Neck issues

I have been wet shaving with a DE for about a year so far. I love it and its going great. One thing I still don't have right is my neck. Its not painful, just blotchy and red all the time. Like right now I haven't shaved for two days and I can see it's still blotchy and red under my stubble.

What am I doing wrong?

I usually do a 4 pass shave WTG, XTG, ATG, and then touch ups.

I use great soaps and I never get razor burn or cuts and always have a comfortable shave.

What can I do?

Try an open comb, Gillette New and decrease the passes. I have been getting great shaves with My New and Astra SP. My neck had always given Me trouble untill now.

Have you tried aloe vera?

+1 to the less passes, different razor, and or different blade...

Good luck!

I have the same problem area. I simply cant go ATG or XTG. Only WTG in that area. Period!! As soon as I think I can, I get busted. I hate it because I can get such a great smooth shave everywhere else and then have to feel the little stubble that I have to leave behing there.

I've tried alot of different razors. I have a Merkur 23c, Red Tip Gillette SS, 40s Gillette SS, Schick Krona. and my daily razor is an open comb Gillette NEW head with a Bull Mastiff handle. The 40's SS and Krona seemed too mild and I ended up making more passes to get a decent shave. The Red tip and Bull Mastiff are my favorites because they shave comfortably and I dont have to make more passes than needed.

I suppose I could try some aloe. I try to go for BBS every time and maybe thats the problem. It just doesnt make sense to shave if you arent getting a BBS shave. The problem is I have curly hair and it grows in different directions on my beard so I have to make a 4 pass where as most people can get it done in two.

Who knows, maybe shaving every day is my problem as well. Maybe I just have to go every other day or something.

The razor is less important than the blade itself. I didn't see you mention which blade you put in all your razors?

Also...what is your prep routine? How do you prep your face for your shave?

Ru4scuba? said:

The razor is less important than the blade itself. I didn't see you mention which blade you put in all your razors?

Also...what is your prep routine? How do you prep your face for your shave?

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My main blades are Personna Reds with some feathers and sharks peppered in from time to time.

I always shave after I shower and have washed my face well with warm water.

Witch Hazel and giving my skin a rest (i.e. only going for BBS every other shave) have worked for me, but I don't always follow my own advice. Hard to leave it alone when you know the best results are a pass away.

slimman said:

I have the same problem area. I simply cant go ATG or XTG. Only WTG in that area. Period!! As soon as I think I can, I get busted. I hate it because I can get such a great smooth shave everywhere else and then have to feel the little stubble that I have to leave behing there.

Click to expand...

Same for me. I'm about 4 days in on my "WTG only" experiment and my red blotches are slowly going away. Looking closely in a magnifying mirror I can see that my ATG passes cause ingrowns. They're not the nasty bumpy kind but I can see that the blotches are only around hairs that were cut underneath the skin. On my neck my whiskers are very much parallel to the skin, whereas on the rest of my face they're not.

I don't know if this will help or not; I was having problems with neck shaving until just this morning. Somehow, today I had the perfect hair growth to tell that the hair on my neck really wasn't growing in the direction I thought it was for all these months. I switched up the direction on my passes and voila! No irritation and a clean smooth neck for the first time in a long time. My neck is still mostly smooth fifteen hours later. It might be worth confirming that you've got your stubble growth mapped out accurately.

I'd say go to every other day if you can swing it. Give your skin a chance to heal and then really, carefully, make sure you're going only WTG for a while. Then if that's OK, go to XTG. I'd pass on ATG for a while until you know everything's OK.

You might have to live with WTG or XTG (I've had to learn to live with it). Sometimes ATG just doesn't work for some guys. It's better than razor bumps/irritation.

media said:

I have been wet shaving with a DE for about a year so far. I love it and its going great. One thing I still don't have right is my neck. Its not painful, just blotchy and red all the time. Like right now I haven't shaved for two days and I can see it's still blotchy and red under my stubble.

What am I doing wrong?

I usually do a 4 pass shave WTG, XTG, ATG, and then touch ups.

I use great soaps and I never get razor burn or cuts and always have a comfortable shave.

What can I do?

Click to expand...

I just figured out my neck, had the same problem. I just needed to slow it down by about half. That's all it took. Hope you get yours licked!

So here's an unusual tip for you. I have always had the exact same problem. But I solved it. I found that a shower made my skin too delicate and sensitive and my beard too soft. I know, contradicts everything you've heard. But it destroyed my neck for days no matter what I did. So now no shower before shaving. Just a quick hot water splash and away I go. Works great for me. Redness almost gone. I also question if you've found the right blade. Red Personnas often leave my neck red and bumpy. Try Gillette 7 o"clock yellows. These also helped solve my problem. Feathers did not work. Anything's worth a try.

CoolBurn said:

So here's an unusual tip for you. I have always had the exact same problem. But I solved it. I found that a shower made my skin too delicate and sensitive and my beard too soft. I know, contradicts everything you've heard. But it destroyed my neck for days no matter what I did. So now no shower before shaving. Just a quick hot water splash and away I go. Works great for me. Redness almost gone.

Click to expand...

I would echo this, drier skin tends to give me a closer, less irritated shave...you can also achieve a similar result if you leave a fair amount of time between shower and shave (say, eat breakfast), and then use a warm towel or washcloth to reheat the whiskers without all the softening of a shower.

Of course, blades also make a huge difference. IME, you should be able to handle a WTG and XTG pass on your "almost late to work" days without irritation. The blades that haven't been able to do that for me have found their way to the off list...Merkur are underrated IMHO, if you are running out of options...

Hope you find what works for you,

Boomer

The neck is the last area I shave in the first pass. You might want to experiment by lathering and shaving it at the end of the second pass. By that time, the hair should be soft enough.
I shave my neck with the lightest touch and what smooths mine best is diagonal passes from the middle to the sides.

I have the same problems.

I am still working out technique before doing a bunch of blade sampling. I think my best shave was when I used Noxzema to clean my face, worked it in with a wet warm cloth, then put the same wet warm cloth over my face for a minute. I then rinse my face with warm water to remove the Noxzema and then start to build my lather with Proraso.

My normal method is shower, build later with TOBS Avocado and shave.

Could it be that Proraso is better for my face than TOBS Avocado or is it the Noxzema or is it my blade?

I need to try the Noxzema with the TOBS Avocado and see if I get the same result I did with Proraso. If I do, then I will know that the Noxzema and no shower is the ticket. If not, then it will point to Noxzema with the Proraso.

I don't want to do a bunch of blade sampling until I finalize my method. I am currently using Feathers while determining my method.

Mark H

media said:

I have been wet shaving with a DE for about a year so far. I love it and its going great. One thing I still don't have right is my neck. Its not painful, just blotchy and red all the time. Like right now I haven't shaved for two days and I can see it's still blotchy and red under my stubble.

What am I doing wrong?

I usually do a 4 pass shave WTG, XTG, ATG, and then touch ups.

I use great soaps and I never get razor burn or cuts and always have a comfortable shave.

What can I do?

Click to expand...

First thing I would do, is only shave your neck with one pass, and only WTG on the neck, also be careful of the amount of pressure you use on your neck, and make sure that you use fresh blades every day. I am almost positive that after a week of doing that, that your neck will not be red and blotchy.

My neck is also very sensitive and can only tolerate one pass, any more and I get the same thing...red and blotchy.

Good luck!

slimman said:

I have the same problem area. I simply cant go ATG or XTG. Only WTG in that area. Period!! As soon as I think I can, I get busted. I hate it because I can get such a great smooth shave everywhere else and then have to feel the little stubble that I have to leave behing there.

Click to expand...

Same here. I can (very carefully) manage some ATG on the sides of my face, but trying it with any blade or lather on my neck or under my chin results in me looking like a blotchy faced 14 year old boy for the rest of the day!

In terms of the redness, how's your prep? I find that rubbing Grapeseed oil into the skin and then applying a hot towel for a minute before applying cream makes a big difference. What I haven't quite got right though is the ATG pass on the neck. How on earth can you shave ATG on the neck? I can't. So I go WTG, then what's it called, burring or something, you know little tiny movements, then XTG. One thing that I like is I lift the skin with my free hand as though I were shaving with a straight (never done, but would like to) and do a pass from ear to chin. Gets most of the inaccessible under the jawbone hairs.