Neck shaving problems

[cmannen]

Hello Gents,

Need some advice. Can be that I'm to impatient and want to good results to early but here we go.
I came from a cartridge like one month ago, i'm very happy with my shaves except on the lower parts of my neck, I can't get it close to clean. On lower parts of my neck it grows west to east making it tricky to go both with and against the grain.
My routine is hot shower with a good olive soap, bowl lather with TOBS avocado, 2-4 passes (WTG, XTG, sometimes AGT). Between the passes I rinse my face. After alum, again rinse of and then Proraso splash.

Am I expecting good results on my neck to quickly on being practicing for a month or so (shaving every second day) or can you give me some good advice improving my results ?

BTW, have been watching mantics excellent videos and reading a lot of threads here on the forum.

many thanks in advance for any advice
Chris

[Optometrist]

The hair on my neck is so irratic that I gave up trying to map it and going WTG, XTG AND ATG. When I tried to, I had so many angles and overlapping, the irritation was absurd. What I find easiest is that so long as preparation is good with plenty of lather, I do a simple N/S twice, then a single S/N followed by a 4th touch up in a V from lower ear to adam's apple on both sides. With no pressure I got practically no burn and an almost BBS.

David

[sodajerk]

I, too, found it hard to get all of my neck close. Let me share what works for me.

Direction and angle were the answer. Mostly direction. Now, first pass is S-N - what is ATG on the rest of my face but is mostly XTG on my neck. Second pass is NW-SE ll NE-SW. The ll is the center of my neck. ) These two passes and touch-up if I feel something gives me a smooth, if not BBS, neck.

Now, my chin is a different story and still remains a problem spot! )

[LarryAndro]

Sometimes, I have trouble from posts determining whether a straight razor is being used, or a DE or what. Reread original post several times....

[BladeRunner001]

Are you using DE or str8 razors??...technique is vastly different

-Robert

[mbrossar]

Keep in mind that for most people, me included, the neck is the toughest place you have to shave. That said, a month in, yeah, I'm not surprised you're not there yet, but we can still give you advice to pursue.

Pardon my clarification, but when you say W-E growth on your neck, are you referring from your throat to under your ears or the other way around? I never get that straight. If that's the way it is, then you and I have the same problem. I'm also going to assume, until you tell us otherwise, that you're using a DE. Here I can give you some advice. Frankly, I'm still working on perfecting this area with a straight (with that throat to ears growth).


I notice your prep includes a nice hot shower and rinsing. Good. But there's another school of thought you might consider. Actually, I follow it and it works well for me. I use cold water rather than warm. The theory is it makes your whiskers stand up a little straighter, similar to the effect of getting goose pimples on the rest of your body when splashed with cold water.
Angle of your stroke is critical. For me, if I don't go straight ATG, I don't get that close a shave. That said, it took me a long time to develop the blade angle and light touch to go 100% ATG without cuts or irritation. I recommend you start by going 45 degrees (i.e. half XTG & half ATG). Kind of a corner of your neck to your chin if you will. When you get that stroke down with little or no irritation or cuts, go a little more ATG, then a little more, and a little more. Always wait until you've perfected that stroke before moving on. Ultimately, you'll get to a full ATG stroke without irritation.
Blade angle is also key. This is actually where I think straights are easier than DEs because it's easier to tell and easier to control the specific blade angle. Here's a post on blade angle versus beard angle (http://straightrazorplace.com/srpwiki/index.php/File:Cutting_angles.jpg). I know it refers to straights, but the same principle applies. Even with a DE, it is important to get your blade as parallel to your skin as you can while still cutting hair.


Good luck. Keep asking questions. There's a lot of good knowledge out there.

[luvmysuper]

I have some patches on the neck that grow from the adams apple toward the back of my neck.
It is not easy to get a BBS shave there.
Most often I am happy with a DFS, and get it by cutting on an angle.
What I mean is, if the hair on the Left side of my neck grows from East to West, I do one pass South East to North West, and a second pass from South West to North East.
So it is "sort of" a combo of WTG and XTG on pass 1 and a combo of XTG and ATG on pass 2.
This works well for me.

[dougr]

I read in one of these forums that you should make a simple map of your face in sections and indicate with arrows which way your whiskers grow. Then shave with the grain? Best regards, Doug:w00t:

[cmannen]

Thanks for the advice and sorry for not being clear in first post. I'm using a DE (Merkur HD)
and with neck I probably mean throat i.e from under my ears.
Seems like I need to continue practices and will try to pick-up some of your tips here.

Thanks!!!

[djh]

Keep at it and try not to get frustrated. You should try to measure your shaves by the worst results and not the best, ie. if the worst shave you have this week is better than the worst shave from last week, you are making progress!

[King Bongo]

I had my 3rd wetshave last night, I follow a similar pre and post shave routine with Chris, and I came away thinking, I need to get on B and B in the morning and figure out this neck issue.

This all seems like great advice I will be taking into consideration. Thanks for bringing this issue up.