Challenges with ATG

First of all, I couldn't imagine not shaving ATG every time I shave. In fact, I go ATG twice on every shave. It seems to me that as I'm cruising around these forums I encounter a lot of posts where people say they never go ATG. Is this a real problem for a lot of folks here? I don't see how you could ever get a BBS shave without going ATG. Just throwing it out there for my own curiosity about people's experiences or challenges based on what I'm reading on the posts.

I think a DFS is possible...but no BBS. That's for sure. I don't get anywhere near even a DFS without an ATG frankly. Matter of fact without the ATG it's almost like I never shaved. I'm with ya!

I've been shaving with a DE since January of this year and I've only gone ATG once. I want to sure I have my technique absolutely dialed down before going ATG since it might bring about some negative results. I usually don't shave every day so it's not like I've had 10 continuous months of daily shaving to work on my technique. I get very close comfortable shaves and sometimes areas on my neck and chin are BBS just with a WTG pass and an XTG pass.

I definitely have to do ATG every time I shave. I can't get smooth enough without an ATG pass and within a few hours it would look like I hadn't shaved at all which is a no-go for me with my job.

I agree I need a ATG or two to get the shave I need. But . . OK Mr. Peabody . . . let's get into the Way-Back machine to remember when the first time I did some ATG. . . .

Back in the late 70's . . . having learned to shave with a Gillette DE I think Dad had moved on to a track II and being in College I had a student kit with Noxzema foam in a can. So I managed to get the courage to ask a co-worker from a part time job I had out on a date. A lovely person, so I wanted to make an effort. I've got a beard like Bluto from the Popeye cartoons . . . so . . . first time I think of it . . . let's go for a close shave . . . so I go against the grain. . . . ok . . . let's smell nice too . . . so I put on some Old Spice . . .


Talk about flame on . . . Holy crumb . . . tabernac . . . merd . . whoopsie


The good news was that as bad as it was I was very distracted on my date


Now 30 years later . . . I've learned a few things and my face is not as sensitive . . . but good old . . Old Spice can still deliver a kick when I'm not careful.


Mike

shavervinnie said:

Is this a real problem for a lot of folks here? I don't see how you could ever get a BBS shave without going ATG.

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Well, I don't see any reason why I need to go for a full on BBS. My facial hair grows slowly enough that if I did a complete BBS, I could probably skip shaving the next day... but why would I want to do that? When I first started, I was obsessive about the BBS and the only result was irritation. So I dialed it back a notch. I went ATG on the easy areas of my face, and only XTG on the more difficult or sensitive areas.

And to my surprise, what I came to find is that the shave produced on those areas without going ATG was still surprisingly smooth. Maybe not completely smooth, when rubbed against the grain, but no one else is going to be able to tell the difference. It looks great, and feels great. What more could you ask for out of a shave than that?

In Larry Andro's guide for straight razor newbies, he says: "When the WTG pass or passes is done right, the whiskers are shaved off to skin level. Subsequent XTG and ATG passes don't have anything to 'ride down on', and so simply nip off the tip of the whiskers." Most of the work of shaving is done in the WTG pass, and a single pass should be good enough to give you SAS/CCS if your technique is good. Anything more than that is really just a bonus, IMO. Sometimes I think people on this board become so obsessed with the notion of BBS that they're doing 5-pass shaves with touchups, which really is ridiculously overboard for a daily ritual.

And there's some people that just can't do ATG or will always have a difficult time of it, depending on their skin type, coarseness/density of facial hair, shape of the face, etc. Nothing you can really do about that, unfortunately. If you're one of those people, you just have to make do without it.

Saturn said:

And there's some people that just can't do ATG or will always have a difficult time of it, depending on their skin type, coarseness/density of facial hair, shape of the face, etc. Nothing you can really do about that, unfortunately. If you're one of those people, you just have to make do without it.

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I hear ya. I guess I'm hooked on BBS and have been shaving so long (35 yrs.) that my face can handle it. It just seems that with all of the hardware/software options available, everyone should be able to get there, but maybe not? I've expressed on other posts how important technique is as well, and obviously I've had plenty of time to have a good one. I never shave in a hurry either ( approx 10-12 min.), which probably helps.