I often read that a lot of my fellow shavers suffer from the same complaint that made my shaving experience bearable at best, hell at worst.
It only took me 35 years to solve the problem that has been annoying me, and I would love to claim that I solved it myself, but the truth is I saw it somewhere on one of the many shaving tutorials I watched and decided to try it. It worked.
Turns out that for many men, myself included, the beard grows downwards from under the chin (no surprise there), but then turns 180 degrees and grows upwards for the last inch to two inches going down. Right at the most sensitive part of your neck, the bit that often burns and gets inflamed after a shave.
Why does it matter? It matters because when you shave down from under your chin, the first part is WTG, but right at the most sensitive part, it turns into ATG. If you have a sensitive skin, this is a recipe for disaster.
The solution? Very simple. I start shaving from the bottom up, until I feel the razor start hitting the ATG bit, then stop and shave down from under the chin, again stopping as soon as I feel the direction changing. Takes a bit of practise, but very soon it becomes second nature.
Second pass, I would just go straight from bottom up, to under the chin for the ATG pass. Mostly I don't bother going down again, because I don't want to risk the irritation, so yes the bottom bit is never BBS, but it is irritation free and looks much better than an inflamed turkey neck.
These days I flinch when I see the guys shaving straight down from under the chin. Each to his own, but it never worked for me.
It only took me 35 years to solve the problem that has been annoying me, and I would love to claim that I solved it myself, but the truth is I saw it somewhere on one of the many shaving tutorials I watched and decided to try it. It worked.
Turns out that for many men, myself included, the beard grows downwards from under the chin (no surprise there), but then turns 180 degrees and grows upwards for the last inch to two inches going down. Right at the most sensitive part of your neck, the bit that often burns and gets inflamed after a shave.
Why does it matter? It matters because when you shave down from under your chin, the first part is WTG, but right at the most sensitive part, it turns into ATG. If you have a sensitive skin, this is a recipe for disaster.
The solution? Very simple. I start shaving from the bottom up, until I feel the razor start hitting the ATG bit, then stop and shave down from under the chin, again stopping as soon as I feel the direction changing. Takes a bit of practise, but very soon it becomes second nature.
Second pass, I would just go straight from bottom up, to under the chin for the ATG pass. Mostly I don't bother going down again, because I don't want to risk the irritation, so yes the bottom bit is never BBS, but it is irritation free and looks much better than an inflamed turkey neck.
These days I flinch when I see the guys shaving straight down from under the chin. Each to his own, but it never worked for me.