Thread: neck passes

The hairs on my neck sound like they grow very much like yours do. From the adams apple out. Like Stropper said, I don't have the blade straight up and down, I hold it at about a 45degree angle (diagonal) heel first if I can, and then do a sideways pass (adams apple out towards the ears.)

It's kinda rough to do ATG in that area, but if you pull the skin real tight, and go real slow with a gentle touch, you can get it pretty smooth. Sometimes it's not how I'd like it, but it happens

I do a lot of angled shaving on my neck as well. Mine is probably more like 30 degrees rather than 45, but same concept. Kind of like an x pattern on a strop (of course with the edge leading).

I go slow and steady with short gentle strokes when shaving at an angle, and I make sure that my skin is pulled super tight. I found early on that that if I went for a longer pass and my wrist broke, or if the skin was a bit loose the action can force the blade to move along the edge rather than across it (very very bad).

I also find that the heel leading works better than the head leading if possible, because if the razor drags a bit, it will tend to square the razor up perpendicular to the motion rather then turn it where the edge is parallel to the motion (again, very very bad).

Hope this helps.

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the advice - I really appreciate all the feedback! It's taken a few days to lick this and I think I have a system. I'm glad to know I'm not the only person with neck hair that goes all over the place! Life would be so much simpler if all the hair just went straight down! I was able to use a good combination of all the things mentioned in all your comments.

I think all the advice about pulling is important - pulling being slightly more "proactive" than just stretching...I can't do my neck in less than three passes (for BBS) and the XTG pass seems to make or break the shave altogether.

I'm going to try the new system for a week and see if I get consistant results - I'll let you know!

Have a great one, all!

Julian

Originally Posted by LarryAndro

One more thing I just thought of...

When I shave, the warmth expands my skin over the beard just slightly. But, after I shave my neck might feel fine. So, I clean up and put my gear away, and run my hands over my face and neck. And, where my neck might have felt BBS before, there is noticeable stubble. I think this is because the skin of my neck cooled down, and contracted.

For this reason, and this is the only area, I will sometimes splash COLD water over my neck and make a final pass. And/or will actually shave it dry, without soap. Seems like the hair, (half way between beard and hair), sticks up more in a prickly sort of way. But, still can be easily nicked off by the blade.

I have found this to be true as well, and only for the neck. This technique for me, makes the difference between mostly BBS but with some spots just pretty close on the neck and actually having true BBS all around under there. If you want to do this everyday, you must keep your blade well-maintained (sharp and stropped correctly), or else irritation may result.

If your neck whiskers grow like mine do, sideways towards the ears, just skip the WTG pass altogether and go for XTG first. I find even if ATG is not possible than 2 XTG passes (from opposite directions) seems to do the trick more than nicely. Oh, and some neck-skin stretching usually comes in handy too.

Well this seems like a problem area most of us share, my solution is to go straight down first pass from jawline to chest (not a true wtg because of the direction of growth) 2nd pass is in the opposite direction i.e. straight up, then for a 3rd pass I go at about a 45 degree angle with the heel pointing toward my ear and the toe pointing down, I start wide near the curve of my ear and use a scything motion, keeping the blade near flat to the skin and working toward the adams apple, kind of like a windscreen wiper, with no pressure at all.
Mmm hope that makes sense?

Thanks guys, these all make sense! I've gotten comfortable with doing angled passes on my neck and yes, the sharper, the easier. I touched up a razor on my homemade balsa strop (Chromium Oxide) and the ATG passes were great. I've also managed to get a good pulling system down. This was the hardest won skill. But like so many of you, the hair on my neck goes all over the place - what a mess!

Have a great afternoon!

Julian

Btw I meant 3rd pass heel up and toe down, thought about it today as I shaved, the heel is near my chin and the toe points down, so I sweep the area with a scything stroke. Jeez who could hold a razor the way i put it in my 1st thread!! lol
just been bugging me so i wanted to clear that up