Need help! Hopefully before tomorrow's shave.

Hey everyone,

I recently made the plunge into strait razor shaving and have found it very enjoyable. I have moved to shaving my whole face. Oddly I find my chin quite easy to shave and my problems being my mustache and my neck. Which leads to my question.

I'm looking for some advice on shaving the neck. I cannot get the hair to cut well, there is always stubble, and I have gotten pretty bad razor rash. I assume I am probably doing something wrong. But would like some advice on what can help, especially from those who have had this problem. I have read that a lot of people with sensitive find straight shaving much better than disposable blade shaving. And on my face I have found that to be the same for me, my neck is killing me though, should I wait a day or two and start again making sure I keep using aftershave on it? Any help will be awesome. Thanks!

I found that the mustache is easier if you kind of do an XTG/WTG combo cutting down at an angle. This is probably not recommended but the way I get my hair just below my nostrils is to put the blade almost at a 90 degree angle barely barely, I mean barely, if at all against the skin above my whiskers and flick the blade down scraping the skin lightly as I do so. I have also found that I am better at shaving my mustache with a 3/8 or 4/8 blade. As for your neck I do not have that problem but if you are not using pre shave oil or glycerin in your lather I would suggest trying that as a start. Examine your beard on the neck carefully and you may find that it grain is upwards in some spots, sideways in some, and down in others. Change your stroke so you are going WTG on each part. So if your hair is growing up shave up, if its growing down shave down, if its growing sideways shave sideways. WTG does not always mean from up to down. Hope this helps. It will take some getting used to but over time you will figure out how to shave where. It gets better every time.

Stretching the skin tight & keeping the spine of the razor almost touching the skin is what works for me. I also use an alum block after every shave as a ritual, but what started it was razor burn during the warmer months. On the moustache area, I will literally pull up my nose to help with keeping the razor angle low, especially with a larger blade of 6/8+. As always, a light touch is paramount. Lastly, you have not mentioned how long (number of shaves in) you have been shaving & I will assume not all that long. I always tell guys new to this sport that it all comes together around 30 shaves. Do yourself a favor, put your general location in your member location so that maybe you can find someone to "mentor" you a bit. They don't have to be a badged mentor, just someone who has been at our sport for lets say 6 months. You can learn more in a few hours face-to-face than you can learn by reading and experimenting in weeks. If I can be of assistance, I'd be glad to have you by the house or assist you via pm...don't be afraid to ask.

Most people's neck hair grows in weird directions. I, for example, have swirls on either side of my adam's apple which always caused me problems.

The best advice I can give you is to work out the directions of hair grown on your neck and try as hard as you can to go with the grain if possible. Stretching can help with that - remember you can stretch the skin in any direction you want: you are not limited to up or down.

Also try to avoid steep razor angles and resist the temptation to continually shave over rough spots to get them smooth. It is better to look shaved and have some rough areas than it is to be clean shaven with massive skin irritation all over your neck. Until you figure out your best technique you may just have to put up with less than smooth areas.

If I were you I would let the skin heal a bit before trying again. Continual irritation will just make matters worse.

Good luck.

James.

Awesome! Thanks! Yeah I am only at my 6th shave tomorrow will be 7, I'm gonna shave my face and see how my neck feels, I've been keeping aftershaves on it all day and it is feeling/looking a lot better. I'll keep all those in mind!

Thanks James! I always thought that way for my suits/shirts/ties (obviously a little different) but never thought it's better to look shaved then go over it over and over to make it feel right!

Thanks everyone for the advice!