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Trouble with shaving along the jaw line

First of all, thank you to the B&B community, I have learned a lot by lurking around and reading various posts and guides.

Summary
I switched to safety razors about a month ago. Pretty good experience so far, but I'm having trouble with hair on a limited part of my face - mostly along the jaw line.

Background
Merkur Classic 1904 / 1906
Cella Shave Soap Cream
Merkur blades
Badger hair brush

Process
  1. shower
  2. lather
  3. wait ~3 min
  4. rinse
  5. 4 passes*: WTG, XTG, XTG, ATG
  6. rinse
*I consider quickly going over the same area 2-3 times in one direction without re-lathering, perhaps a slight adjustment of razor angle, to be one "pass"

Result
Sideburns come off super clean. This is the biggest improvement over cartridge. All in-grown hair, redness, discomfort, cuts - gone. Amazing.

Above lips - I get tiny, tiny nicks all the time during the ATG part, but I consider it necessary because there is a lot of hair left otherwise.

Chin - doing ok, but get a lot of bumps, and I can't get it close enough.

Jaw line - aRGgrh! Frustration abound. I can feel hair here regardless of what I do. Suggestions please.

The strange thing is is that I can take my old Gillette 3-blade razor, stab my jaw line in various directions for about 10 seconds, and the hair will be gone. No problem whatsoever. But why do I have to keep doing this? And no doubt, these cartridges still have to be replaced - they get dull over time spent wet (although I usually use some isopropyl alcohol afterward to minimize rust), so I hope that I can somehow get this tricky part of my face with just the safety razor.


Here is a diagram, using an innocent man's face off Google, of what I do with the cartridge razor at the end of my shave. No bumps, no cuts, just pure hair-removing heaven. (But the rest of my face does not react well to a cartridge, especially ATG).

proxy.php

The little blue arrow is not a great area of concern, but just to clarify: it's not the side-burn exactly, but the skin that's right on top of the end of the jaw bone, going into below the ears.
 
Are you pulling your skin taught? If not, try that.
+1 to that. If your technique is good enough to shave ATG without problems, you should be able to stretch the skin on your jawline to improve your results.
 
I've been having teething troubles with the same area. 30 year veteran of twin blades etc. was able to get it off with the old schick fx, but re-learning a little with the DE.
My advice...give it more time, don't get impatient or you'll lose focus ( the Zen of shaving. LOL ) I'm slowing picking up the finer arts, and I'm very happy with the progress, but still experimenting with that just under the jawbone section. Last time I finished it with an extra wet lather for more slip, just in that area, and I'm starting to use a "slide/buff" similar to what I used to get it with the old cartridges. It's coming together, but even with my 30years, learning something new takes a little time.

Cheers
 
I thought about your problem while shaving this morning. Try this: Next time you shave make two across the grain passes on this area. Once normally, once with your jaw dropped (mouth open). This stretches the skin and moves the jaw line so you have more cheek on one pass. Should work. Good luck.
 
I thought about your problem while shaving this morning. Try this: Next time you shave make two across the grain passes on this area. Once normally, once with your jaw dropped (mouth open). This stretches the skin and moves the jaw line so you have more cheek on one pass. Should work. Good luck.

I came here to post this as well. If you open your jaw the whole way, your "cheek" all of a sudden has a much larger surface area to shave. After closing your jaw, the shave line should be almost a third the way down your neck!

It is on mine, at least.
 
This is interesting, I have the same problem but on the other side. What I've found works really good is blade buffing as well as pulling the skin really tight. I've found the best results come right after the shave is done, and I'm doing some water cleanup. :thumbup1:
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
That area often requires multiple passes with different amounts of stretching, to put different areas over the jawbone. You can also try a pass with the skin stretched downward. No single position is likely to get you a really good shave in that area. The adams apple area also benefits from multiple passes with differnt degrees and directions of stretching.
 
I came here to post this as well. If you open your jaw the whole way, your "cheek" all of a sudden has a much larger surface area to shave. After closing your jaw, the shave line should be almost a third the way down your neck!

It is on mine, at least.

I thought about your problem while shaving this morning. Try this: Next time you shave make two across the grain passes on this area. Once normally, once with your jaw dropped (mouth open). This stretches the skin and moves the jaw line so you have more cheek on one pass. Should work. Good luck.

I love it how the best answers in life are often the most simple and elegant ones. This has worked a treat for me, thanks folk.
I hope it works as well for you too, 2 of 8
 
Thanks to everyone who gave advice in this thread. Although it seems obvious in retrospect, it really hadn't occurred to me to move my face to present nice flat surfaces everywhere.

With that one little trick, my fourth DE shave was the best one I've ever had.
 
Yep. Looks like the two techniques of

1) stretching the skin
2) "yawning" to stretch the skin

work really really well. Thank you all!
 
I thought about your problem while shaving this morning. Try this: Next time you shave make two across the grain passes on this area. Once normally, once with your jaw dropped (mouth open). This stretches the skin and moves the jaw line so you have more cheek on one pass. Should work. Good luck.
+1 Picked up this same tip a couple of weeks ago. Works like a charm.

Cheers!
 
Welcome to B&B 2_of_8 (Is that a Borg Designation?) :thumbup1:

About your jaw line...that is a common problem. It will come in due course. Keep at it. What I did (when I was DE shaving) is to

1) pull the razor in the same direction along your jawline as the arrow indicates (i.e., ear lobe to chin direction)

2) Do the same thing in opposite direction

Now, watch the blade angle...if you are going too shallow, the blade won't effectively cut the whiskers off

Watch the pressure too...not too aggressive. Easy does it

Cheers,
Robert
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
Welcome to B&B!

Blade buffing and the Gillette pass! Agreed with my fellow members up here!
 
This is one of my easiest areas to shave strangely enough.

I find going from that little blue mark or thereabouts, towards my chin to work wonders in getting nice and close. I also push the bottom of my mouth/chin to the opposite side of my face. Hard to explain, but it helps keep the skin tight, and make the surface slightly flatter to help maintain angle. Ive always found it easier to manipulate my facial muscles, rather than stretch the skin.
 
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