Thread: Struggling to move forward

The perfect neck shave is, for most of us, a mirage of the imagination or an accident of hair growth patterns. You keep thinking you will get to perfect but it keeps getting farther away. And once you finally arrive you may wonder why you bothered. How weird is that? Nevertheless, pursuing the perfect neck and jawline shave may be the only thing that keeps some of us alive.

Keep after it, I say. Press on! 30 shaves doesn't even scratch the surface, so to speak.

Originally Posted by toroo

To be clear. I am right handed and use my right hand when doing X/W the grain (downward) and my left hand going upward.

Hello Toroo! Congratulations on getting the shave down to a tee.

Thank you as well for posting this thread. I have a very similar zone where that area has very swirly hair on the left neck, and I find it v difficult to get smooth, as RezDog says, without rash. Up to now I have just settled for no rash and not quite smooth, but your posting made me try some different things to see if I could improve, so thanks for starting up the thread. This post is a bit redundant now that you are sorted but I thought I would share anyway.
Just now, I shaved WTG as per normal R hand to R neck, L to L. I then shaved the cheeks XTG and pulled the upper part of the neck skin up onto the cheek to continue XTG. This is where I made a change. I then shaved my neck against the grain BUT I used the R hand to the R neck and L to left neck. I then finished with an against the grain on face and neck exactly as you describe. The result was v v v smooth. There was neck redness and tenderness, but I am attributing this to a heavy hand on the new manoeuvres, which felt decidedly alien. However, there was no focal area of redness and "pimpling (?)" of the skin that I can get if I chase that area too hard normally.
In summary. Thanks for making me try something new.
I've posted a video below that I used when looking for new ways of attacking this area. My shaving method is NOT like his, but the part at 6:20 in the video illustrates the stroke for that side of the neck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIM0Coix6Gg#t=385

Originally Posted by Damo

Hello Toroo! Congratulations on getting the shave down to a tee.

Thank you as well for posting this thread. I have a very similar zone where that area has very swirly hair on the left neck, and I find it v difficult to get smooth, as RezDog says, without rash. Up to now I have just settled for no rash and not quite smooth, but your posting made me try some different things to see if I could improve, so thanks for starting up the thread. This post is a bit redundant now that you are sorted but I thought I would share anyway.
Just now, I shaved WTG as per normal R hand to R neck, L to L. I then shaved the cheeks XTG and pulled the upper part of the neck skin up onto the cheek to continue XTG. This is where I made a change. I then shaved my neck against the grain BUT I used the R hand to the R neck and L to left neck. I then finished with an against the grain on face and neck exactly as you describe. The result was v v v smooth. There was neck redness and tenderness, but I am attributing this to a heavy hand on the new manoeuvres, which felt decidedly alien. However, there was no focal area of redness and "pimpling (?)" of the skin that I can get if I chase that area too hard normally.
In summary. Thanks for making me try something new.
I've posted a video below that I used when looking for new ways of attacking this area. My shaving method is NOT like his, but the part at 6:20 in the video illustrates the stroke for that side of the neck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIM0Coix6Gg#t=385

Not completely sorted though. I mean the shave was smooth in that area. But the way i had to hold the blade was kinda weird and not with the hand i want too.

So even though i did manage to find a good angle to use i still need to learn to hold in in the correct hand and getting consistent results (this was 1 shave).

Keep on trying because so will I!.

As someone said before, the struggle for a flawless smooth neck-jawline might be endless

edit: watched your video, thats quite similar to that i am doing (around 6:20) just with the wrong hand so its not completely comfortable

I agree with everyone else on this, but thought I'd add one thing that works for me. Quite accidentally, while shaving WTG in that area, I tried kind of a "windshield wiper" stroke, while being VERY careful. In other words, I kept one end (the heel) of the blade still and rotated the other end (point) downward slowly, while maintaining my edge angle. It cleaned up that area very nicely. As I've gotten more experience, I've perfected getting in position so I am only using the point half of the blade or the heel half (or even sometimes the middle) depending on how much beard area I'm trying to shave. I hope that makes some sense to you, or that someone else can explain it better (assuming anyone but me understands what I'm trying to say).