Beard Grain

When I first started wet shaving a long while back I thought I had a handle on my beard growth: with the grain was south, against north.

With my No Shave November well under way (getting called Father Xmas in the office) it made me recall my surprise when I first actually "mapped" out my beard growth. I had watched an mantic59 video and Mark had provided a reference template to make it all that much easier.

One cheek is N/S, the other more NW/SE. My neck as many whirls but actually predominantly follows an E/W path.

The point is, once I let my beard grow a few days and took the time to figure out exactly the growth patterns so that I could make specific WTG/XTG and ATG passes my shaves drastically improved.

For those starting out I would strongly recommend figuring out the same and your comfort and closeness will increase!

Thanks for that reminder and reenforcement. I'm really struggling with that right now. I'm trying to figure out the most efficient and comfortable pattern for me; but, 30 year habits are hard to break. I find when I do take my time and follow my growth patterns WTG on my first pass, my shaves are much better. My problem is my cheeks and upper lip, jaw line, and neck all grow in different directions so it is a total PITA to follow correctly. Rushing = Irritation

Definitely one of the most helpful things I ever did with my shave. It's one of those things that you look at your own face so many times that you become numb to the intricacies. A very good idea to take the time and examine it.

the hair growth on my cheeks is north to south...the hair on my neck is a damn mess though. my neck hair grows in 4 different directions.

Why do I have this mental image of Freddy sitting in a city bus laughing uproariously at Ted's post on being too into wet shaving while continuously stroking his cheeks, neck, chin and upper lip and interspersing unintelligible comments amongst his laughter? (Yep, that was all one sentence)

Why do I have this mental image of Freddy sitting in a city bus laughing uproariously at Ted's post on being too into wet shaving while continuously stroking his cheeks, neck, chin and upper lip and interspersing unintelligible comments amongst his laughter? (Yep, that was all one sentence)

It wasn't THAT bad!

I was lucky because using the normal N->S motion isn't against the grain anywhere on my face, though it's not actually with the grain for most of it.

Mapping was definitely a huge help when I went from pursuing a "good enough" shave to something smoother.