Hidden Beard Direction? Or Am I Mistaken? Help!

[badger_knight]

Gentlemen,

Thanks to this great center of information and fantastic people, I've been enjoying my traditional DE shaving for a while now. I had one question that's been nagging at me for a while:

* Is the "true direction" of your beard hair's growth what you see after a few days, or is there a "hidden" direction that's your beard's true direction?

I followed Mantic59's great videos and the helpful threads here, and mapped my beard when I first started. However, I noticed that after my 3rd pass (WTG, XTG, ATG), when feeling around my jaw and face to see if I missed any areas, I notice that under the Left side of my Jaw, there's a patch of beard that I can *feel*, but ONLY if I rub Left-to-Right across that area.

But when I left my beard to grow out a bit (and even looking at it right now), I *clearly* see my beard under my jaw as growing "North to South" (up and down), and *not* Left to Right. My beard grows pretty uniformly that way under both sides of my jaw.

But after my 3rd pass, I consistently feel a small patch of "stubble" under my Left Jawline, only if I rub Left to Right (which visually when I see my beard out is "Across the Grain", and not ATG).

So is that area a "hidden" grain pattern, and it is truly "Left to Right" in that patch? or?

Note: So on my Touchup Pass, if I go "Against The Grain" of *what I feel* (so Left to Right), it becomes BBS and the stubble is gone.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Niles]

If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about getting that area perfectly smooth. Too many passes could lead to irritation. Sounds like it's an area where the hair grows in multiple directions. Some people have those, but fortunately I don't.

 

[badger_knight]

If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about getting that area perfectly smooth. Too many passes could lead to irritation. Sounds like it's an area where the hair grows in multiple directions. Some people have those, but fortunately I don't.

Hi Dennard,

Ah, thanks for the help! Yah, I figured as much, but what was weird was that visually, all I could see was my beard hair growing "north to south" direction, so I figured that was the real mapping for my beard in that area (under the jaw). I just wanted to confirm if there sometimes are hidden beard growth directions that don't match up to what you see visually.

And thanks for the reminder: I agree, I don't want to do too many passes to try getting a BBS every time.

 

[wolfmanxiii]

Maybe it grows SSE to NNW so maybe you're really going XTG on that portion while you think you're going ATG? Really it's hard telling and probably why things like blade buffing a j hooking were developed.

I tried using one of those beard-mapping sheets one time and it turned out to be a mess and looked like I'd be better off shaving in circles the closer I looked and more detailed I got with it. So, I stick to following the general direction of most of the growth and try not to get too meticulous about it.

I agree though...at this point you don't need to try to BBS every time everywhere so don't go crazy and do a 10 pass shave to try and get one spot. Get lots of experience and maybe after you're confident test out blade buffing or something to see if that helps.

 

[dparish1952]

Depending on the region of my face, my hair grows in one of five directions:
* north to south,
* horizontal from the face center (E-W or W-E)
* out and down from the face center (NE-SW or NW-SE)

Therefore, for a pass (e.g., WTG) in every region, I shave in FIVE different directions. I understand this practice is used by straight razor shavers.

These growth directions overlap in certain regions, primarily the upper lip, chin, and jawline. That is where I (try to) use buffing.
.
HTH. YMMV.

 

[Klopstick]

Yep, buffing is your friend, especially in those whorly areas on the throat that don't seem to respond to the direction you think they should. Shave by feel. When you have everything well reduced, run your fingers over the trouble spots to see which direction is truly ATG and then buff on those. There is a temptation is to put pressure on, but this is the place where a light touch will really make all the difference. Every face is unique, so do what you have to do to make it work. For me, I wet my hand and rub it around to pick up just a little soap to keep it slick for the buffing. YMMV

 

[badger_knight]

Thank you all for the great advice, it is greatly appreciated.

Yah, I use Blade Buffing on my chin area (which works great). I'm just scared / hesitant to try Blade Buffing in the hard to reach area underneath my left jaw area, but I'll give it a shot. Thanks!