Neck Shaving Tips and Advice

[Matt1222]

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!

[Leatherstockiings]

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.

[Gasman]

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.

[ejmolitor37]

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
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

[franc0]

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.

[Benz]

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!

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.

[RezDog]

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.

[thebigspendur]

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.

[M14Shooter]

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 .

[Matt1222]

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!