Base of the neck: my Kryptonite!

I have been safety razor shaving for a few months now for one big reason: I cannot get the base of my neck close with a sr. I cannot seem to get it any where near close. I have course hair on my face and the hair at the base of my neck grows straight out away from my Adam's apple.

I cannot get it close and have yet to find a technique anywhere to do it, let alone a video that shows how to tackle it. To make matters worse, there is a crease in the trouble area that prevents a close shave here from xtg passes. It is also the most sensitive area on my face and having stubble there increases irritation and makes shaving that area even harder.

Could someone please help? I love sr shaving, but I'm right on the cusp of complete discouragement. I sr shaved daily for about 3 months and have had this problem consistently. :banghead:

The neck is a hard spot to master. Really stretching the skin tight helps, low angle on the razor. Keep at it, eventually comes together.

I have a couple of difficult spots on my neck as well. What works for me is to stretch the heck out of the skin and lay the razor almost flat. You can get a pretty close shave going XTG in both directions. You can use a more aggressive angle on the second pass.

There is no shame in using a safety razor on your neck area, and a straight for the rest of your shave. I'm 70, and have more nooks and crannies than I would like. As mentioned above, I have to pull the skin very tight in this area, use a flatter angle with the razor, and use almost no pressure--the razor should be whacking the whiskers, and not the skin on your neck. Using a very slick lather also helps, which either means using a quality soap and building the lather properly, hydrating it slowly as much as possible until you're getting a shiny sheen to it, or using a soap that tends to be slicker than most soaps, such as L&L Grooming soaps. You also might consider adding a pre-shave oil to this area. I also find that a blade with a smile is a little easier to shave in these areas.

Some random comments on neck shaving - from someone with a very coarse beard:

1. Neck shaving is significantly more technically demanding than face shaving.
Face prep, lather, razor, and technique must be much more exacting.
What will "pass" on the face will not "cut it" on the neck (bad puns intended).

2. Some people advocate beginning with an ATG pass on the neck to facilitate closeness.
This has never worked for me. My beard is just too coarse to hack at it ATG first.

3. Some advise to do the neck before the face - when the lather is the wettest/slickest.
Others advise to do the neck last to let the whiskers soak in the lather for longer.
I actually do "both" by lathering, shaving the face, then re-lathering the neck before shaving it.
In this way, I get both fresh lather and soak.

4. On the neck, I do a WTG followed by 1 or 2 passes ATG.
On the ATG, I start with the point at the back, lower corner of my beard and as I am going South-to-North,
I also add a 1/2 - 3/4 inch forward travel to the stroke. This slicing/guillotine motion is more efficient at chopping
at my coarse beard than just hacking straight up. This is know to double-edge shavers as the "Gillette glide" -
after a TV commercial - and is regarded as an easy way to get cut very badly.
However, I find that with modest skin traction and appropriate blade pressure -
i.e. absolutely none - I can get a close shave on my neck without irritation or life-threatening blood loss.

My neck is a place that I think that I could easily make to complicated if I tried to follow ATG or "XTG etc. The hair grows in circles. Top to bottom then bottom to top with maybe a second bottom up is a DFS and good for me.

My adams apple protrudes quite a bit so this is what I find works best for me, I go with the blade toe towards my chin/jaw line and go from center of my neck towards my ear. I do this on both sides of my neck then I pull the skin from my adams apple either way and clean that up. So basically after you swipe from center out you should have an inch or so of lather still on the center of your neck then pull that to one side then the next and clean that up. Below my apply I can usually go from my shirt line straight up and get that with no issues. Hope this helps the neck is a trouble spot for me as well best of luck :D

You may get results going wtg, then a couple of angled passes. I have one spot on my neck which always laughed at safety razors. I now have the shorter Sprite razor from Portland Razor with a 2" blade which makes things a bit easier. The same could be done with the 3" blade, but hitting the stubborn spots on the oblique could be a possibility. Stropping the damn razor is my major challenge, but it is working...

Get a single edge razor, take it from there. Just trust me, it will make sense when you try it.

By way of update: I got out of the SR game for now.

Firstly because it required so much work: with stropping and honing, I couldn't afford the time. Secondly, my wife hated having them around.

I have gone exclusively to DE shaving. I have sold my razors and strop. The only SR I have left is the heirloom razor that was the subject of one of my first posts here.

I kinda feel like I gave up, but I get great shaves from my DE razors and don't really feel like I'm missing out. Sorry, but I must shelve my SR aspirations for the time being.

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Double edge wet shaving beats cartridge razor shaving any day of the week

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Originally Posted by Legday69

Double edge wet shaving beats cartridge razor shaving any day of the week

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It does indeed.

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Nothing to be sorry about. With the newer DEs out there you can get a shave that comes awfully close to a straight.

Many of us here use a DE on a regular basis. Many won't admit it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Nothing to be sorry about. With the newer DEs out there you can get a shave that comes awfully close to a straight.

Many of us here use a DE on a regular basis. Many won't admit it.

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I own an EJ DE89, but I feel my 47-48 Aristocrat with a yellow Feather blade gives a superior shave. I am looking forward to getting a Rockwell Model T and giving that a try (someday when I'm rich).

Is it you're experience that a certain modern DE razor gives a superior shave? If so, which one?

Whatever works, don't feel like you've "sold out". I've had many DE shaves that were much closer than my straight at the time. ;)

Watch Lynn's video. Does a great job of explaining shaving the neck. My barber friend showed me how to shave my neck. I have had 2 neck operations so there is plenty of scar tissue. He said first rub your hand on your neck to see the direction the hair is growing. He said in hard to shave areas, use the front quarter of the blade with short strokes. Watch a pro barber video to see how they do it. Stretch the skin. He showed me the J stroke and that really gets the contours. Lastly, a barber in FL showed me how to use a diagonal stroke and that works really well if your neck hair is like mine and grows across my neck.