

2. Second pass WTG, stretching by putting my left index finger flat against my face (as if pointing to the right) just above my chin and pulling up hard

3. Third pass ATG, re-stropping first, chin pointing up to stretch the skin, blade angle so high I'm almost scraping, off hand steadying the toe of the blade

I know a high blade angle on an ATG pass sounds weird, but it's the only way I can get BBS around the point of my chin without doing a million passes from all directions.

i always do my chin frist right affter stropping when my razor is at its sharpest 1 wtg pass keeping the angle as wide as i dare 30 or better. xtg just a 16th to a 1/8 showing from the spine to the skin and finaly atg very flat sometimes useing both hands to stedy the blade

I start the razor just behind the mustache and pull the skin to the ear. I proceed toward the chin stopping at the middle of the chin, leaving the "soul patch" for last. Repeat on both sides. For the hollow to the left and right of the chin I pull the skin str8 up and hold the razor at the same angle that my jaw line is and do a scoop out.

Yes the chin will test the sharpness of the razor.

Following Gillette's instructions I leave the toughest parts lathered up and get them last. The chin being the very last. I go from under the chin and up then from right to left on one side and left to right on the other. An effective stretch I learned for the tip of the chin is to hold my thumb and forefinger in a U shape and push on either side of the chin up towards the ears. I do sort of light buffing strokes with a medium shallow blade angle.

The chin tends to be a tough area for a couple reasons. Usually the toughest part of the beard and secondly, it is a natural tendency to flatten out the blade angle when using a straight razor to shave. A lot of folks, including me start from under the lower lip on one side or the other and go straight down in little strokes to the chin itself. Then make sure your angle remains at 30 degrees and do the same thing on the chin with short strokes continuing down under the chin. You can clean up by a little cross grain from the side of the chin and by cross grain in either direction on the chin itself.

For me and I have a pretty thick beard, just shaving down or with the grain ends up being pretty close to perfect.

Good luck.

Lynn

Originally Posted by Lynn

The chin tends to be a tough area for a couple reasons. Usually the toughest part of the beard and secondly, it is a natural tendency to flatten out the blade angle when using a straight razor to shave. A lot of folks, including me start from under the lower lip on one side or the other and go straight down in little strokes to the chin itself. Then make sure your angle remains at 30 degrees and do the same thing on the chin with short strokes continuing down under the chin. You can clean up by a little cross grain from the side of the chin and by cross grain in either direction on the chin itself.

For me and I have a pretty thick beard, just shaving down or with the grain ends up being pretty close to perfect.

Good luck.

Lynn

yep that's pretty much how I do it. I usually follow up with a s-n pass from about mid chin up to the lip. I used to go across from L-R and R-L but stopped because it didn't really make that much of a difference in exchange for a tad of razor burn.

The underside of the chin I do by coming straight down and around the chin. Don't try that though unless you have a lot of facility with the razor because you have to do some tricky and fast angle changes or else you can shave the bottom of your chin off.