Progress

I've been meaning to write this all week.

On Monday night I was shaving pretty well, and after one pass pass, I decided to do another (first time). When I got to my neck, I just thought what the heck, and decided to a pass on my neck against the grain. I went very slowly, and a little bit at time - to my surprise, there were spots on my neck that were actually easier to shave that way and I got a pretty close shave.

On Thursday I wondered if it was a fluke and tried it again - it was a little more difficult this time, but I still did it. Kept the razor VERY flat and went in very short slow strokes. When I was done, I had the closest to BBS that I've ever had. Almost as good as when I use my DE.

It took FOREVER and my chin is still an issue with BBS, but it was pretty great.

Two caveats - I'm trying to figure out how to go across or against the grain on my cheeks and not sure how to grip the razor. Also, the closer shave I'm getting, the more I'm getting small nicks and more irritation. - is this normal? Will this subside a little with more practice.

Cheers, and thanks again for all the help guys - I feel like I'm progressing a lot faster than I thought.

Congratulations on your early success! I have seen on another forum pictures of various razor holds for normal WTG, XTG and ATG approaches. I am not sure if there are any such photos here. YouTube videos are a good source to see different holds in action. Go slow, and enjoy your journey. Expect to invest about 100 shaves to become completely proficient with the straight. Most importantly, have fun with it.

Congratulations on your progress!
As far as xtg how to.. Go to youtube and do a search for : The Three Pass Shave. The one you want is the one with the classical music playing while the guy is shaving. He has a great technique that should be pretty easy to learn.

Pete <:-}

Jeff, as we progress in out shaving we will find grips that we feel more confident with, the use of both hands and unconventional ways of holding the razor. If you haven't done so already map your beard growth so you will know exactly witch way your whiskers grow, defining the true ATG or XTG pass. Look on you tube and pay particular attention to the grips used.
I find that the number one reason I get irritation is the use of too much pressure, as I strive for a BBS shave it's easy to apply more pressure than is nessesery. I like to think of shaving the lather and not my face, I started doing a five pass shave consontrateing on beard reduction with each very light pass, this really helped me to use very light pressure and therefore no irritation. It took my about fifty shaves to start getting ninety eight persent BBS shaves and more than that to get them with no irritation.