Thread: Share your method of atacking the grain to get THE BEST SHAVE for you.

I do ATG scything with a lot of rotation in short strokes/buffing to get all the whiskers regardless of the direction they grow.

With all the emphasis on understanding the direction of beard growth for the various W, X, and A strokes, I considered visiting a tattoo shop to have little arrows inked on my face to help with the shaving process. However, if I were ever able to make some outstandingly thick lather I'd probably make those little arrows invisible, so I'd have to get some really big arrows inked in and with this shaving business of removing some facial clutter I thought that the big arrows would just exchange one type of clutter for another. And people look at me strangley already, so I canned that idea.

So, to make things as easy as possible for early mornings' before coffee tasks, I shave first north to south and second pass is mostly south to north except under my nose which goes east to west or it could be west to east as I've never been that adept at figuring out where I'm going in a mirror.

And there you have it. I'd probably stop with one pass, but there always seems to be some lather left over after the first pass and rather than flushing it all down the drain I slide some more on my face and shave in the other direction. Ups and downs I seem to be able to keep straight even if seen through a mirror, without benefit of coffee, early in morning.

XTG then ATG, TU if I missed something. That gets me to BBS.

I finally was very close at getting smooth everywhere except a couple spots under the jawline. So one day I rubbed the lather in with my fingers so I could feel which way the whiskers grew! What a difference. First pass is with the grain and gravity. second is across the grain ( watch Clemenchs 30 year anniversary shave for some good across the grain techniques) except for the neck area where I go south to north at a slight diagonal towards the front. The 3rd pass is south to north everywhere. This usually results in BBS and no touch ups. Hope this helps.

On my checks and side of my neck I do XTG, XTG, ATG. for my sensitive area around my mouth and under my chin I do a WTG, ATG and I get a irritation free BBS shave most of the time.

I like to shave after shower, so beard prep starts there for me.

Most shaves are just xtg these days and that gets me very close to BBS. If I have more time I will go ATG, but try not to do this every day. Light scything motions with point leading, rinse and generous splash of witch hazel.

Anything can be over done and I would bet everyone who has some years under their belt remembers when they went too far.

I used to religiously do one pass top to bottom WTG, then re-lather, sometimes re-strop, and do a complete pass ATG.

A couple of months ago, started doing it exactly the other way around, and that seems to work a little better for my growth pattern. I also have this theory that it's much better to do ATG with the freshly stropped blade. Faster smoothness, with less touch-ups. By the way (warning: sacrilege!) - I still use a Gillette to touch up a few difficult spots right underneath my chin!!!