Thread: Having some trouble

The hair under my jaw line and on my neck grows like towards my ears. So I'm trying to do a east to west and west to east. How do people do this? I find the blade just to long to get this right. Any help would be really appreciate. I'm on my 11th shave with some GD's if I get right I'll spend a couple hundred on something a nicer.

Try stretching your skin in a north-south direction, and see if that gives you better access:
pull up on your cheeks and stretch your neck as much as possible. Then maybe you could
attack the problem area half at a time.

If that doesn't work, then you may have to resort to a different approach, something like
a modified across-the-grain stroke, maybe from two different directions. Keep the spine
of the razor fairly close to the skin.

You can try a guillotine stroke. Moving either up or down and to one side at the same time. Takes a bit of practice though.

The hair on my neck grows mostly E to W, so I feel your pain.

I found that even with a shorty, it's not an easy task to go WTG or ATG, so I tend to do modified XTG... As Eddy mentions, I kind of do a NE to SW stroke and then a SW to NE stroke. I get DFSs out of that technique.

I second the guilotine stroke idea.
I have a few hard to shave spots myself.
With this kind of slicing motion it's usually okay.

You stretch the skin as flat as you can get it , that will take care of the east to west cut, it just takes time , your not even close to having enough shaves to have it worked out, maybe just slow down and work on the one area and don't expect BBS on the trouble area till you learn the different motions and stretching, then it will come together for you , and maybe a truly sharp blade will shave a little closer and smoother. Good luck and read up on the Guilotine cut and stretching. Tc

Guillotine or scything strokes should work, however they also are a bit more difficult than a straight stroke. You will need a really good stretch and to take it very slowly and in small bites until your proficiency with the strokes and shaving in general increases.

Thanks a lot for everybody's help. Where can I read up on these strokes? So y'all thank I'll get better with more shaves under my belt?

Originally Posted by Chaddy

Thanks a lot for everybody's help. Where can I read up on these strokes? So y'all thank I'll get better with more shaves under my belt?

The forums library is your friend Shaving passes - Straight Razor Place Library . I would leave trying these strokes till you get very proficient at shaving with an SR first though.

Bob

As part of my across the grain pass I shave that area from ears to chin. The stretch is the tricky part. Reaching sort of over my head I lift up on my cheek and then back towards my ears. With a head tilt in there it almost flattens that area. It takes a few shaves to get much of the stretching and face making figured out.