Neck Shaving Tips and Advice

Hi everyone,

So I am about 3 to 4 months into my straight razor shaving journey and my shaves have improved quite a bit since I first started. I am able to get a very close and comfortable shave on my cheeks, chin, and mustache area. Thats the good news.

Now for the problem, I am not able to shave my neck with the comfort and closeness I am getting on the other areas of my face. I end up with irritation and razor burn on my neck, when I don't have any on the rest of my face. Also, my shave isn't nearly as close on my neck. I try and stretch the skin , use no pressure, and go with the grain of the growth as much as I can. But, the hair on my neck grows in different and difficult patterns; mainly growing from my Adam's Apple out towards my ear.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks to get a closer more comfortable shave on the neck? Any help woluld be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

I'm still working on perfecting my neck shaves.

You might try stretching the skin to the side and doing a north south pass. I saw Lynn do that in one of his shaving videos.

One thing I do is divide my neck into two sections: jaw to Adam's apple and Adam's apple downward. Since the hair grows in opposite directions in both I have to do a WTG pass from north to south on the former and south to north on the latter. Then I follow up with a ATG pass using short buffing strokes. I hardly ever do a third pass on the neck.

I really dont have too much trouble with irritation so i go for a third pass ATG. The problem i have is ATG means from ear to bottom middle. So my third pass is down and in. Its hard to do. Im thinking about a very smiley short blade just for this reason. I really dont want to use two razors to shave with but this might be the only option.

Stretching the skin in different direction than what you normally do might help. I recommend you wait a couple days so you can see your whiskers well. Then just ry stretching the skin in different directions to see what way makes them stand up in the hard to get area. It might help, it might be a waist of time but atleast its an option.

Hi Matt1222, I have a very pronounced adams apple which can make shaving my neck area a bit of a pain. I wear a beard most times but this is my process and I hope it will help. 1) So I start at the bottom of my beard and make a south stroke towards my collar until I have my beard outline close. This gives me about 1 blades width from my beard to my adams apple.
2) With the toe of the razor pointing towards my chin/ jawline I make a stroke starting from just off center of my adams apple towards the outside of my neck.
3) Repeat for the other side :D
4) So this should leave a small stripe down the middle of your adams apple, from there I pull it one way and get a bit and then the other side.
5) So onto 2nd pass, lather up and I start about 1/3 the up my neck from my collar, razor toe pointing towards your ear go straight up to your jaw line both sides.
6) Now you have about the bottom 1/3 of your neck still lathered, go down towards your collar.
7) Then touch up what needs it.
My neck hair grows straight away from my adams apple pretty much and with 2 passes I find this is close enough. There are a few spots I just never get BBS and I live with it. Another thing to try is if you have a DE razor don't be ashamed to pick that up and touch up tough areas. Lots do it and I am one of them at times. I hope this helps neck can be tricky :D

I used to have a lot of irritation at the neck area.
Something that really works for me is stretching the skin in different directions.
When I used to stretch it from top to bottom by the neck in the first pass it wasn't good.
Then I started stretching it from the cheek up and it really worked.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Matt1222

Now for the problem, I am not able to shave my neck with the comfort and closeness I am getting on the other areas of my face. I end up with irritation and razor burn on my neck, when I don't have any on the rest of my face. Also, my shave isn't nearly as close on my neck. I try and stretch the skin , use no pressure, and go with the grain of the growth as much as I can. But, the hair on my neck grows in different and difficult patterns; mainly growing from my Adam's Apple out towards my ear.
Thanks a lot!

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Over the years I've found out that using a razor with lots of smile on the edge gives me effortless super shaves on the neck area you are talking about.

As you can see we all have different issues on our necks. Mine is sort of two things. I have very sensitive skin on my neck and cannot do too many passes or it get irritated. The other is the whiskers on my neck grow very flat against my skin. My solution has been that my first pass is south to north, which is mostly against the grain, take care of almost all the whiskers. I then shave the second pass differently for the different areas on my neck. Sort of four zones that divide in the middle and where the underside of my jaw meets my neck. Underside of my jaw is a weird stretch that is key and difficult to describe. the opposite hand comes over my head and pulls up and back, which pulls part of the skin around the corner of my jaw, and a pass down my jaw line ear to chin. then the stretch moves around to the bottom and pulls down and to the side, the next to my wind pipe gets diagonal pass down and towards the shoulder the last little bit below the jaw and to the side of the wind pipe get a mostly down stroke with a scything action added to it. Generally my shave is two passes and is pretty darn close. No one would ever see that it is not exactly perfect, you might notice if you were choking me, but that never happens.

My neck has always dogged me from day one. My neck is deeply concave and a very pronounced Adams Apple and whiskers needing to be cut straight N-S which is impossible to do on my neck. I've tried all kinds of scything moves and stretching routines and angled approaches and my conclusion is my neck will never be all BBS. A spot of stubble here and there is no big deal really. You can't see it.

I would try to lay the blade flater when dealing with the neck area .Also when go North to South I would try to do a reduction type of pass .Kind of like scoping ice cream motion .The reduction type of stoke help greatly when dealing with tought neck stuble .

As a quick update, I had a great shave this morning! I used a few of the techniques you guys told me about get a close and much less irritating shave on my neck.

First, I didn't use as many passes on my neck as I do on the rest of my face. I did an across the grain pass and an against the grain pass and I was able to get a close shave (much closer than normal) and with almost no irritation. I think having an irritation-free shave on my neck will come with time. I am still relatively new to straight razor shaving, after all.

I also stretched my skin in different directions than normal. This helped with getting a closer shave.

All in all, a great effort! Thanks very much for all of your help. I hope this is the road to a full BBS shave eventually and I wouldn't have been able to do it without this community its a great resource and I'm glad to be a small part of it!

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AcesandEights

I use a smiling blade, when possible.

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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.