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I've got the cheeks down, and I can do my neck with few if any nicks -- learning how to change the angle around curves. However, when I watch videos of people shaving they always finish the neck ATG.
I've noticed that when I check for smoothness my neck feels pretty good WTG, but is pretty rough ATG. Is this normal for a straight razor shave? I notice that when I use a safety razor I always go against the grain on my neck, but it's still a little spooky for me with a straight razor.
Thanks.
Ziggy,
The hairs on most mens necks rarely all lie in the same direction.
Due to the blade shape on a straight, there are certain limitations to the direction that the ATG pass can take (mostly up or down), so if the hairs lie cross-ways, they never get trimmed as closely on the ATG pass.
Some people do have the skills necessary to move the blade in amazing ways in the ATG pass, but I am not one of them !
When I have finished a shave 90 % of my neck is BBS, but the reamining 10 % is rough on an ATG rub, mainly either side of my Adams Apple.
Before I used to be obsessive about removing this 10 %, which quickly lead to a very irritated neck :(
I now just go with the flow, and accept that 10 % of ATG roughness :)
Best regards
Russ
Yep - all pretty normal.
If it looks fine, and noone's needing to rub your face (as they do from time time) you probably don't need to fuss with ATG - maybe just for special occasions.
It is pretty spooky and feels weird and awkward going different directions. Take your time and introduce ATG (if you want to) a bit at a time - maybe practice on weekends or when you have time or it doesn't matter if you have a few nicks.
My current challenge - getting a really good finish on the chin.
I re-visit the videos and wikis from time to time and keep chipping away at getting that 'perfect' shave. It's a fun learning journey.:)
All the best,
Michael.
ps - don't know if you've discovered this, but I found this was good for getting the jaw line:
Pulling the skin upward really helps here - place hand over head and pull skin just around your side burns. This pulls the skin around your jaw up and away from the hard jawline. (Probably in a video somewhere too).
As FTG says, stretch the skin on your neck around to make the hairs stand up. Then you can get BBS with only WTG and XTG passes.
I cant shave ATG, it ruins my face, so I use this approach and it works for me.