Thread: Neck XTG

So, I decided to give the XTG pass another shot today. About 1/3 of the way through on my right side, I decided to try it with the razor opened at about a 45 degree angle. I don't know why I never thought of it before, I always just assumed that it should be opened 180 degrees or more. Between that, and tilting my head way back (learning to shave by feel, more than looking in the mirror), I was able to get pretty good coverage. I also focused on improving the quality of my other two passes. Overall, I think that some good progress was made. Thanks fellas.

One thing I happened on that gets quite a bit of XTG below the jaw line ...

If I tuck my chin into my chest (I know ... kind of sounds contra-intuitive, but it works for me) and turn my head to the side opposite of that I am shaving, I can start an XTG just below my ear and spanning just above and below my jawline, I can stroke from my ear to the point at which a goatee would start (at chin). This not only gives me an XTG on about 2/3 of my neck, but along my jawline and just underneath it, as well. Hope my description makes sense and can be followed.

Actually, on closer inspection, it turns out that in that pesky place under my jaw on the left, my whiskers grow towards the back of my neck--so what I'm getting there is neither a WTG or an ATG pass. I'm getting two XTGs,one N-S, one S-N, neither fully effective in removing all the whiskers. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can get ATG there using the point of the blade with the scales folded back to about 30 degrees from the spine.

Originally Posted by red96ta

It can be done but you have to be pretty comfortable with your technique. For the left side of the face, I place the blade just left of the midline and do my XTG from there to just under the ear. Ideally, you'll want to use a round point as I've discovered that any other point wants to dig into your neck just below the mandible.

Until you get comfortable doing this, you can do a cheater move by placing the toe of the razor just left of the chin and taking your stroke from there to the bottom of ear in a 45 degree sweep.

Pay close attention to red96ta's diagram. This is the way to get the job done. You can use this with a scything cut through this area, which is what I do, or with a guillotine cut.

The way to get these hard to sahve areas, especially when the grain direction is changing through these areas, is with these techniques. I combine them sometimes as well.

I too have an area that does that under the chin & along the underside of the jaw. What worked best was to shave that area with the standard N-S & S-N passes, but using the far-side hand and reaching across. Using the wrong hand imparted sything & gullitoning to the strokes automatically, and was less nick-prone than a side-to-side stroke.

Scything I understand, but what's guillotining? Sounds rather forbidding, to say the least.

Originally Posted by Durhampiper

Scything I understand, but what's guillotining? Sounds rather forbidding, to say the least.

Yeah - that does sound bad.

Ok, here are two graphics I did to depict it better.

Edit: Think of it as the difference between trying to force a chef's knive straight down through a tomato and using a slicing motion through the tomato.

I do almost exactly like red's diagram except the direct opposite direction (my neck hair grows south to north), It's a little sketchy the first few times you do it because it feels like you're for sure gonna slit your throat but like anything you just have to break out the styptic and keep trying

Ah! So this would have essentially the same effect on the whiskers as scything, but you're not rotating the blade--a different method of achieving an angled approach to what you're trying to shave.

Originally Posted by Durhampiper

Ah! So this would have essentially the same effect on the whiskers as scything, but you're not rotating the blade--a different method of achieving an angled approach to what you're trying to shave.

Right, but here is the thing. From a geometric standpoint, you are actually maying the blade shorter because it becomes a hypontenuse to the area you are shaving. So if the blade is too long to go ATG or XTG under the jawline for instance, the blade becomes shorter when you angle it and you can get in areas that you would not be able to otherwise.

The scything allows a similar thing. I often use both of them together.