Difficulty Shaving Under Chin

I am having difficulty shaving closely enough under my chin and want some advice. I am including a picture showing the location and direction of hair growth. I have no problem shaving down or up the neck, XTG. But, this does not give me as close a shave as I desire. I need to shave ATG.

Unfortunately, I am angular ("skinny"), and the location cannot be made flat enough to shave ATG. I've tried every combination of stretching the skin, and ****ing and turning the head and neck. With a straight razor blade of typical length, it just can't shave against the grain; the ends of the blade hit skin and the middle is left hanging in the air.

I am about to buy another straight razor and cut off most of the blade, leaving maybe 1 inches of blade, dull the edges and leave the middle sharp, and with the shorter blade I could easily "mow" this horizontal strip of growth.

But, surely there's an easier way! Help appreciated...

Interesting... in my post above I was bleeped! "****ing the head..." Guess the censor man inside the computer doesn't like me using the word that can refer to a type of bird... or something very nasty! Funny!

I've got a skinny neck too with nooks and crannies and the spot with the arrows in your picture is the toughest part along with the sides and tip of my chin. I can't tell you exactly how I do it but I worked on stretching by pulling the skin on the side of my windpipe opposite where I'm shaving to get mine flat enough to shave.

I attack the area with a sort of combination of ATG and XTG starting below it and than finishing moving in the direction of my mouth. I also had to work on a stroke that a former member here called a swoop. Kind of picture the way a bird flies in front of your car on the freeway kind of like a daredevil swooping down and than up. Hard to describe. That works for me but then again we all don't have the same beard. :gl:

I copied the scything cut that I saw in Jockey's Youtube videos. It works very well on the neck.

I have seen Jockey's Youtube demo. He doesn't have the crease where neck meets jaw, and so he doesn't have the same problem. But, as for the scything cut, that is something to consider.

The "swoop" has me interested. Maybe, with an almost circular route for the blade, combined with a slightly ATG motion, I can get it done. Thinking out loud, if the circular swoop is quite small in diameter, maybe I can work in a small amount of ATG.

Unfortunately not all areas of the face and neck and be stretched or contorted for a flat surface. Your suggestion that was made in jest actually has some merit, all-be-it with some modification. I would get a dull object like a butter knife or popsicle stick and practice shaving the curve rather than trying to make the surface flat. When you think that you have stroke try using a dulled razor and then finally one that is honed sharp. The trick is to find the stroke without repeatedly cutting yourself. Good luck.

Lewis

At first I used to stretch behind and below the area on the same side as I was shaving. One day I was shaving and tried pulling on the opposite side towards the opposite ear and that helped a lot.

On that swoop, it is sort of like the coup de maitre that we do under the nose but doesn't start out so steep.

JimmyHAD, when I tried the stretch you described, at first I wondered how that could help... it actually makes the hard to shave crease more pronounced. (Might have misunderstood you.) But, then I noticed that this also raised the hair upwards, since this pulls in the opposite direction of the growth. And, this would make the XTG shave more effective I suspect. Which might move me a little closer to my goal of a close shave. Next time, I'll try it.

It's also possible that we have a different hollow that we are dealing with. Try it anyhow.

Try using your index finger and run it across the area in the direction you want to try to shave. It will give you an idea of the razor stroke and may help save some nicks. It really works with different angles too. I tried this after nicking my jawline all the time as I would feel the little left I wanted to touch up and just went after it with the razor. Don't know what size razor you are using, but sometimes a smaller width like a 4/8 is the ticket for these tougher areas.

Lynn