One of the things that I find interesting about reading posts on B&B is how often the advice is given to us newbies to map our hair-growth pattern on ourfaces. It makes sense, to a certain degree, that many of us wouldn't really have a great feel for the pattern. The "forgiving" nature of cartridge razors allows one to kind of hack away and fling caution to the winds. 
Call me anal-retentive, but I guess my neck has always been sensitive, so even as a Mach3 user, I examined my neck-hair pattern very closely - I used to nick my adam's apple area frequently. Thus I ended up making this (probably WAY TOO detailed) map of my beard patterns:
My beard is pretty uniform from the cheekbones down; the hair grows in a southwesterly/southeasterly direction (angled from cheekbone to point of jaw on either side) for the most part, except for the chin and sideburns area, where's it's more or less N-S.
My neck and jaw, however, are a little funky. The funk starts at the jawline, where the hairs start running WSW/ESE back toward my jaw point. This has always made me nervous about shaving on the jawbone, where I feel like I run the risk of peeling skin off like a carpenter using a wood plane.
The neck hair grows in a 4-pointed star pattern, Where the center point is my adam's apple. Thus I end shaving my face and the roll of my jaw first, then I move to my neck and start shaving from the adam's apple outward, slightly down and toward the ear for the hairs above the line of the apple, and slightly up and toward the ear for the hairs below the line of the apple.
I found my transition to DE shaving easier, I think, because I have known this pattern for awhile, and apart from a few little nicks around the adam's apple (sometimes the hairs there fool me and I accidentally go ATG without meaning to), having this knowledge really has been a benefit to moving to DE shaving.
What about the rest of y'all? Is there anyone out there whose hair grows N-S all the way down your face? Any weird spiral patterns that make it hard for you?
Call me anal-retentive, but I guess my neck has always been sensitive, so even as a Mach3 user, I examined my neck-hair pattern very closely - I used to nick my adam's apple area frequently. Thus I ended up making this (probably WAY TOO detailed) map of my beard patterns:
My beard is pretty uniform from the cheekbones down; the hair grows in a southwesterly/southeasterly direction (angled from cheekbone to point of jaw on either side) for the most part, except for the chin and sideburns area, where's it's more or less N-S.
My neck and jaw, however, are a little funky. The funk starts at the jawline, where the hairs start running WSW/ESE back toward my jaw point. This has always made me nervous about shaving on the jawbone, where I feel like I run the risk of peeling skin off like a carpenter using a wood plane.
The neck hair grows in a 4-pointed star pattern, Where the center point is my adam's apple. Thus I end shaving my face and the roll of my jaw first, then I move to my neck and start shaving from the adam's apple outward, slightly down and toward the ear for the hairs above the line of the apple, and slightly up and toward the ear for the hairs below the line of the apple.
I found my transition to DE shaving easier, I think, because I have known this pattern for awhile, and apart from a few little nicks around the adam's apple (sometimes the hairs there fool me and I accidentally go ATG without meaning to), having this knowledge really has been a benefit to moving to DE shaving.
What about the rest of y'all? Is there anyone out there whose hair grows N-S all the way down your face? Any weird spiral patterns that make it hard for you?
