Thread: neck shaving

Originally Posted by steve

Try a cutting motion with the toe leading. It's not quite 100% horizontal but it is safer and the recommended cutting stroke according to the barber manuals.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/compo...d,3/mode,view/

Whenever I do this I just, very lightly, pull the razor down and slightly diagonally toward the tip of the razor. Seems to work well.

I have the same problem with my neck. I do what I think Steve does only I go the other direction, i.e. take a look at his referenced diagram. My arrows would point back to the heal instead of forward from the toe. North to South labeling is clear to me, but the East, West labels are ambiguous, so... I do an against the grain keeping my razor essentially level and shaving down while at the same time going slowly from ear to throat (cause my neck wiskers seem to grow from throat to ear). Now I do this as a second pass and VERY CAREFULLY. I still don't get real BBS, but it's the closest I can do and is good enough for me.

I have tried to shave up my neck on a second pass and the razor just sticks, scrapes, and leaves a pretty good burn. Blade angle or not sharp enough for my beard?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Jfala

I have tried to shave up my neck on a second pass and the razor just sticks, scrapes, and leaves a pretty good burn. Blade angle or not sharp enough for my beard?

Thanks.

Flatten the blade angle to the skin. Try laying the spine closer to the skin and see what happens and keep a light touch.

Okay. The stubble in my neck I can not conquer. It sticks to my skin and there is no way around it. One thing I notice is Stretching the skin beyond the cheeks is really hard. My neck is to slippery to get a stretch I want. I can stretch down but that does not seem to be cutting it. I have hair that grows srom NW-SE W-E SW-NW and W-E all around my gdamn neck. Same problem when I need to shave my jaw and chin area. Any others experience this?

I have the same problem with my straight razor shaves, i can tell though that the problem is that we dont get them sharp enough, if i ever shave with the dovo shavette straight ( the one that uses disposable blades) no matter what, how or where you save the hair is going down regardless of preparation ,technique etc,etc leaving you bbs guaranteed.
tha question is ( wich i havent so far...) can we get a straight as sharo as a disposable? ha sanybody ever done it?

I have a norton on the way and I am working on a Swaty hone. Maybe I will find out. If not I just may sell some of this stuff and try a straight disposable.

What helps for me is a move known as the bullfrog. Looking straight ahead move your head back without moving your shoulders, this should puff out your neck a little.
For me it makes the tough concave areas nice and flat or convex, opening up some good shaving angles.

Originally Posted by Shur

What helps for me is a move known as the bullfrog. Looking straight ahead move your head back without moving your shoulders, this should puff out your neck a little.
For me it makes the tough concave areas nice and flat or convex, opening up some good shaving angles.

Concave areas on the neck are a b...ane! The stretches and moves I go through to conquer them! And the swirl-type growth there doesn't help shaving either

Sure, I can get them BBS neck easily if I don't mind a little burn - but I do. So I have to be extra-careful, use a very light touch, optimal angle, etc. Sometimes I get very nice results; other times - not soo much...

Cheers
Ivo

I agree, sometimes I do pretty well on the neck. Sometimes not. I'm just now noticing my 5+ o'clock shadow. It seems there are really two overlapping, 90 degree different concaves on the neck. The first and most obvious, the concave from the chin ridge to down the neck. The more subtle, and now noticable to me is the slight concave hollow following the jugular (sorry, best way to describe it). That hollow right now is getting bristly on both sides. I find to shave the stubborn spots I have to angle the blade about 30 to 45 degrees, with a bit more pressure too. Or, I can lower the angle but run the blade at about a 30 to 40 degree slanting direction to the horizontal of the blade edge. I'm not sure either is a recommended technique.

You know, sometimes I'm not sure which I find more thrilling. Riding my sport bike at 100+mph, or shaving with a straight razor over the jugular while trying to angle for a good pass at the stubble. Both are a challenging, addictive rush.

I was having trouble getting under my chin and my neck shaved close. I started trying different directions which required some weird twisting of the head and neck along with some strange holds. Then I read this thread and the initial posts that sharpness is key. I started thinking back a few months to when I first started and realized that a N-S then S -N passes had been enough for a close shave in these areas. I had only been using my 0.5 pasted strop to maintain my blade. So on Monday, I did ten passes on the 3.0 side, 10 passes on the 1.0, and 15 on the 0.5. Now I'm back to a smooth shave under the chin and on the neck without all the gyrations, just two passes one down and one up. For the way my hair grows in these areas these passes are both mostly across the grain.

Therefore I concur that sharpness is key and I now know that when I'm not happy with the neck area it is time to sharpen the blade.