Advice Request -Beard grows flat against skin

I shave my face and my head and the hair is considerably different between the two. My facial hair comes out of the follicle at an extremely low angle to my skin - almost horizontal (or flat) against my skin. This makes it very hard for me to get a comfortable BBS shave. When I shave against the grain, there is always a high probability the the blade doesn't cleanly cut the hair and gets driven into the follicle resulting in a weeper (or at least pain). When it does cut the hair, if I accidentally get a little heavy handed, the hair can get cut too short (and with the way the hair is already growing almost flat against the skin), it can result in a high probability for ingrowns. I am sure a lot of the advice is to simply don't cut ATG but I want to see if there are any solutions (or at least better way of doing this) before I officially give up chasing the BBS. 

I was wondering if anyone else had similar problems as me and if so, were you ever able to get a BBS shave. What did you do or use to achieve it?

Interesting problem and question. I don't have beard growth such as that so the following is just a supposition. All I can think of is using the X pattern method member ScientificShaves has mentioned in a thread. Map your beard direction and avoid ATG if that is the offending technique and use the X pattern E/W with a sharp blade such as a Feather and minimal pressure. I could be wrong, I was wrong once before.

I shave my face and my head and the hair is considerably different between the two. My facial hair comes out of the follicle at an extremely low angle to my skin - almost horizontal (or flat) against my skin. This makes it very hard for me to get a comfortable BBS shave. When I shave against the grain, there is always a high probability the the blade doesn't cleanly cut the hair and gets driven into the follicle resulting in a weeper (or at least pain). When it does cut the hair, if I accidentally get a little heavy handed, the hair can get cut too short (and with the way the hair is already growing almost flat against the skin), it can result in a high probability for ingrowns. I am sure a lot of the advice is to simply don't cut ATG but I want to see if there are any solutions (or at least better way of doing this) before I officially give up chasing the BBS. 

I was wondering if anyone else had similar problems as me and if so, were you ever able to get a BBS shave. What did you do or use to achieve it?

I have a very thick mediterranean and curly beard that also grows pretty close to the skin specially on my neck. The only prep i do is a hot shower before the shave, i face lather and the only way i can get a BBS shave is if i stretch the skin and mapping the growth of your beard really well. I stoped trying to get a BBS shave because for me is not worth it, no mater what i do i will get ingrown hairs because of my hair type, now i only do WTG, ATG & ATG and that leaves me a result of 80%BBS and 20%DFS and no ingrown hairs in the past year.

Also test different blades because the blades are one of the most subjective things in wet shaving, some blades work pretty well in one razor while the same blade might work pretty bad in another razor. Some people say that use a sharper blade like feather blade, silver blue or kai because those are the sharpest blades out there but for me that was not the case, sharper than those blades for me were the Bic Chrome Platinum, Gillette Minora, Merkur and Wilkinson Sword(german one), while testing those blades i didn't finish the shave with a merkur 34c razor because of the sharpness and it was really uncomfortable.

Over the past 4 years i tested over 50+ blades in different razors and to give you an example blades like Gillette Silver Blue or Kai shaved exactly as an Astra SP or Derby Extra and the feather were pretty meh, sharp but not smooth. Now i have settle with 11 blades (Astra SP, Wizamet, Polsilver, Personna Platinum, Personna Lab Blue, Perma-Sharp, Rapira Super Stainless, Gillette sputnik, Gillette Platinum(blue box & white letters), Gillette Super Thin and Shark Super Stainless.

Those 11 blades work perfectly in my current rotation of razors which consist of Super Speed 47, Rockwell 6s, Karve CB D plate, Wolfman WR2 1.05 SB & Wolfman WR2 1.25 OC. Try those but as i said blades are pretty subjective.

The information provided by betozendejas is very good advice.

Good luck.

Good advice here, I have similar growth on certain parts of my neck. I don’t go atg there because I don’t want to risk an ingrown. Instead, I go with grain, cross grain, opposite cross grain passes in those trouble areas. Showering beforehand, skin stretching, and a growth map are useful too. I would say that I get 90% bbs and 10% dfs on my shaves.
Good luck and happy shaves!

To clarify, on the second cross pass I go acute to atg on trouble areas. It’s an almost atg pass. I find that this gets a very close shave, but not too close.

I have a similar pattern on the left side of my neck. I use a wet washcloth and rub my beard there in a circular motion and then ATG motion and that seems to help.

Try riding the bar more with a slightly aggressive razor. I find I get less weepers that way. Can't do it with mild razors since those generally restrict you to a narrower angle.

I came to the conclusion along time ago that avoiding ingrowns anywhere I could resulted in better overall appearance of my face ...opposed to a minimal increase in closeness when going for the perfect shave and then dealing with ingrowns, prolonged areas of inflammation, post inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and scarring. I go two passes WTG/XTG and leave it at that. I also stopped forcing myself to shave everyday and giving my face a rest. A razor doesn’t touch my face until I can clearly see every hair has fully breached the surface. Face has never looked better. It’s a small sacrifice and I wish I could go for broke every shave every day but it’s just not worth the headache for minute gains.

Adding to the great advice already posted, I have a similar beard and find razors with no blade gap (e.g. Fatips) work best with a sharp blade or razors that have a rigid design.