You know for the longest time I thought I knew my grain pattern....When I rubbed a wet Arko Shave Stick on to my wet whiskers the first time I had a 2 day growth...And applying the shave stick in a small circular motion so each hair pulls out a little ball of soap...Well I discovered this is a very effective and in most cases fool proof method for seeing exactly what your growth pattern is...And boy was I wrong...I thought for the most part I was a simple N to S...except maybe a variation on my neck, but man my pattern is all over the place, almost never simply N-S... After discovering my real pattern my shaves improved dramatically.