New kid on the block

Howdy Gents,

I've been lurking on the forums, reading reviews etc.. and thought today would be a good day to start posting. A little bit about me, I'm soon to be twenty and a friend of mines father runs a online shave webstore (markofagentleman.com) and got me interested in wet shaving, DE and straight edge shaving. I got tired of the Gillette routine, which always seemed to result in razor burn, ingrown hairs and just a generally unsatisfactory shave. I went to my barber, asked him for a shave and was impressed with how amazing it felt afterwards. So here we are, and I've started the hoarding of shaving gear.

Here's my current arsenal
Edwin Jagger 86BL Faux Ivory Handle
The Shaving Factory Shavette
Vie-Long 13061 Horse Hair Brush
Col Conk Almond Shave Soap
Col Conk Almond Bond After Shave




I've done a shave with the Edwin Jagger, and a bunch with my shavette and I seem to be running into the same problem that I had with my Gillette. Which is ingrown hairs and irritation on the bottom of my neck. Everywhere else is fine, its just this one area, the rest of my face I can get to a nice smooth shave. Still working on the Baby smooth shave though.

Any suggestion on what I can do to lessen the irritation around the bottom of my neck?

Again great to be here, look forward to contributing.

Welcome!

I think it might take some time for your skin to "get over" the ingrown hairs. You might try mapping out the direction of growth to make sure that your first pass really is "WTG".

+ 1 on that

Thanks for the welcome guys, I guess I'll give it a few days see how the face is and try it again.

Welcome

I had problems in the same patch my first shave or two. I really focused on my whole routine and changed up my pass-pattern, and now I have no problems getting DFS to BBS.

Welcome.

Feel the direction of your growth when it's stubble and it's easier to work out which way the grain runs. This will help you with the passes and ultimately you'll sort out the in grown hairs.

It's all part of the journey.

Enjoy

Welcome and great to have you no board. You definitely need to map your beard, especially your neck. What you think is WTG may be ATG and thus causing irritation and ingrown. Necks are different for all of us and can have many different directions going on.

Welcome to B&B!

Welcome to B&B. You are a braver man than me to go for that cut throat. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

hello and welcome to B&B! Regarding the neck, it may take a little while to get your technique down. Lots of good advice above.

Thanks for the warm welcome gents,
I woke up this morning and the irritation seems to have calmed down, leading me to believe its left over from bad shave's past. But with regards to pre-shave prep, mine currently is just warm shower, some conditioner in the beard and a good scrubbing does anyone have anything that helps with gentler skin. My skin seems very prone to irritation, and I'm trying to figure out something which will help

Thanks

Welcome to B&B

Drop into the Shave Wiki and read over some of the shaving articles. http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/ You will find a LOT of useful info in there.

If you have not already done so, stop into the Hall of Fame and tell everyone a little about yourself

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/forumdisplay.php/30-Hall-of-Fame

Great member advise.....but the neck is the number one issue with newbies and shave vets alike, it is a technique or varied procedure issue that must be resolved through trial and error til you get the exact process down....keep us posted.

Gents, did getting ready for church today and took the opportunity to shower and shave again. On my second pass gave myself a bad nick on the lip . Other then that, I noticed after my shave their was red irritation on my skin, especially around the chin. My question is could it be the soap? I've done some searching and the reason I went with the Col. Conk was that so many gent's swore by it and the shave quality it produced. However in a lot of threads there would be one or two guys who would say the soap irritated them and gave them rashes. Now I have sensitiveish skin(have had numerous allergic skin reactions), is it possible the soap is causing some of the problem or should I stick it out for a few more shaves then see?

Thanks for all the help and advice.

Welcome to the forum !!

Welcome to B&B!

azelyk said:

Any suggestion on what I can do to lessen the irritation around the bottom of my neck?

Click to expand...

Call me crazy (CRAZY) but here's what I do...

I have the exact same problem with the bottom of my neck so one morning I thought "What the heck, the bottom of my neck is sore anyway" and I shave ATG first pass. So I did it, pre shave, lather up and the first passes are from just above my collar bone up to the point of resistance. Keep in mind this is with very light pressure. After I reach resistance stop, scoot over for the next pass and repeat. Do this all the way across the very bottom of your neck, then when you do your WTG from the jaw bone down STOP where you did your ATG pass at the bottom. I only shave the bottom of my neck in one ATG the grain pass and that's it. After I'm done, rinse with cold water, pat dry then AS, once the AS dries, I put just a touch of corn starch, or tapioca flour on the bottom of my neck. I'm not saying it will work for you but, it has done wonders on the bottom of my neck.

Hmm sounds intriguing. I'm gonna have the face a few days rest while I'm away from home and don't have access to my shaving gear, and give it a shot next weekend.