Thread: tackling against the grain

the last few shave i have made somewhat leaps and bounds with atg. which for me means the razor runs smooth now instead of catching every two seconds. problem is I'm smooth to the touch wtg and xtg after my atg pass but ive still got a bad atg shave.

ii know I'm taking hair off but if i go behind it with a de I'm still getting hair and it's still rough to the touch. even doing a buffing pass. it is pretty much uniform all over so it's gotta be my basic razor technique.

i justjust started leading with the toe but I'm not seeing a bunch of different

The basics are very important in the search for BBS

Keenness. How long since your razor has been touched up or honed? How many stropping passes are you doing?

Lather. What soap are you using? How is your lather? Wet, dry, snotty, thin, thick, creamy, uber?

Technique. Have you reviewed the wiki about the various shaving passes? How about the advanced section?

Lots to learn and lots of experiments to try. Have fun.

Jonathan

A sharp blade, proper angle and skin stretching will make the ATG pass easier.

As was mentioned above. Before you shave, practice the stretch on a dry face to see which way brings up the stubble the most. If you pull the wrong way, you might be laying it flatter. I did that for a while.

The razor is shave ready. I'm going ten clean fabric 30 leather. And this has happened with three razors. I pull up by my side burn and slightly inflate my cheeks and do wtg xtg atg for my neck I stretch near my collar bone and tilt.

My soap varies between vdh bald frog or bit slow and sometimes I uber but usually I get lather that is on the wet end of creamy

Try upto 100 passes on leather for your next shave. I habitually do 50, 30 just was not enough for me. But since this is happening with multiple razors, I think that shaving technique and skin stretching is where you should focus your experimentation.

Jonathan

I tend to agree. I also think my wtg might be affecting my atg shave to a certain degree. I can just barely feel stubble wtg after my wtg pass, and then that becomes smooth after my xtg pass and typically my xtg rub is very smooth as well.

My atg rub is smoother after the atg pass but its like I'm cutting it off at the halfway point of the hair instead of against the skin. so maybe if I increase my angle?

High angle ATG passes take alot of skill. They all most always lead to more irritation and still wont necessarily give a smooth shave.

A low angle of about 5 degrees with little to no pressure is about the ideal, for an ATG pass.

The biggest clue is that after your WTG pass you can still feel stubble WTG. After one WTG pass you should not be able to feel stubble in the same direction. This makes me think that the deficiency is also present in your WTG pass. I just don't have the experience to be more certain of what you need to do, than what I have already stated. You may need to meet up with someone to make fast progress.

Jonathan

well my shave today went awesome. i changed my wtg pass to shorter slightly overlapping wtg strokes with a guillotine toe forward slant. thid did a much better job eradicating hair. i also started putting more pressure on my strop because i was feather dusting it i found out.

my cheeks are much smoother but not quite there yet. still a lot of progress today though

The obsessing about the ATG pass eludes me guys,I shave every two days,I have a very tough old grey beard,I get BBS every time with one proper WTG pass followed by one XTG schything pass and it take two minutes.
Word of Caution tho,schything is an advanced and potentially hazardous stroke,is the way barbers discribed it back in the day as a sawing stroke,it is the most efficiant way to shave whiskers Bar none,JMO.