After many tries using various angles etc, I have come to the conclusion that my face doesn’t do ATG and I need to shave every day. Also for my face, any more than two passes causes irritation. My last attempt going ATG resulted in a few small cuts and a bit of rash. I then decided to leave it an extra day while it all healed up before shaving again. Using a light touch with my slim adjustable, the razor seemed to bounce over the hairs rather than cut them. Several passes later in various directions (except the dreaded ATG) resulted in a shave that could be considered rubbish. My next shave will probably restore things. I don’t feel it’s a problem with the razor and I’m happy with the Derby blades. Normal shaving always leaves about 1/2 to 1mm length hairs on my neck that just won’t go. Could it be that I have tough hairs and sensitive skin? I suppose a slant might help. My best slim adjustable shaves are with it on setting 4. After that it gets a bit aggressive which makes me reluctant to try the slant.
FF: need a lil more info, please. 1. Describe your prep 2. Describe your attack mode ( WTG, XTG, ATG ?? N-S, S-N ?? ) 3. Have you mapped your face? (learned your grain ?) after that, my 2cw: 1. Shower and then do Hot Towel Treatment at sink 2. Start to build your lather and take PreLather to your face and rub in with fingers. Let soak in for a cuppa minutes. 3. Lather up and perform 1 N-S WTG pass and 1 S-N XTG pass ONLY Try this for a week using the same products every time and then report back. FWIW.....EVERY time I go ATG on my neck I get nothing but pain and agony. Bumps, rash, irritation, ingrowns. I still try but these are the facts, man. NO ATG passes on the neck for me.
Thanks for the reply. I either shower first or use lots of hot water with a flannel. Then its apply the lather. I appear to be allergic to some preshave products. I normally do WTG first followed by a XTG (difficult on the neck so I normally do another WTG). I then do the obvious bits I may have missed. I apply soap each time. Finally I apply cold water, pat dry, and ususally apply moisturising balm. I have mapped my face. The grain on my neck runs NS in the middle and SN either side. Would a slant help, or am I likely to make more mess?
1st of all...stay away from a slant for awhile. Need to perfect a few things 2. Are you sure you are going WTG and XTG ? not trying to be a wiseguy but on the neck, grains patterns are all over the place The grain on the lower 1/2 of my neck actually runs from the Adams apple outwards and upwards (N) towards the ears so a "WTG" pass N-S on that area actually is almost an ATG pass. Get my drift ? If I do a N-S straight down pass on my 1st swoop, it is actually 80% ATG. This took me months to figure out You must, I repeat, must understand your grain before the shaves will improve. Other stuff like razor angle, pressure, products are all important but I think this is key before any other factors involved. Take a cotton ball and drag it across your dry face and when it snags, you will start to understand grain. No snag = WTG Snag = XTG Big time snag = ATG
Great info here. The cotton ball trick is something that I have never heard of before but I bet it gives GREAT feedback. Remember what that ancient philosopher said: "Know thy enemy".
How many blades have you tried? You say you are happy with your blade & razor, but your not achieving good shaves! Your razor may not be aggressive enough, have you tried other razors? I have a spare Superspeed if you haven't tried one. Another possibility (there are many) is that your lather is too thick; this can cause the razor to skip over the hairs. I don't go ATG on my neck because it causes irritation & doesn't get enough whiskers. I use a curved stroke, from the outside<in, in a sweeping motion (horseshoe), this seems to get all the all the hair missed by either WTG or ATG passes. Regards, Paul
I agree with rick here. It looks to me like there might need to be a modification in technique. look at it like a reduction. take as little off as you can with each pass. it looks like you are trying to get er' done in two passes. For me, I would be applying too much pressure and trying to go too aggressive if I did a DE shave in two passes. my beard goes all over the place, but mine boils down to a WTG, XTG in one direction, XTG in another direction and finally, the ATG pass, followed by a touch pass wherever necessary. I relather in between each pass, shower hot towel before everything starts, and warm water rinse, then cold, pat dry, then balm or splash after. its a 10 minute shave.
I have neck problems too. I usually get good solid shaves all over except on the right side of my neck. I have a rectangular patch just below my jawline that is about 4 inches long x 2 inches wide where the hair at the top is a perfect swirl, below that it runs S-N, & on the right side of this patch it runs E-W (XTG) towards my adams apple. Basically it runs in all different damn directions!!! Once I do multiple passes trying to get it all, that side of my neck is hamburger. :mad:
