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GUIDE: The most important part newbies don't know!

Hello guys,

I have noticed that many people can't do an ATG pass or they get ingrown hairs. I have had this problem in the past and I managed to solve it easily. There are so many guides on the internet that never tell you about beard mapping. So many new people who get involved into DE/SE shaving aren't aware of this.

Many guides tell you that a WTG is with the grain. So people just assume that this is from the north to the south. This is definitely wrong because its from the north to the south based from the direction in which your hair grows! You can't compare your hair growth to an another persons, it grows in all different directions. So what happens next? People perform an improper pass. For an example a WTG could be an XTG. This will cause problems.

So what now? The best thing to do is to let your beard grow for a couple days. After this it's easy to see in which direction it grows. Here is an example of my beard growth:

$1.png

If I would do a WTG pass, like how many guides describe it it would almost be an XTG. Thats a bad thing to do. So here is an another picture about the direction I need to shave when doing a WTG pass:

$2.png

After this pass I still can feel the hairs if I rub my fingers against my skin. This is very normal because we are reducing hair. The next pass would be the XTG pass. I need to shave in the direction as shown in the picture:

$3.png

And as for the last but final pass, the ATG. This isn't simply a south to north pass as you can see. The picture below explains it:

$4.png

These are the proper ways to shave into the proper directions. If you do this you will never get ingrown hairs, you will always be able to perform an ATG and get a BBS. I decided to write this mini guide to help everybody out since many guides don't tell you to map your beard.

Actually I believe this is the most crucial part when you're just starting with DE/SE shaving. You can't skip this part without facing any problems with the passes. I really hope this will help you guys out. Feel free to ask me any questions.
 
So true. I had been shaving for many years before I heard of mapping my beard. What I discovered was that WTG on my face changes depending where you look on my face and neck.
 
I think that advice is spot on. However - I'd caution that even with proper reduction passes following the true grain of one's beard, not everyone is able to shave ATG without ingrowns and irritation.
 
Nice diagrams. The grain directions can be different for each of us, particularly on one's neck.
Thats so true. On my neck it grows in a circle pattern so I need to adjust the directions of shaving a couple times.
 
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