Thread: Bad morning shave - YIKES!

Okay, I tried going across the grain this morning in the area of my unruly neck hair. I'm still having some issues on either side of the Adam's Apple right where chin meets neck. I go up and down with the blade and then at an odd, almost 45 degree. The problem is that the neck hair is actually running side to side, so the up and down strokes are truly XTG and I don't know WTF to call the 45 degree thing. So I decided today to try to truly go with the gain.

Not a good idea. I did get a little closer but I didn't compleely get rid of those hairs. However, I did manage to make my neck look like Jack the Ripper had paid a visit.

Seriously, one part of my neck looks like I was an extra in a horror movie.

Thank God I'm a trained EMT because I'm all bandaged up, but it looks horrible.

Not happy about this. I'm just going to go back to the way I had been doing it. BBS everywhere but that one spot and no knicks when I do it the old way.

Hang in there Phil! I started back str8 shaving in March of this year. When I did, I never knew if I was, like you, going to be a candidate for a horror movie or if I was truly going to have to call the EMT. I think that it's just a matter of learning how to approach those tough areas, how light a hand to have and which direction works better. It gets better

I have a similar problem to yours with my neck hair it took me a while to get the hang of shaving it. My hair grows from NW to SE at about 35 degrees or so on my neck, my problem mainly comes on my 2nd pass on my neck. For my WTG pass I usually just shave N - S, sometimes I do slightly NE - SW below my chin, scything a bit. The second pass is where I normally run into some trouble as I go S - N on this pass, the left side of my neck usually turns out fine, as I tend to end up going more SW - NE which turns out to be more of a XTG pass than ATG. My tendency however is to shave from SE to NW on the right side of my neck as when I swap hands that is the direct opposite of what I did on the left side of my neck and the most natural way of holding the razor. This is directly ATG though and I had a lot of trouble with this as trying to go from SW to NE, which would be the corresponding XTG pass makes the razor a little difficult and awkward to hold but I've managed to work something out to accomplish this and not cause a lot of irritation. Image to help as it may sound confusing

I've found that trying to hold the razor to do a directly WTG pass on my neck is near impossible and seemed to me something that I didn't really need to do. Also trying to go directly ATG on my neck can be a little difficult, at least right below my chin and on the left side of my neck. Usually just doing the second pass that ends up being XTG as I go SW-NE is close enough and if the razor is sharp enough leaves it BBS. I've also tried doing a 45 degree thing with the blade on my neck, though I wasn't sure of how good of an idea it was, it was in an attempt at going ATG on my neck right below my chin. I've been able to develop some passes to get ATG in those areas, but I don't normally do that as the SW to NE XTG pass is normally plenty close, if not BBS.

I'm sure with a little learning I've thought the direction of hair growth on my neck is probably more favorable than the hair growth that some guys have. At least mine is all straight and doesn't have any swirls or other weird changes of direction, I thought it was kind of funny as it grows the same way on both sides of my neck and underneath my chin. Sounds like we're shaving the same areas with similar problems and direction of hair growth.

Originally Posted by philmckee

Okay, I tried going across the grain this morning in the area of my unruly neck hair. I'm still having some issues on either side of the Adam's Apple right where chin meets neck. I go up and down with the blade and then at an odd, almost 45 degree. The problem is that the neck hair is actually running side to side, so the up and down strokes are truly XTG and I don't know WTF to call the 45 degree thing. So I decided today to try to truly go with the gain.

Not a good idea. I did get a little closer but I didn't compleely get rid of those hairs. However, I did manage to make my neck look like Jack the Ripper had paid a visit.

Seriously, one part of my neck looks like I was an extra in a horror movie.

Thank God I'm a trained EMT because I'm all bandaged up, but it looks horrible.

Not happy about this. I'm just going to go back to the way I had been doing it. BBS everywhere but that one spot and no knicks when I do it the old way.

You might try going as close to with the grain as you can for the first pass. I usually shave my neck with a 45 degree angle (heel to toe of the blade) and then move the razor with the grain. This is kind of a scything stroke. Then I come back and go up to down across the grain. I have to go lighter and make shorter strokes and more of them in that area too.


Sorry if I am not making sense...Hope this helps.


-rob

Sorry for double post - I just thought it important to say I use very light pressure when doing the second pass on my neck, generally less is better as always with a straight otherwise I get irritation when I use the alum. When I was trying to learn to get the areas you described I had some bad shaves too as I tried almost everything to get that hair and it seemed so difficult so I would try all kinds of passes and leave all kinds of razor burn there. I lay off it now, but I'm a lot better at making those passes now.

If you manage BBS other than that one area, go and get it lasered then you won't have to think about it!

Originally Posted by Black Beard

If you manage BBS other than that one area, go and get it lasered then you won't have to think about it!

Now that's actually a good idea!

I've been doing much better with my neck since I start using my free hand to gently pull the skin into a position that makes it easier to shave. For instance, I have a fairly pronounced Adam's apple. I pull the skin to one side and then run the blade over it where my neck is flatter. Then I switch hands and do the same thing on the other side. I never have to actually shave where the Adam's apple is. I do something similar to get to the 'hollow' areas at the side of my esophagus (sp?).

I actually 'pull' this skin using the palm of my hand, in order to make sure its evenly taught. All I do it push down lightly and that 'pulls' enough.

Hope this makes sense.