Thread: Chins and pressure, necks and angles

Go slow, slow, slow, and enjoy the shave...

The chin and jawline are usually the toughest to master Jim already linked you to the diagrams Some learn better by visual so try the video section of the forum.

Link

Jockeys video helped alot with the neck area for me

Let us know how the next one goes

You got some good advice. What works for some people may not work for you. Skin stretch is a good example. You can get into a lot of trouble if you overstretch the skin, this can elevated the skin at the edge of the stretch and allow you to get a nice cut (don't ask why I know this )
Go slow, you will have a lot of periods of dissapointment, nicks, bleeders etc.. but in the end you will find the pot of gold


Crom

Hang in there Adrian. I would focus on the cheeks intil you feel really comfortable with straight shaving them. That will give you some more confidence in the neck and chin.

The chin is always harder to shave due to the curves and the courser hairs. It takes extra commitment and a sharp blade. Extra beard prep helps here. If you prepping the beard with a hot shower some have used shampoo and cream rinse on their beards to soften the hairs. If it's just a face wash, wash it twice.

The neck is hard to shave because we use our peripheral vision and it is almost out of sight. Have someone watch you shave your neck a few times. Explain the proper angle to them and have them mention when the angle gets out of range. Good straight razor shaving technique also involves a memory or feel of the blade in the difficult areas. This can only be improved by practice. Good luck.

A bit more about shaving the neck that I just though about, (recognizing that my neck might differ from yours)...

My instinct was to look UP in order to stretch the skin tight under my neck. And for most of my neck, especially directly under my chin and extending partway to the tip of the jaw under the ear, this is the proper technique. But, stretching my jaw and face upward was the wrong approach for the area of my jaw where it angled sharply upward, directly under my ear. I am skinny and angular, and when I stretch my face upward, the angle of the jaw is accentuated into a 90 degree angle. It was very easy to nick and cut while shaving around my jaw then! And, worse, it was at what is probably your blindest spot.

The cure for the upper portion of my jaw was to look DOWN while shaving. This filled in the gap between jawline and neck with flesh, giving me a clean angle to shave across.

A small warning though...

If this is your case too, and you look down, note that the filling in of the angle between jawline and neck might also result in skin that is not entirely flat, and is also easy to cut. You might have to look down, AND stretch your skin at the same time.

Experiment...