[Quick Orange]

There's no "wrong" way to shave per se- if it works for you, go for it. I have super sensitive skin and have to go the beard reduction route, as going straight to the ATG is much too harsh even in softer beard. Your irritation must not be much of anything...personally, I do whatever I have to in order to eliminate irritation. For me, I typically do 2 WTG and .5 XTG (chin and lower jaw) + .5 ATG (cheeks and upper jaw). It's hard for me to do ATG on my chin because the grain is actually going SE.

[BurnBeGone]

Originally Posted by Quick Orange

Your irritation must not be much of anything...personally, I do whatever I have to in order to eliminate irritation.

Actually, I consider myself to have pretty sensitive skin, and half my reason for going to straights is to try to get rid of the razor burn, irritation, and blood I ALWAYS get with cartridges. (The other half is to get the closest possible shave, because I can't stand stubble. Unfortunately, those two goals are sometimes in competition.) What I'm trying to say in this thread is that for most of my face, I get a CLOSER shave with NO additional irritation going ATG-only. (WTG causes little or no irritation, but also feels like I've hardly shaved, and I swear I get closer ATG without doing WTG first.) For some reason that's not quite true on my lip and chin, but I've been getting really close with not too much irritation there too lately by doing XTG and then ATG.

As you say, whatever works...

[vulcano]

I have 32 rigth now, I shave since 12, my beard is very close and thick....

But from the beginning I only shave WTG after 20 years it paid.....

I only do one pass WTG, and I shave only three time per week....it is not baby skin but comfortable enough for me...and my wife..heheheh

so there is not one road for all....everyone has to choose their own....

just my 2c

[Karakoup1]

What means a BBS for you guys?

For me the definition of a BBS, it's when:

1. I can't feel no bristles wherever the direction I run my fingers on my face...

2. Same than point 1 but especially with my mustache area...

3. I can't see any bristles anymore... (and I have dark ones & sensitive skin too..)

Otherwise, as I said in other topics....:

- An average of 18 minutes shaving process for having the what I call a BBS...

in just 2 passes, WTG then ATG and some touch up here and there.... That's all..

But whatever the way I say it..... One can not "help" someone else that doesn't want to be helped...

Some shaving pals from FRANCE, NORWAY, SWITZERLAND and USA put already some trust on me and I will not dissapoint them...

[bbshriver]

I decided to give the ATG only thing a whirl last night.. Have to say my experience goes along with OP, this was by far the quickest, CLOSEST least irritating shave I've had so far (about 5 months). Got a little bit of burn on my right cheek, but I had it pretty bad a few days ago, and I think it just needs more time to recover.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I will say I wouldn't recommend this for newbies and/or anything less than your best razor.

[xman]

Well, I'm a proponent of WTG/ATG shaving as it will provide the most comfortable shave and the most comfortable finish for most men. That said, I go straight to the ATG pas on my cheeks and sides of my kneck as my beard is very sparse and light there.

I think the WTG pass helps reduce the heavier whiskers as well as loosen the top layer of skin so that there is less tugging for the subsequent ATG pass.

X

[Chris L]

Going straight ATG is too irritating for my skin. I'm reminded about this fairly frequently since I have a patch on my neck about the size of a U.S. quarter that grows upward, while the rest of my neck whiskers grow either sideways or downward. When I make a downward pass over that small patch I'm going ATG there. Irritation and ingrown hairs ensue. On that small patch, I carefully stroke upward which hits those hairs at an WTG. My whiskers tend to stop an edge cold when I've tried ATG on other areas of my face. It's not pleasant for me.

I like this discussion because it does show different things work for different people. It's interesting to me that all the barber manuals that I've seen info from show WTG first.

Chris L

[bbshriver]

Well, a barber manual would be written for "most" people, and if you were going to visit your barber for the first time, or if it's a barber new to the trade, I think WTG would definitely be the safer bet. I suspect that barbers with considerable experience, could tailor their shaving style to a particular customer once they learned how his face and beard reacted.

[Friggin Joe]

It's a matter of whether your get more irritation from the blade on your skin (in which case starting with ATG would benefit as the shave is closer) or if you get more irritation tackling the full amount of stubble against the direction of the follicles.
I would wager most fare better with a less-efficient but kinder wtg pass and then cleaning up with a xtg and/or atg pass.
If your mileage didn't vary, we'd be boring clones
I've personally gotten BBS or near BBS shaves going only wtg with the exception of right under my lower lip where I can still feel the stubble.