Three full lathers for the three passes, then a fourth lather of just the neck area to J-hook. As far as using old blades, even though they show no signs of wear or rust, I never have. I know there are several 'round these parts who only use vintage blades. I'll stick with new out of the box, thank you. I've heard too many stories of vintage blades pulling.
Not anymore. Against-the-Grain is not necessary and quite frankly barbers were taught not to employ such method with patrons. With-the-Grain ( WTG ) and Across-the-Grain ( XTG ) still yields baby skin smooth ( BSS ) shave for me. Two passes and once-over is all I need. This may/may not work for others and that's fine. To each his own.
ATG on my jaw and sideburn area on the 3rd pass. I've found that my neck won't really tolerate them except sometimes with a Feather blade.
Yes, I do them to get my chin area shaved closer. It works well. But today I had my 3rd shave with Parker 91R and cut my lip. Alum block didn't help so I had to wait till the blood stop by itself
Yeah, sometimes I do ATG when I have the time and inclination. Makes a small difference in closeness for me. But not a whole lot so I don't do it every time I shave. I just got a straight and doubt I will do ATG with it any time soon. By the way, I think you need to describe for us which direction the hair grows on your neck. That is important. If it is anything like mine, it doesn't like certain directions (XTG) and I don't do ATG until after at least two passes WTG. YMMV. Good luck!
I shave against the grain as the last half of a two-pass shave. I can actually get away with doing a one-pass, ATG shave if I have a particularly close shave the day before, but I usually don't press my luck with trying to pull those off very often.
I don't anymore. I did, and always had razor burn afterwards. I don't have a very thick beard and I've found that I get the best shaves by going WTG and XTG (in doing so I'm also following my Dad's advice to "always go down").
No I do not. I have at times. The reason I don't do upward passes is because I usually get a little razor burn from upward passes and WTG/XTG work just about as well. I don't NEED BBS.
I got WTG as well. I am still trying to get my passes just right but I still do them. Also experimenting with angle shaving, seems to help sometimes.
For me it depends on my face areas. My throat area is very sensitive, much more than my cheeks. I prefer only downwards there. But my technique is not perfect yet. For a beginner often too much pressure there.
Yup. My final pass is an upwards, ATG. Takes care of all that micro-stubble left over. I also do an upwards angled run during my 2nd (middle) pass*. Sort of an XTG/ATG mix. I find doing this eliminates the need for one complete pass, and allows me a very nice shave in 3 passes. Used to take me 4. *start just below the ear and shave diagonally upwards to just below the eye working your way in from there. Then again from the far lower side of the neck upwards to the bottom of the chin. Shaving diagonally upwards is the easiest way to explain it I guess.
Yes. When I started I did everything recommended on the message boards and on the videos. Then after getting the technique down to the point I could do a video myself, I was still getting unsatisfactory shaves. It was at that point that I began to do what it took to get the whiskers off. No doubt that the technique helped me but ultimately you need to tailor it to your face.
