Moans & Groans about Grains & Pains!

[Urban Hermit]

I have begun remembering yet another reason why I was bearded for so long...

• My freakin' beard grows so freakin' many freakin' freaked out freakin' ways! Once I start shaving below the lower jawline, I don't think I even have an actual 'grain' to shave 'with' or 'across' ... every stroke of the blade feels like it's going 'against'!
  • ... great googa-mooga![/list:u][/list:u]

• • 
    
    I don't have visible razor burn, and I haven't got huge patches of weeping bloody ooze, or such stuff, but, ... my beard hurts just growing stubble. I can't get a shave that feels even DF or SA, nevermind BB (still a hugely grotty image for an allegedly desirable effect, in my opinion)
    
    So, other than 'getting back to the basics', (RE: no pressure, & 'shooting for par' and everything else that I seem to have forgotten the moment my beard has become a shaving zone), anyone have any good advice for me?
    
    Has anyone actually 'mapped' out their beard grain, and such? Did it work? Is your grain pretty consistent in it's patterns? Am I the only one with such a wildly multi-grain beard? ... er, or should that be a grainless beard? ... maybe ...

 

[antdad]

I thought Super Silver's were horrible blades. Just shave North to South for the moment.

 

[Urban Hermit]

The 'Feather & 39c' combo on Thursday (the night of the 'big shave-off'), felt much worse than today's. There wasn't so much blood or razor burn from that time, either, considering the amount of discomfort ad pain of it - too many aggressive factors for so soon I guess.

I'm working out what lessons I'm learning from this though - so that makes it all worthwhile (yeah, right! :lol.

--
I hate pain, it hurts too much.

 

[joe mcclaine]

Has anyone actually 'mapped' out their beard grain, and such? Did it work? Is your grain pretty consistent in it's patterns? Am I the only one with such a wildly multi-grain beard? ... er, or should that be a grainless beard? ... maybe ...

Yep, beard mapping is an essential step.

I would rate it just below using a brush and soap/cream in the order of importance in getting a good shave.

North to South just isn't good enough for most blokes as the beard on the neck can grow in all sorts of directions.

Personally, I have to shave from adam's apple to ears to go 'with the grain' on the lower neck.

If Marc (Mantic) says beard mapping is neccessary then I'm going to do it. That fella is tougher than Chuck Norris.

 

[antdad]

That's true, but it's not about the finish at this learning stage. (4.30 mins in) After a week or two your beard should start to "normalise" and have a more recognisable pattern of growth.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufG1dPmVo8Q[/youtube]


ohh...I'd also avoid the slant at least for now.

 

[Arrowhead]

Am I the only one with such a wildly multi-grain beard? ...

No, I expect most of us have at least the odd problem patch. Like Vinny, I should go from Adam's apple to earlobe on my throat (not easy for the non ambidextrous straight razor user, by the way), but as Antdad says, N-S is a workable compromise. Maybe your growth patterns will settle down; at any rate you will become more familiar with them soon enough.

For starters, I suggest you avoid the Feather blades for now. They have a track record of causing irritation in some people, and when they're past their best, they're frightful. Red Personnas would be a far more forgiving choice; fortunately that's what most supermarket blades are.

Over and above the "no pressure" and "go easy on yourself" advice, I suggest you concentrate on good preparation and a suitable post shave routine. For the former, hot water and a coat of lather left on for a couple of minutes works for me, but I doubt that a hot towel ever did any harm; as regards the latter, thorough rinsing is rarely emphasised enough, I reckon. You want to be sure that there's no trace of soap left on your face whatsoever: warm rinse followed by a thorough drenching with cold is the prescription. I'm in Tony's camp as regards aftershave - high alcohol splash, the more sting the better - this seems to settle things down better than anything else. And finally: No faceturbation!

tl;dr? Good prep, one gentle pass with the grain (where possible), rinse very thoroughly, apply astringent, leave it alone. Matters should improve before long.

 

[JohnnyO]

Good on you for keeping going UH. I used a Merkur slant & Feather blade for many years as my "everyday" razor. but to be honest it's maybe not the razor I'd recommend for getting back to shaving. My present razor is a Muhle 89 which is way less aggresive, but gives a really nice shave. (Usually when people say my face looks like an a..e they aren't meaning how close the shave has been). You are certainly not alone in having varying patterns of beard growth, but for now I'd go with the previous advice to just concentrate on one pass shaves for a few more days, let the skin get used to the repeated assaults on it.
Take care, JohnnyO.

 

[Urban Hermit]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'd already switched rom the Longslant to one of my milder razors and dropped from the feathers for now too, but not sure which of the blades I have will be best ... still need to play a bit.

My preps & hydrating has, I think, been ok. ... and my 'post' I feel has been prettty great considering what its been trying to deal with. The main thing has been the grain patterns, or lack of patterns, & the 'too aggressive for this stage' razor/blade choices, and me probably rushing into things because I felt that I had things worked out fairly well for the parts of the beard I was already shaving, and that should carry across to tthe rest of the beard too.

I'm hypothesising that I'd not realised just how un-/under-prepared for the shock of 'direct tactile contact with my environment' the rest of the beard-area skin could possibly be. Somehow the brain finds it odd that I can feel breezes/fingertips/whatever brushing against the cheek where there has been furry insulation for so many decades (even when trimmed and clipped, it wasn't 'clean' shaven; t'was buffered by stubble), yet, at the same time, it doubts why a sharp blade in a metal implement can be so painfully annoying to adapt to immediately - go figure ... silly brain.

Thanks again guys.
Cheers again.

 

[andyjreid]

I was having similar problems a while ago. I kept over analyzing everything I was doing pre shave and during shave. What's the best cream/soap? What's the best razor? What's the best blade? What's the best razor/blade combo?........ and so on to....... what's the best shaving pattern? Will beard mapping make such a difference? etc etc etc.

I was asking all the questions you are. I heeded advice and the one major thing that made a massive difference was the advice from tony....... high alcohol aftershave and no faceturbation!

I was always a balm guy but after trying just AS for a couple of weeks I kinda felt like my skin had toughened up a bit. I still get the odd rough shave and the occasional terrible one. If I do have a bad one, I leave it a few days before shaving again, letting the skin heal. If you sliced your leg open, you wouldn't peel the scab off every day would you?

Im not saying that it will work for you but I'd try it. I always thought I had terribly sensitive skin but I don't and the majority of it all came down to post-shave!

Get yourself some old spice or old spice whitewater (if you don't like the OS scent) or go and buy some Old Spice Lime which I got from connaught shaving. It is simply the best aftershave I've tried but I would also recommend Speick AS, Aqua Velva or Proraso AS (not balm). If you can't (or don't want to) lay your hands on them then get down to Boots for some of their Freshwood AS or Bay Rum (hair tonic?!?) AS. If you don't like them then Superdrug do a couple of crackers in Forest Fresh and Ocean Fresh (i think). All offerings from Boots and Superdrug come in at about £2.50 a pop.

And if simply nothing else is working out for you......... go and buy a Gillette Sensor because it's the best cartridge razor on the market.

P.S. I forgot to add using Alum and/or Witchazel should help soothe any aches and pains you have.

 

[Smell The Glove]

Has anyone actually 'mapped' out their beard grain, and such? Did it work? Is your grain pretty consistent in it's patterns? Am I the only one with such a wildly multi-grain beard? ... er, or should that be a grainless beard? ... maybe ...

Certainly map the beard growth on your face. Maybe not to the extent of sitting down with a pencil and paper. Just pay attention to your shave, in terms of the different noises and feedback that you are receiving from your razor. After a couple of days growth, have a look in the mirror and take part in a little faceturbation. You will soon get the feeling of your particular face's map.

The neck and throat area are the multi directional grain areas on my face.

If you drew a line down through the center of my chin, down through my adam's apple. The direction of growth beneath my jawline and under my chin is down and outward.
My neck is upwards and outwards. And they meet in the middle above my adam's apple is a sort of swirling no man's land.

I address this issue by largely ignoring it. When shaving, I just go north/south from jawline to top of neck/throat, and south/north on my neck. I do two passes. Maybe adjusting the north/south direction a little on the second pass on the underside of my chin, to shave a little more towards the center and therefore a little more against the grain. However I don't mess with the south/north on my neck as that is the most sensitive part of my face. At most, a little touch up, feeling my way with some left over lather.

It's not perfect, but I'm happy with the results. And, as long as I use zero pressure, and don't go overboard on the touch up, it's normally irritation free.

 

[antdad]

When I was in my late teens I thought I'd grown out of getting spots but I always seemed to have a problem area on my forehead and jawline until I realised that when I was studying at a desk I would always support my head with my hand in those problem areas. As soon as I stopped doing that the problem cleared up, I also noticed the same habit with people with real problem skin, subconsciously they would touch, hide or pick at their skin with their hands much more frequently than would be considered normal and in doing so made their condition much worse.

That's why I don't faceturbate. After you shave you should treat your face like a large abrasion because that's exactly what it is. You've scraped off quite a few skin cells and it's likely to get infected especially if you keep touching it. That's why I'm also a keen advocate of using alcohol in aftershave.

After all you'd treat any other abrasion the same way, clean, disinfect, don't touch and air dry.

 

[sonny]

people with real problem skin, subconsciously they would touch, hide or pick at their skin with their hands much more frequently than would be considered normal and in doing so made their condition much worse.

+ 1 After applying balm/moisturiser, I keep my fingers away from my face.

And, BEARD MAPPING ALL THE WAY!!!

 

[moodymick]

Like just about every bloke in the world, my neck growth goes in every direction, so that is exactly how i shave it. Next to no pressure but NS, EW, WE. I only go SN on special occassions and even then, only with certain razors!