Chin and Neck!

Hello All,

After about 2 months, I can say that I have more or less mastered cheek and side of the neck and also left hand shaving. Just 3 nicks in since starting on Christmas day!

But somehow i just am not having the confidence of shaving the mustache, chin and center of the neck (chin to Adam's apple). Any tips would be appreciated. I know i can do it, its mostly a confidence thing. I tried the chin one day, and got 3 nicks in 3 places at once. I just stopped after that. Also the center of the neck i just confuse myself with which hand to shave with, so i just keep switching the razor from one hand to the other, then finally pick my disposable razor and do it. My beard is little bit harder in the chin area than other places. I had go for against the grain strokes to take out all the beard when i was using my Gillette.

Any tips or confidence boosters would be of great help.

My chin was a challenge and to be really honest it is only in the past few months I have mastered it if you will.

At the corner of the lower chin my beard grows in multiple directions and it took a loooong while to figure out the passes that did it best.

I also thought I was using light pressure, all I can say to this is quit trying to cut the whiskers, it will happen.

(I feel stubble right as I finish but if I give it a bit say 15-20 min I cannot feel it anymore).

Now for around the Adams apple I quit stretching with my fingers, flatten the chin and do a bit of a suicide pass for lack of a better term.

I go east to West and it is light slower buffing type strokes.

Stormy,
I and others are calling down fire on your head. 3 nicks since Christmas? Sheesh. Whatever you're doing - keep it up.

The areas you describe as challenging are mostly the normal ones. Those of us w/ angular features & less than tight young skin add the often concave area between neck and bottom of jawbone. Each guy has their challenging sections. A few of yours are fairly easily addressed. Others are specific to the oddities of how the lay of your stubble goes.

Adam's Apple. Why shave over it? Stretch that skin to the side so you're mostly on fairly flat ground.

Chin. You'll pay your dues like most of us. Notice how the skin won't stretch very far? 'Makes it tougher. The stretch needs to be fairly close to the surface you're shaving to have any affect at all. ATG isn't a holy grail here. XTG w/ a good stretch can do as well. Below the knob of the chin, I have a couple circular patterns that no single direction of stretch and stroke will clean. I have to go *every* direction to get it clean. Most days, good is good enough.

'Stache - you've perhaps read about and tried the Coupe de Maitre? The stroke where the razor rotates along the axis of the spine?. Its mostly done near the septum/center. After that area is clear, xtg will clean it nicely. A good stretch is vital here.

Much of the first 6 mo of str8 shaving is really the discovery of all the odd stretches and strokes that work for your particular facial topography and the lay of your beard. 'Takes quite a bit of experimentation to find what works.

Gear-wise, I and others seem to have used the friendliness of the heavy grind to learn some strokes that after practicing, would be done w/ the full and extra hollows. The good and bad thing about a heavy grind is that they tolerate pressure more than their hollow brethren. Because they tolerate it, we tend to use more pressure, rather than keep looking for that stretch and stroke that eliminates the need for pressure. The heavies shave just as well w/ no pressure. If the pressure becomes a habit, we'll read about razor burn...

Either way, it sounds like you're doing alot better than I ever did. Keep it up.

Thanks! It was a nice post! So from what i understand, there is just a basic general rule of SR shaving and rest up to you to find out and customize according to you face. Well, maybe i was a bit too bookish when approaching the chin. The cheek and was not hard to learn. All that hours of reading and seeing videos on youtube really paid off!

I would try to be Christopher Columbus and give it another shot tomorrow during my shave and discover different strokes. Another thing is that I had motorcycle accident about 9 years ago, there are a few scars just under my nose and that skin a little softer than others. So i try to be cautious, but maybe i am a bit too over cautious. The left side of my face was badly scrapped off by the road. Just under the nose, where the cuts were a little deeper, the scars still remain but not noticeable.

The chin is tough. I pull the skin back hard right around my jowl and shave forward towards the chin. Then I switch hands and do the other side. This works best for me, but if you watch enough videos you'll see there are probably about a dozen ways to do this.

For the chin I come down the side of my jaw bone from both sides when I'm doing my first pass.

Then I'll start at the top of my lower lip and go down. When You come to the point where your chin starts jutting out you have to use kind of a "scooping" motion. The curve of your face is changing so you need to change the angle of the blade accordingly.

I follow my chin down to below the jawline.

I find when I'm shaving a hard to shave area I start my stroke a little bit above where I want to shave. This ensures that I have the right angle. Once I have a correct angle it's easier to adjust the angle as the contour of my face changes versus starting it from the point you want to shave.

Shaving your neck I find that lifting my head up works wonders. This does a pretty good job of tightening the skin. For the adams apple you might want to try shaving each side of it before attempting the center of it.

Im lucky in that I can get BBS on the chin with a sideways downstroke. Kind of nw to se. And the absolute tip of the chin gets it sideways. Under my bottom lip i go up, but thats the easy part....
My neck and jawline grows from left ear to right ear sideways almost flat. I pull up major after the face is done and 1 atg with a touchup and the neck is done.

I am just scrapping through. Just under the lip and just under the chin is the most difficult till now. I have had a few scratches. No deep cuts as of now.. But its getting better. I just take it slowly. Still learning the different strokes.

I can't speak for the moustache area, I usually have a moustache but had to cut it off to regrow it (it was too uneven lol) so I don't shave that area.
The chin is tricky to get against the grain, I've been doing with and then across the grain until I get it nice and smooth.
My neck area, I have to go diagonally against the grain because of how the hair grows in order to get it smooth.

Honestly, don't be afraid of nicks. As long as your blade is sharp enough, you won't have to use much pressure, and that should keep you away from actual cuts. That and keeping the right angle (every so often I'll accidentally touch me face at a 90 degree and get an instant cut!), you should be fine.
Anything else that draws blood, isn't a big deal. I lather after I'm done my shave and let it sit while I clean up my supplies, then I rinse off, pat my face mostly dry, and then put on some Proraso pre/post shave cream or some shave oil. Both do an excellent job at making my face awesome and blood free! I kid you not, my face will go from bloody dabs all over to looking smooth and perfectly fine :)

The areas you have mentioned areproblematic because of the many contours (sp?) as you already know. Stretch the neck skin well to the left or right and it gives you a nice flat area so you can avoid having to go over your hellstorm2004's apple. Also, swift angle manipulation is required especially on the chin. I usually go xtg on the chin during the first pass because its easier to stretch the chin horizontally rather than vertically. Over time you will develop your own techniques. Hope you find what works out for you :)