Thread: A few months into the straight, the bottom of my throat is my biggest challenge !

So... its been a few months. I've got the disease and now own three straights. The sides of my face below the sideburns shave magnificently, my neck is pretty good too.. the chin where my beard is thickest and full of curves and for some reason the bottom of my throat seem to be the toughest places for me.

If I focus on the chin, I do alright (although sometimes I get close to raw if i dont watch the angles). But for some reason the bottom of my throat is a surprise challenge. the whiskers always seem to resist ! the angle they grow in at makes it very difficult to go against the grain there so i go with and across....

Does this sound familiar ?
any suggesitons ?

Thanks,
Allen

Familiar indeed - many find the chin and the area around the adam's apple to be the hardest. For a smoother shave around the adam's apple, try stretching your skin sideways and then shave next to your adam's apple, so you don't have to go across it. Also, it is quite common for the hair growth to be irregular in that area, mine changes direction right in that area. As you gain more experience, you will discover the best approach for your own neck. Hint: Try stretching in different directions, up, down, outwards, what have you. You'll be able to get acceptable results soon enough, although utter BBS might take a while. Best of luck.

thank you str8fencer.... last night's shave was spectacular.. i can not get over the closeness of the shave i get with my str8.

Couldn't add more to what str8fencer said except to say really watch the blade angle around the chin. You have to constantly adjust it as you go around the curves. After 5 months still working on the same problem areas as you are so you are not alone. Str8s really perform don't they?

Bob

That's my area of my face that gives me trouble too. Not so much the chin but under the nose. Lately I've been doing okay with the upper lip and have discovered that if I go from left to right across my chin it shaves pretty well. Keep at it and try different approaches you'll figure it out!

Throat and chin do seem to be the hard spots for most...
A couple of things that have worked for me:
Adams Apple - if you swallow and hold it your AA will flatten out - this and pulling it to one side may help.
Chin - for some reason I have good luck by cropping or backing the blade from the underside of the chin.
Below the lower lip I start at the "soul patch" area and back up - then come down.
But its mostly a practice and trial and error thing... it just takes time - skin tension seems to be a big part of making progress along with a perfect edge.

I have to say, with a sharp blade it is amazing how you can get. I used a senor the other day just to see how much better the str8 does. immediately after the shave i was kind of impressed with how the sensor did.. but by the next afternoon its was like 2 days withjout a shave. that night i went back to the str8 and wow.... like i had no facial hair at all.

under the chin I had discovered that shaving left to right and then right to left does seem to do the job, along with watching my angles. But its the lower throat, not so much my adams apple that seems to be the surprise tough spot for me. i have 2 razors i use most of the time. A full hollow Tennis which seems to have a tough time with the throat and what looks like a half/quarter hollow Fredrick Reynolds (1850's). I had the Tennis professionally honed and i did the Fredrick Reynolds myslef on lapping paper. I actually think I like the Reynolds better. I may have messed up the edge on the Tennis with poor stropping when I first got it.... could it be the difference betwen the blade geometry ? eg. Full Hollow vs. Half/quarter hollow ?

The skin near the bottom of my neck is more like "chicken skin", with little bumps on it. These aren't shaving bumps but more of a permanent state. So the tops of the bumps have a hard time of it when the blade comes along. Not sure how to deal with it other than keeping the angle very shallow and pressure as light as I can. Fortunately the bumps surround the hair follicles so the blade doesn't have to go down into the "valleys".

Nubo: I think you know exactly what i am talking about.