Starting out in Harrisburg, PA

Hello everyone,

I have been reading the forum for a while now and thought it was time I officially joined. My name is Phil and I am currently a junior at Messiah college studying Biochemisty, and pursuing a career as a Dentist. I had a friend that got a straight razor for christmas and was telling me how much better it was than his old method of shaving. I figured I would read up on it a bit and see what i thought. Well I just received my first straight razor in the mail Monday from Larry and Whipped Dog Straights, and I love it. I will not go back. Sure my first two shaves haven't been works of art, but no artist paints a masterpiece his or her first time. However, I do have a specific question that someone may be able to help with. the hair on my neck grows from my chin slanted towards my ear on both sides. Because of this I have been getting some irritation on my neck because I can't go with the grain at those points. Does anyone have any advice on how to manipulate my razor to go with the grain on my neck, or am I doomed to get irritation until I get better at shaving and can handle going across the grain as my first pass in that area?

Phil

The irritation may be from the angle or pressure you are using in that area. If you get a comfortable shave on your sideburn/cheek area but not your neck start playing with angles and pressure.

My neck hair os weird also as it grows from my left ear sweeping under and across to my right ear. What I do is two XTG passes... The first pass is normal with blade down going from chin/jaw to neck/shoulders. The second pass is just the reverse and my grip changes so that the edge is up and blade is sticking out past the thumb with the tail resting on my ring finger, pinky and thumb gripping the scales, index finger applying counter-pressure on the tang blade-side of the scales and middle finger applying counter-pressure on the tail above the ring finger. I start mid-line and cover right side with my right hand and left side with my left hand. I've come to love this grip during an upward XTG as it allows those shallow angles without feeling you are torquing your wrist or risking dropping the razor and you can work short or long strokes with relative ease!

I can only ever do two passes on my neck: any more, and I can expect irritation no matter how light my touch. Best results for me are a north-south pass, stretching from above, angled slightly so: \\\o/// (o = Adam's apple), and a south-north pass, stretching from below, angled slightly so: ///o\\\.

For a light stroke, I pretend that my _only_ goal is to gently remove lather. And once lather is off a patch of skin, no going back over it until second pass.

Good luck! Managing the neck is a long game.

Thanks to both of you for the advice I will try it out hope it helps but I'm willing to put in the time to learn to which may be quite a while.. o well all part of the game!

And welcome aboard, Phil. Enjoy the journey!