Quote Originally Posted by booga
Olive oil + mug soap works well for me but I have a different problem. I've been making a 2nd pass against the grain for the ultimate closeness. However, this irritates my skin & I am more apt to draw blood during this step. The most problematic area is my jawline. My hairs seem to grow horizontally here, so to go against the grain I need to drag the razor horizontally from ear to chin. I watched Lynn's video & notice that he doesn't do this step at all. Is back-cutting problematic for everybody, or is my technique at fault? I may just stop doing it & accept a less close shave. I have no trouble & don't draw blood with the forward cut.
I have the same exact growth pattern and the same problem. I can go forward on the jaw and just under it by pulling the skin onto the jaw, but just below that is impossible and nobody has ever been able to show me a way to do that.

I do a 3 pass shave: down, forward and up. The first two passes are non-aggressive (I don't try to cut down to skin and don't worry about what I'm leaving on my face, as long as I'm down to a light stubble by the third pass). On my neck, on the second pass, I go hold the blade on an angle to the jawline and shave down and forward. The blade is pointing down and I shave with the heel, which allows me themost forward movement I can get. The tip is hanging ou in midair. I do the same thing on the neck in the last pass. To avoid irritation, I need to stretch the skin there totally flat.

If you're getting neck irritation, you may be picking it up on the first pass if you're aggressive. You may not feel it yet at that point, but it accumulates, and after the first pass you're well on your way. For most guys, the grain on the cheecks is down, but it reverses on the neck below the jaw. That means an aggressive down pass on the neck is actually going against the grain. Check the grain on you're neck and see if it applies to you. If so, and you want to shave aggressively, Shave down on the first pass until just under the jawline, and then shave up from the bottom of the neck. Try really stretching on the neck. That should help with the irritation.

Also, instead of a second countergrain pass, try a touchup pass. Feel around for the spots that still need work and do them one at a time. Lather a spot lightly with your fingers, stretch it betwen your thumb and index finger, and carefully shave it very lightly from different diections. This is about as good as you'll get without usinga DE. I'm a perfectionist. I use a special razor on the touchup to get totally clean. It's an injector with a cut down Feather str8 blade.