My face got a thousand time better by using this simple trick

[Jobol]

...I stopped shaving South-North direction on anything above my neck.

I used to have little bumps and craters in my skin on my cheeks, and in my mustache area for the last few moth and honestly my skin did not look healthy at all.

I decided to switch from the DE razor I was using to a Gillette 5 blades cartridge and withing a week I noticed that my facial skin got a lot better!

So I couldn't understand why until I realized that with the 5 blades system I stopped doing S-N passes, because I got close shaves without that last pass I used to do with the DE.

So for the last 3 days, I went back to DE shaving but not doing and SN passes at all, and so far, so good. I don't get as close of a shave as I used to before, but my skin is baby soft to the touch with no redness or bumps or whatsoever.

Thought I might pass on the tip


.

 

[Loric]

Shaving against the grain is one of the biggest causes of ingrown hairs. I am assuming your bumps were in realty ingrown hairs. some people just cant get away with going against the grain. Sometimes if I go for a three pass shave, I will go in a hybrid 3/4 against the grain passes from both directions.

What do you do for prep? There is a chance that the irritation is in no small part from shaving with out the beard improperly softened/hydrated.

 

[Go West Young Man]

Try focusing on following the direction of growth of your hair : nstead of going straight up-down, do a true WTG pass followed by an XTG. That'll get you just as close a shave without the irritation.

 

[PhatMan]

Jobol,

I used to be obessed about getting BBS shaves 100% of the time.

My face often looked like chewed pizza

As time has gone on, I have mellowed, and will now always take comfortable over BBS. I just take what the shave gives - sometimes it is BBS, other times not. Always an enjoyable, comfortable shave though

As a result of this change of attitude, both my face and me are much happier !

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

 

[DavyRay]

Jobol,

I used to be obessed about getting BBS shaves 100% of the time.

My face often looked like chewed pizza

As time has gone on, I have mellowed, and will now always take comfortable over BBS. I just take what the shave gives - sometimes it is BBS, other times not. Always an enjoyable, comfortable shave though

As a result of this change of attitude, both my face and me are much happier !

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

Change of attitude, change of latitude. It all works.

 

[okey]

thats it in a nutshell phatman

 

[Jobol]

I used to shave against the grain (SN) every single day. Ouch.

The only thing that saddens me is that I get closer shave with the Gillette 5 blades in this fashion (no SN direction) than with a DE. Oh, well, you can't have it all I guess.

 

[_MementoMori_]

Jobol,

I used to be obessed about getting BBS shaves 100% of the time.

My face often looked like chewed pizza

As time has gone on, I have mellowed, and will now always take comfortable over BBS. I just take what the shave gives - sometimes it is BBS, other times not. Always an enjoyable, comfortable shave though

As a result of this change of attitude, both my face and me are much happier !

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

Words of wisdom, right here. I just had a comfortable but not-so-close 2 pass shave yesterday because I could tell my face didn't get along with the blade I was trying out. One more pass would've gotten me a closer shave at the cost of a lot of pain. I opted for somewhat stubbly but comfortable.

 

[shmeegs]

The only thing that saddens me is that I get closer shave with the Gillette 5 blades in this fashion (no SN direction) than with a DE. Oh, well, you can't have it all I guess.

That's not all that uncommon. I get great shaves from using multiblade shaves. I have to control the blade alot more for razor burns, but the shaves were par (if not better) than the ones I get now using a DE. I switched because its one way to save money.

 

[Jobol]

That's not all that uncommon. I get great shaves from using multiblade shaves. I have to control the blade alot more for razor burns, but the shaves were par (if not better) than the ones I get now using a DE. I switched because its one way to save money.

Yep, this is the only reason I switched. Tired of paying 4$ for a cartridge that will last me no more than a week.

 

[ouch]

You can get a good, if somewhat boring, shave with a cartridge. Ultimately, there are two types of blades- resharpenable and disposable. Cartridges happen to be pretty expensive disposable blades, and you can easily spend a couple of hundred bucks a year on them. This hobby offers a choice of cheap disposable blades, leaving you plenty of money for fancy razors, or resharpenable straights. The latter can be financed with your savings on cartridges, although when it comes to the rest of the money you'll spend here on creams, soaps, aftershaves, and whatnot, you're on your own.

Both DE razors and straights can be passed down to your kids, while cartridges are passed down to a landfill.

 

[don.putnick]

For a moment, the title sounded like one of those weight loss ads. It's simply amazing what acai berries can do for a shave.

 

[buyandhold2018]

One thing I learned from watching my barber shave with a Feather straight is... the less passes, the better.

 

[Fletch]

I used to get weepers a lot when I did an ATG pass. Found out with some help from the gents on here that a hybrid ATG works well. What I found also helped a lot was saving the ATG for my 3rd pass. So I hybrid in some spots and do a true ATG in others by finding what worked for me. But just going WTG, XTG, then ATG almost allows me to not get much irritation on my ATG passes since the area has been whacked down a bit from the previous 2 passes. Then just touch up as need be.

 

[Shavely Manden]

...I stopped shaving South-North direction on anything above my neck.

I used to have little bumps and craters in my skin on my cheeks, and in my mustache area for the last few moth and honestly my skin did not look healthy at all.

I decided to switch from the DE razor I was using to a Gillette 5 blades cartridge and withing a week I noticed that my facial skin got a lot better!

So I couldn't understand why until I realized that with the 5 blades system I stopped doing S-N passes, because I got close shaves without that last pass I used to do with the DE.

So for the last 3 days, I went back to DE shaving but not doing and SN passes at all, and so far, so good. I don't get as close of a shave as I used to before, but my skin is baby soft to the touch with no redness or bumps or whatsoever.

Thought I might pass on the tip


.

It probably has less to do with S-N passes than with the grain of the beard -- on the majority of my face, S-N is fine as a second pass, because that's actually XTG (I typically do my XTG passes N-S for convenience, but S-N would work equally well). Now, ATG passes are something to be dealt with extremely carefully (and only after a sufficient beard reduction), but that's not necessarily the same thing as S-N.

One thing I learned from watching my barber shave with a Feather straight is... the less passes, the better.

Definitely agree, all other things being equal. Of course, if you can't get a good shave with no pressure and two passes, increasing the pressure to keep passes to a minimum isn't going to give you very good results.