Thread: Neck Shaving Tips and Advice

That's great to hear Matt. Progress is always nice especially when in the right direction. I hope things continue to improve for you.

As you have noticed, different ways to stretch the skin is a big factor.

Personally:

I use a smiling blade, when possible.

1st pass - Neck to jaw line, stretching the skin downward.

2nd pass - Angled motion from chin to neck, angling back. While stretching down and back. (If that makes sense.)

Regardless of how I try, I can NOT go north to south directly over my adams apple. The skin ALWAYS nicks...regardless of the stretch direction. I just accept that and always go south to north in that area.

Originally Posted by AcesandEights

I use a smiling blade, when possible.

This is one of the best bits of advice. My smiling blade is a champion on the neck.

Smiling blades are very nice. Seems like you can play with the angles a bit more, where with a straight edge I find myself resorting to scything motions to get some places suitably close.

I do a North to South, then South to North and that's it. Sometimes toward the bottom where the hair grows nearly flat and toward my ears I'll use a downward scything stroke since that's as close to ATG as I can get. Going into the hollows of the neck I'll let the spine ride the skin and sort of pull the edge away from the skin as it travels through the curve to keep the angle lower. Lower angle usually results in less irritation.

Persistence, one day you will get the tecnique for you. I scythe down the jaw line then clear down from there paying a bit of attention to the hollow in the middle. A little bit of clean up E to W on my right side and vise versa. I used to practice my strokes in the lift mirror until I got the method for me...

I've learned to use a softer touch when making passes, let the blade do the work.
The results for me is less irritation and better shaves.

A young barber in Florida showed me some techniques that really help. First, at the jaw line stretch the skin up and it tightens the skin on the neck. Second, shave with the front third of the razor and he showed me how to shave holding the blade diagonally instead of horizontal. I find that really reduces the irritation. Lastly, a concave razor works much better on the neck.

I, for one, am of the firm belief that BBS is a myth.
It's, in my humble opinion, a too subjective term. I can't shave ATG in my neck without getting irritation be it with a straight, a safety razor, a GEM, a disposable or a Gillette fancy razor. It's just that my neck is too sensitive, so a "BBS" for me is the closest shave I can get without irritation.

What do I do? 2 XTG passes: One from north to south and one from south to north and that's it. If you look closer, you will see black dots on my neck but you have to be at kiss distance and I have to be looking up in order for it to be noticeable.

I think this is one of those situations where YMMV. Don't force it, get as close as you can and move on.
BBS (in the pure sense of the term) is not for everyone, at least is not for me.

Practice makes perfect. The hard part about this sport is you can only play once every day or two at most, then you have to wait for re-growth. Building the skill takes time, but the more you practice the better you get. Just keep plugging away at it one shave at a time. I used to think BBS was a pipe dream too - in fact I didn't really chase close shaves, just comfortable ones. But I'm closing in on 3 years of straight shaving, and my shaves now are typically BBS or very close to without irritation.