Let’s talk passes. Shaving passes. I’ll address the elephant…er…nostrils in the room in a moment.
As I’ve mentioned before, there are three types of passes, and they’re pretty fundamental to everyone’s shaving technique. And two of the three are uncontroversial. One is extremely controversial.
These are the passes: With the Grain (WTG), Across the Grain (XTG), and Against the Grain (ATG). With the Grain (WTG) is a shaving stroke (or group of strokes that make up a pass) that goes the same direction as the hair growth of the beard. Across the Grain (XTG) is a shaving stroke that generally goes perpendicular to the direction of the hair growth. And Against the Grain (ATG), as you can probably guess, goes against the direction of hair growth.
The grain is the direction the hair is growing. And knowing the grain–or beard mapping–of your face and neck is important to learn the best shaving method for you. Hence the posting of my beard map above, drawn as well as a 4-year-old can with MS Paint. Though that isn’t entirely accurate, it’s close enough to make my point.
There are tons of arguments about ATG passes. One line of thinking is that ATG should be avoided at all costs. It leads to razor bumps and irritation and isn’t worth it even if it does deliver extra closeness. But the argument against that is that if the blade is good enough, it won’t irritate much more and will deliver satisfying closeness. Certainly, if you’re consistently using an aggressive blade and razor setup, the argument against ATG passes makes sense to me. These people typically believe that aggressiveness is not a thing in razor or blade ratings, and instead it should be efficiency. They will say that an efficient shave requires minimal passes, which means a minimum of blade-to-skin contact, and therefore, a minimum of irritation. If the combo is efficient, WTG and XTG should be all that’s needed.
But as you can see by the map, My beard grows straight down on my cheeks, though at the edges (sideburns, I guess–remember that I have a trimmed beard), it starts heading toward the ears, where, as I age, the hair growing in and on my ears is possibly trying to meet it. The rest makes a run for my chin and jawline, generally following gravity outward to try to meet the corners of my jaw. My moustache, for what it’s worth, grows down and slightly outward. Pretty boring.
And my neck, like a lot of people’s beard hair there, did not get the memo from the cheeks, and runs all over. Down the center of my neck from the chin down to my Adam’s apple (my throat, I guess), the beard hairs grow vertically, but for a couple of inches from the chin down, it grows downward toward my chest. Lower down, it grows upward toward my chin. Where it meets is kind of an odd transition line that forms a gentle, weird swirl. I wonder if it would go the other direction south of the equator.
On either side of my neck–I have kind of a ridge on either side of my throat where it transitions from the area I talked about above to the sides of the neck. In those areas they start growing down but also outward, but the further toward the side of my neck that I go, the more the growth starts aiming for the bottom of my ears. Generally too, the lower on my neck the hair is, the more outward and upward it seems to aim. It’s like it listened more to my upper chest hair, which seems to want to get to my shoulders rather than my belly button.
I argue against the avoiding ATG passes belief. While I understand the efficiency argument, I do not like aggressive setups typically. Even WTG or XTG, if there is significant blade-feel, I will experience irritation, and my shave experience is improved if I can avoid irritation. In an aggressive of efficient setup, there’s too much blade-feel for me for a comfortable shave, regardless of closeness, so I’d prefer an extra pass with a mild setup over a minimum number of aggressive passes. And, frankly, most shaves don’t get as close as I’d like unless I have an ATG pass on my neck.
Anyway, TMI over, what does this mean for my shave routine? Here’s how it goes typically:
Cheeks:
- ATG
- WTG
- Done
Neck:
- ATG (mild setup), XTG (more aggressive setup)
- XTG, both down and up (mild setup), WTG (aggressive setup)
- WTG (mild setup), ATG only if needed (aggressive setup)
- WTG again only if needed (aggressive setup)
- Done
I start with my cheeks, typically 1 ATG pass moving up first, then one WTG pass down to clean up. Easy, and very rarely is there any irritation there. My cheeks, apparently, could be shaved with a lawn mower and still not complain. There are a couple of small moles or bumps that I try to avoid so that I don’t slice off their tops, but otherwise, they aren’t really in the way.
Then on to my neck. I basically split it up into three parts: right side of neck, throat/center area, left side of neck. This has been hard to unlearn, but for ages with the cartridges, I’ve shaved ATG first, basically starting under my ears and shaving toward my throat, then XTG going down and up under the jaw and on the throat, and I can’t remember ever shaving WTG with a cartridge on my neck. I’m certain I tried and it just never got close enough.
These days, if I’ve got a mild setup, I’ll still start ATG first up to either side of my throat (I’m a righty, so I start on the right side of my face, both cheeks and neck), but this transitions thanks to the beard mapping to XTG at some point, but I keep going. This does a couple of things for me: lets me gauge pretty early if the shave is going to be aggressive or not, and it seems to help get the closeness I want from my shave. I’ve also been learning that as I use a more aggressive setup, I need to start with the XTG or WTG pass and then decide if I want to reapply lather and finish with an ATG pass. But with the mild shaves, then I’ll follow the ATG with an XTG pass (both down and up) and then finish with a WTG pass, which seems to help lay down the skin and stubble, help minimize irritation and razor bumps, and get a little closer shave.
I’ve learned the importance of reapplying lather (either by swiping some from nearby areas of my face, or using the brush and bowl again) before each pass, just to make sure there’s good lubrication there so that the razor doesn’t dig or tug on the beard hairs or skin. This has helped a lot to cut down on irritation, and while it slows down the shave a little, it helps the overall comfort.
What I’ve been learning, especially of late, is that a mild razor and blade combo is my preferred setup. I can then go ATG or XTG with more strokes without incurring more irritation. This gives a closer shave (I can feel stubble when rubbing my skin against the grain), and if it’s mild enough, doesn’t hurt any more.
As always, this is what works for me. What may work for you is entirely up to you, so experiment and map your beard to get an idea of what works in those spots that chronically hurt.