Thread: How many people do true ATG on the upper lip?

ATG works for me on cheeks and neck. My upper lip area has the most dense and hard growth of any place on my face. Also, I hadn't shaved that area for 40 years or so, having grown a mustache at an early age and only shaved it off this summer.

I haven't tried ATG on there yet, but I eventually will. For now, two strokes are working well for me.

First, kind of a diagonal to WTG. I use the toe of the razor, and starting right under my septum at the top, I shave toward the corner of my mouth, which is about 45 degrees to the grain. Then I go XTG from the center of the mustache area straight out. The results so far have been at least B+/A-. I do plan to start going ATG with it, but as a fairly new straight shaver I'm taking my learning in stages!

Like Frankenstein, I don't know why there is so much talk against ATG passes. Admittedly, some people might have skin that won't tolerate it. But my skin is somewhat sensitive, and I find with a well sharpened razor and laying the razor almost flat, and stretching the skin really tight, it works very well for me and gives the smoothness that brought me to the straight razor in the first place.

All WTG and no ATG makes Homer something something...

I used to but stopped. Not because I can't, but because I don't need to. I do a WTG and a XTG L-R and then an XTG R-L and that is enough to give me a BBS. The ATG does not add anything to the quality of the shave on the upper lip for me - so why do it?

After watching a guy on youtube do it, I gave it a try on a very limited basis in that I placed the blade facing up toward my nose and gave it a small push and I didn't care for the feeling.

The only way I'd do it again is if you had a second razor at my jugular.

I do a scything / buffing ATG/XTG pass.

Blade angle (travelling from left to right) is shallow version of \

I go from the outside of the mouth towards the centre - no dramas.

It is good to experiment with directions though - sometimes what really works is counter-intuitive.

All the best,
Michael

Originally Posted by Alembic

I used to but stopped. Not because I can't, but because I don't need to. I do a WTG and a XTG L-R and then an XTG R-L and that is enough to give me a BBS. The ATG does not add anything to the quality of the shave on the upper lip for me - so why do it?

Good point!

Sometimes we get caught up in doing the 'most challenging' things, rather than what works.

A bit like that story about NASA developing a pen that worked in space for millions of dollars... while the Russians used a pencil!

Although it is kind of fun to try the challenging stuff anyway.

Moral to story?
Don't stress about direction - explore, experiment.. then use what works!

All the best,
Michael

I do ATG everywhere including my upper lip & I ain't usin' cold water no matter what

I do a three pass shave With, Across and Against including my upper lip and have never had a problem.

WTG and XTG are as far as I've ever gone.

I also have thick, dark, fast growing, stubble that needs extra close results to look OK after lunch.

When I'd been shaving with a straight razor for 4 months, I needed to do 5-6 passes and all sorts of pass directions & special types of strokes to get BBS results (which was the only thing that looked OK all day for me).

During that time, I did ATG starting at the corners of the mouth and going straight up to where the upper lip starts to curve inward. For points above the curve, and the center, I used a 2 handed ATG pass. Both were easy to do as long as the razor was sharp enough to go ATG. If it was a little dull, it seemed fine for WTG and XTG, but got stuck and needed some "pull" to cut ATG - and resulted in irritation / razor burn.

Now that I've been shaving with straight razor for 6.5 months, I find that I get BBS results with 1 WTG + 1 XTG + 1 WTG clean-up pass on 3 small areas (1 area gullotine works best, for the other 2 areas sything works best).

I believe this is 25% due to improvements in my shaving technique and 75% due learning to hone myself. (ie: I no longer wait for the razor to get dull "enough" to send it out for honing). When the razor is super sharp, I get the same results with 1 pass as I get with 3 passes using a razor which seemed sharp - but really wasn't.