The Catch-22 of closeness

So I've been DE shaving for a month now. I've been working on getting a close shave on my neck without irritating/nicking the skin. Like many others, my neck hair grows in every direction imaginable so getting a close shave on my neck has been difficult. Normally after two passes there's still trouble spots.

So I've been trying 1 pass up and then a 2nd pass specific to the trouble spots. The other day I finally got it. Nice smooth shave on my neck. No nicks, no redness, no irritation. Problem happened later that evening, about the time the 5 o'clock shadow should be pushing through. My neck was a red speckled mess, like a bunch of minor ingrown hairs.

Makes me wonder what the point of trying to get a close shave is if the skin is going to become irritated hours later when the hair starts to grow back out. Is there a way to avoid this or am I best to stick just WTG, give up on closeness to avoid eventual irritation?

What kind of DE are you using and what blades are you using? Your problem might lie there. Otherwise pressure and angle are the two biggies with a DE.

Maybe you're not building lather with enough cushion and glide. It took some practice before I got consistently good lathers. Also, have you tried a number of different blades? Good luck.

To much pressure or bad angle like Bigsendur says or bad prep even after care can be the cause. Remember your using more blade and that is what gives yo a close shave. At the same time you could be taking a small layer of skin by scraping to much which will heal over faster than the hair grows out.

Switch to a straight razor. It is much easier on the skin once you go through the 90 day learning curve.

If you only had a 90 day learning curve, then God bless you, it took me a year & a half to get good comfortable shaves with a straight.

Maybe I'm just a slow learner. :shrug:

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Originally Posted by Hirlau

If you only had a 90 day learning curve, then God bless you, it took me a year & a half to get good comfortable shaves with a straight.

Maybe I'm just a slow learner. :shrug:

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Just speaking from personal experience I know everyone is different. When I started I followed Lynn's instructions and started with just one sideburn and used my DE for the rest and worked my way up to my whole face. I used a straight every day during my learning period and bought a razor sharpened by Lynn so I knew what I had starting out. Ive been shaving with a straight for about 6 months and still learning the art, but I'm getting better shaves with no irritations than I was ever able to get from DE's. It takes longer but it is so much more rewarding and relaxing.

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Originally Posted by flares2

Problem happened later that evening, about the time the 5 o'clock shadow should be pushing through. My neck was a red speckled mess, like a bunch of minor ingrown hairs.

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That's definitely razor bumps aka ingrown hairs.

They can and will occur with any type of razor - SR, DE, cartridge, disposable - it doesn't matter. In almost all cases razor bumps are caused by shaving ATG. The tricky part is that with swirly beard patterns many men don't even realize they are shaving ATG and causing ingrown, so the first step is beard mapping. The second step is trying to achieve an acceptable or excellent shave by going XTG and avoiding ATG altogether in problem areas. Yes, sometimes this involves settling for a less-than-BBS final result, or as we say around here: comfort before closeness.

In case you were wondering, I do have first hand experience with this problem. I was plagued by razor bumps on my neck for many years and now they've been all but eliminated by technique and caution :)

Thanks for the responses! Bigspendur, I use a Merkur 34C with Feather Blades. I've given a few shaves with Feather, Merkur, and Derby blades and Feather has seemed to given to best results thus far.
I've been working on blade angle, and am learning that no pressure means NO pressure. I'll give the comfort over closeness mindset a go.

On a side note, I purchased an Alum Block but am finding it causes redness when using it after shaving. I did some searching around this site and that seems to be semi common. I'm finding there to be a lot of trial and error in finding the perfect shave. Wish I would've started looking for it 15 years ago haha.

flares2,

I soon discovered that a smooth, comfortable shave was 'better' for my chops than an obsession with a BBS shave.

I have a particularly awkward growth pattern on my neck, and there is not one (1) direction you can say that is with the grain :(

Obsessing with this, I used to get horrible razor rash on my neck; people at work thought I had got the Plague !

With my daily shaves now, I take the results as they come; some are BBS, most are not. I accept this and enjoy my shaves more as a result :)

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ