Any tips for the chin?

I am about a month or so into straight razor shaving. My beard growth is not that heavy, so I find I shave about every 3 days or so. I have to say that I have been quite impressed so far, and am able to achieve the babys bottom smoothness on my sideburn/cheek areas. I know it probably just boils down to experience, but I am still having a bit of trouble with the chin. I have been finding it quite awkward and after trying several different techniques and pass directions, have not been able to find something that works yet. I was wondering if you guys have any tips or tricks that could help?

Thanks,
Mike

Watch this guy shave. Note how his stretches the skin around the chin to get flat, easy to shave skin. I believe this guy is a barber, he shaves like a surgeon.

‪Alex Jacques Shave No Music‬‏ - YouTube

I found that the chin and neck are best if you attack one plane at a time. If you shave all the places that are the same angle you will not have to focus on the angle as much as you move down you neck. That will eventually come after practice, it took me 3 months before I was getting constant BBS shaves. Remember to take your time and don't push if you start to feel uncomfortable stop and go back to your old way of shaving.

This works well for the entire face but is especially true for the chin. Break the contours of your face into smaller flat planes and adjust your angle and length of stroke to accomodate that individual plane.

Grow a beard... I've got a beard that rotates between something close to a Donegal in the winter and a Van Dyke for the summer months. If I ever go to just a gotee or nothing I'm gonna be covered in nicks.

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Originally Posted by bharner

Grow a beard... I've got a beard that rotates between something close to a Donegal in the winter and a Van Dyke for the summer months. If I ever go to just a gotee or nothing I'm gonna be covered in nicks.

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Only until you learn those area's of your face...then it's easy!

Thanks for the tips everybody. It seems that the common thing being suggested is to take it in smaller pieces. I'm sure with a few more shaves I will start to get it.

I usually only use one pass at the chin and because of the stretching it always feels really smooth. I recommend that new guys break the chin area into 3 segments. First is under the lip which is fairly simple to maintain your cutting angle with a downward stroke. Second is the two sides of the chin where it is also easy to maintain your cutting angle going down. The third area is the knob or blub of your chin or the round part. Here it is best to just use a downward pass and keeping the angle is fairly simple till you get to the rounded part. Here you simply will have to practice maintaining the cutting angle as you shave the rounded area to underneath the chin. Short light strokes at first will definitely help here.

Have fun,

Lynn

Its been getting better and better with each shave! I think that I finally have the blub part of my chin down to a fine art! The short strokes seem to be working great, and Im finding it really helps to make some goofy faces to stretch the area as tight as possible. The only spot left on my face to work with is the flat under spot of my chin. This seems to be somewhere that I have always had problems with even with a disposable or electric type razor, can get everything down short, but never smooth. Hope to change this soon. Over all I have been more than happy with my decision to switch over to straight razor shaving.