Tricky beard grain direction on neck, advice requested

[FatboySlim]

I'm slowly improving in my straight shaving ability daily, but one area really has me still puzzled.

Like most people, I have "hollows" on my neck on either side of my adam's apple, below my jawline. But, my beard grain in these hollows is either "northwest" or "northeast", growing almost straight out and up from my adam's apple toward my jaw joints. Not quite sideways, up, or down - more a 45 degree angle.

I've tried multiple across the grain passes (straight up or down), and that doesn't quite get it for me - the beard there is tough for me at my stage of skill without blade-burning myself because of too much pressure. I can't seem to lean my head over quite far enough to get a flat enough surface to try a true against-the-grain pass from my jaw joint down to my adam's apple, sliding down at a 45 degree angle.

Does any experienced straight shaver have a tip on how they deal with this? Perhaps a skin stretching trick or on-the-bias blade stroke that I haven't figured out yet? I have to admit, the across-the-grain passes in these areas are working much better than a few weeks ago, when I couldn't get anything right in these hollow areas at all. Stretching and a very light touch with the blade have really helped.