First, and second straight razor shave

Yesterday and today were my first straight razor shaves. I had gotten a couple of straight shaves at a barber and I decided that I wanted to buy a kit for myself. This included a Dovo Silver Steel 5/8, Stephens Woodworking #3 Brush, Truefitt & Hill shaving cream sampler and a Straight Razor design bulldog bowl. As expected the first shave took a good bit of time and I only went WTG and got two very small nicks (a success in my book!). No razor burn which I was happy about and it felt really good (no pulling at all) which I had hoped for since it came shave ready from SRD and they did not dissapoint!
Contrary to everything y'all reccomended and I read at other forums I decided to have another go at it today since I enjoyed "the ritual" and experience so much. And needless to say I got some razor burn on my neck haha. Oh, well.
However, I can't figure out how to manuever to go Across the Grain on my neck, it is hard to get a bunch of the blade on the skin. Does anyone have any reccomendations for this area, do I just need to trust myself more and look a little further back? Thanks in advance for the help!

Chris

It just takes some time and practice. I do three passes. The first is WTG, the second, XTG and the last, ATG. For the XTG pass on my checks, I start near the top of my ear and bring the razor down, angling across my check until I reach my chin. My XTG on my neck is really more of a straight S-N pass with my ATG on my neck being a S-N angled pass.

There are several videos on youtube and I believe and B&B member recently put one up. Check the threads here and you can find it.

After lathering, and prior to my XTG pass, I get any lather off my ear lobes with a wash cloth. Then, pulling aft on the ear lobe, I begin in front of my ear with the full length of the cutting edge heading toward my nose. This stroke XTG starting in front of the ear is done like the WTG below the nose, with a bit of angle change at the stroke start. Once the inch or so in front of the ear is clear, I use four fingertips to pull the facial skin aft, and then continue XTG toward the nose.

The hand used for pulling is the one on the same side of the face being shaved, leaving the opposite hand to hold the razor. The XTG pass ends up directly below my nose and midway across my chin.

This is what works for me. Others may get better results with different methods.

I look up and left when I shave the right side to stretch the skin. (up and right for the left, of course).

How to hold the straight: http://www.straightrazorplace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Different_ways_to_hold_a_straight_razor