Thread: Direction of hair growth makes WTG & ATG shave difficult

My facial hair grows like this:



The way my hair grows makes it difficult to get the hair on my neck with a perfect WTG (and ATG) pass. I can't get the whole length of the blade at the correct angle on my neck because of my neck's contour.


(terrible picture but I hope it illustrates my point)

This is how I have to do it:



XTG is no problem. I usually do 2 XTG passes (one with the arrows and one opposite the arrows).



My ATG pass has the same problem my WTG pass has.



No matter how many times I hit my neck, (at any angle I can) I can never get a perfect BBS shave there.

Am I doomed to always have a rough neck? Anyone else out there have a similar growth pattern that has figured this out?

I have similar problems, Just can't get the razor into position for the hollows o the neck no matter what I try. I've just started taking a few swipes on the neck with the DE afterwards to clean that area up.... So far works well..

Same problem here, with the added bonus that one patch on my chin just under my lip literally grows in every single random direction possible.
even attacking it from every single direction with a DE blade doesn't seem to get it under control properly :/

as for the neck area, I too do whta mcgyver does and use a small DE blade for this.

Alternatively, you could go hunting for a big smiling razor.. :/

So far I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem but its a bit discouraging because its starting to sound like there is no solution.

I think you will find, in a year's time when you stumble upon this old thread of yours, you'll remember when this was a problem. Buried somewhere in the landscape between skin stretching directions and the scything stroke I predict you might find a solution. Oh, and it may also be that you will find you will have to learn to live with a little stubble. I had problem areas myself that took a lot of figuring out to get right. I find that i can get it bbs these days if I want to - but some days I just don't bother.

Best of luck.

Originally Posted by str8fencer

I think you will find, in a year's time when you stumble upon this old thread of yours, you'll remember when this was a problem. Buried somewhere in the landscape between skin stretching directions and the scything stroke I predict you might find a solution. Oh, and it may also be that you will find you will have to learn to live with a little stubble. I had problem areas myself that took a lot of figuring out to get right. I find that i can get it bbs these days if I want to - but some days I just don't bother.

Best of luck.

Thanks. I'm sure you could probably tell that I am fairly new. I still get really great shaves, I would just like to know that I can get a bbs shave anytime I want (without taking an extra half hour.

Perfect BBS is always the goal. There are many factors including experience level and the more you play around with different angles and get comfortable with the razor, the better it gets. But on any given day the alignment of the sun, moon and stars along with wind direction, caffeine intake and other factors can all come into play, so.............a mostly BBS shave is usually not a bad thing.

Have fun.

Man, that is one messed up beard pattern for sure lol

Judging from your diagram, it looks like your XTG pass is slightly angled? Have you tried shaving perpendicular, with a guillotine or scything stroke (2 passes, going opposite directions: N-S then S-N ?) I bet that would clear up your neck whiskers more than adequately.

Try to concentrate on achieving a smooth shave with XTG passes, cutting out the need for ATG. That is the ultimate goal.

I have similar problem as well, but I do downward strokes for the first pass, the upward strokes beginning at bottom and going up for the second pass. Sometimes I will repeat the upward strokes for a third. If your razor is really well honed, this gives me a shave that is close as possible.

Originally Posted by Ryan82

Man, that is one messed up beard pattern for sure lol

Judging from your diagram, it looks like your XTG pass is slightly angled? Have you tried shaving perpendicular, with a guillotine or scything stroke (2 passes, going opposite directions: N-S then S-N ?) I bet that would clear up your neck whiskers more than adequately.

Try to concentrate on achieving a smooth shave with XTG passes, cutting out the need for ATG. That is the ultimate goal.

Its more perpendicular than it looks. I started adding a 2nd XTG pass because I wanted to see if that gave me better results; it has, but not all the way. I'll work on my scything a bit more. I'm still trying to get the hang of that.