Thread: Grain Question

I have been DE shaving for about 1 1/2 years now. I have my beard groth and grain patterns down pretty well. I have noticed in all of the shave vids that the guys basically shave N-S as their WTG and then E-W XTG and then S-N ATG. My question is whether this is the norm or is that truly the grain of those indidvidual's beard. Basically, I would need to shave N-S only to my Jawline as WTG. On my neck it would be S-N (WTG) and then N-S on the neck as ATG.

Videos can be misleading as you can't tell the beard grain of the person making the videos that you are watching. I would take it with a grain of salt since it doesn't really matter and in time you will find what works for you anyway.

Videos only tell you part of the story. I could whip up a 10 minute video shave and say "there, doesn't it look good?"

You know what works for you, so trust yourself.

Pabster

For my personal shaving strategy, it doesn't really matter much that I go precisely WTG, so I just go North to South for the first pass. During the second pass, I pay more attention to grain direction, since most parts of my beard will only be completely smooth once I've attacked the whiskers accurately ATG. So the second pass goes mainly South to North with several compensations for a more precise ATG direction.
Where the lenght of the razor does not allow the precise ATG guidance of the razor, I compensate by scything in the right direction.
A partial third pass deals with some spots that usually require special attention. At this point, I concentrate on grain direction the most of my entire shave. I never really bother with XTG.
That's how it works for me. I have noticed that shaving strategy is a very personal affair. The shaving motions are merely a means, not a goal by themselfs.

Best regards,
Bart.

Most of my real shaving action is on the across the grain strokes. Since these are across the grain the general direction of growth is immaterial.

This works everywhere except the neck which requires an ATG pass.

I think that like many things, the whole WTG, XTG, ATG pattern is talked about and used because it gives a consistent starting point for learning.

Lot's of people shave that way for ever because it works. However, the shape of the face and various other issue play into the pattern for shaving. Personally, I got WTG, ATG XTG on my cheeks, and then angled slightly off of WTG, angled off of XTG and then angled the other direction off of XTG on my neck, because that's what get's me a close and comfortable shave.

If you've been using a DE for a year and a half, you may want to start with a pattern that matches what you do with your DE.

Since I started SR shaving I've actualy noticed the grain of my "turf" for the first time in my life. It grows in all directions I found out. I take one stroke down, one up, and one across, and I can get a really smooth shave. It took a while for me to figure this out, I kept getting hairs in certain places that I just couldn't do anything with using a up or down stroke, then I tried a cross stroke and that worked like a charm. Since I figured out the lay of the land, I've had zero ingrown hairs and my face feels much better.

I guess that just shows there is no right or wrong way, only the way that works.