Thread: Moving forward, but a bit nervous!

Go for it! Good luck.

Absolutely give it a shot! especially if you dont have an important party to go to or appearance this weekend.
Like you already know : go slow, short passes, very light touch, firm grip on the blade. and make sure you feel your neck hairs ahead of time! feel your neck while you wash your face or in the shower before your shave.

MY neck hairs grow:
upwards through the middle
out to the side, on the sides
and downwards all the way around, under my chin to about halfway down my neck.

It's a real pain but once you master your neck, you'll feel like a real man.
Its a learning curve but we believe in you!

I don't finish with a DE but my neck gets little blemishes from time to time - usually if i rush it -

Mike,

When I first started, I found myself fighting to maintain a 20-30 degree angle because the dang protractor kept getting in the way Seriously, although the 20-30 degree suggested angle is right on, someone suggested to me that it's easier to think of it in terms of keeping the spine 1-2 spine's width off of the face. That made things much easier for me because it didn't seem so arbitrary and is easy to visualize while shaving.

I'm one of those guys blessed/cursed to have patch, irregular facial hair. I only have neck hair between my chin and my Adam's apple and occasional hairs laterally. That being said, as others have noted, you need to really pay attention to which way those hairs grow. When I first started shaving with a straight I thought that all of my neck hairs grew north to south. The advice to wait after a couple of day's beard growth so you can see which directions the various hairs grow is excellent. It will save you a lot of frustration in the long run.

Most importantly, just relax and have fun. Don't obsess about BBS - smoother shaves will come with time.
Greg

Originally Posted by cpcohen1945

FWIW --

For most people, the hair on the neck points upward. So a "with-the-grain" pass is from the bottom of the neck, to the top.

An ATG ("north-to-south") pass is possible, but your blade must be really sharp, your angle must be very flat, and your pressure must be _very_ light.

If it makes you feel any better, I've been doing this for a year and a half, and I _still_ use a DE for "finishing-up". [there goes my credibility . . . ]

. . Charles

'Just seconding the OP's appreciation. Its easy for new guys to get false impressions that everyone else has no trouble at all. 22 months ago, it was a huge and gracious post that did the same for me - all the experienced guys talking about touching up the last bit of problem areas.