Thread: Shaving my neck - not going well

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. My neck is still pretty razor burned some 12 hours after I shaved so I'm going to give it a day off tomorrow. I'm going to let it grow this weekend and see how my beard comes in. I think the major problem, as you all suggested, is stretching my skin. Plus I need to work on the razor angle a bit too. We'll see how it goes in a couple of days. What a great forum this is.

Originally Posted by EdinLA44

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. My neck is still pretty razor burned some 12 hours after I shaved so I'm going to give it a day off tomorrow. I'm going to let it grow this weekend and see how my beard comes in. I think the major problem, as you all suggested, is stretching my skin. Plus I need to work on the razor angle a bit too. We'll see how it goes in a couple of days. What a great forum this is.

Remember to feel which way your beard grows, as it grows. Once it gets too long it's hard to tell, at least for me. Like I said, mine grows different directions all over the place so I found that really needed to understand all the different directions before I started getting rid of the irritation. I still have to be mindful of that even after 6 months or so.

Keep at it, you'll get it. It's amazing how much there is to the art of str8 razor shaving.

Yet another suggestion...try lowering the razor to about 10-20 degrees (one spine width instead of two) in difficult areas like the neck and chin. I've found this very helpful. This also works well on the upper lip combined with an oblique angle attack (slightly against the grain). You'll use the customary 30 degree angle for most of your face but lowering the spine in close and difficult areas has given me a closer AND more comfortable shave, particularly in the neck and chin areas.

Tom

Yeah, I think it was a combination of not stretching the skin enough and too high of a razor angle. The razor burn was so bad that's it's still there today, 4 days after when it happened. Ouch.

Four days after?!! Wow, you must have about "skinned" yourself!! Some Trumper's Skin Food should come in handy. I find it really works when I get too aggressive or obsessive/compulsive about my shaves. I'm a 3 way shaver and I really like to get the "baby butt" effect. And as every shaver knows, there's a very fine line between baby butt smooth and "skinning" your face.

Tom

Originally Posted by straightman

Four days after?!! Wow, you must have about "skinned" yourself!! Some Trumper's Skin Food should come in handy. I find it really works when I get too aggressive or obsessive/compulsive about my shaves. I'm a 3 way shaver and I really like to get the "baby butt" effect. And as every shaver knows, there's a very fine line between baby butt smooth and "skinning" your face.

Tom

Tom that is really the truth. I must say though that I haven't skinned myself in a while. Cut yes skinned no.

Hey Rich,

Yeah, I know what Ed is talking about. I have a tendancy to not quit until I've "killed" every single hair on my face...no matter how much blood loss. Actually I am getting better at getting that ultra close shave without butchering myself. You just have to know how to get those whiskers with the first 2 or 3 passes instead of the seventh pass. And half of that battle is really knowing your face...which I'm just beginning to accomplish. I have one area though that I can't seem to figure out how to attack when I want to make my last pass against the grain. I'm right handed and it's the concave area on the left side of my face just below the mandible (jaw bone). I can reach it for a "with the grain" and "an oblique across the grain" pass. But I'm not sure how to hold/position the razor to go straight against the grain, which for me is parallel with my mandible and going away from my face (toward my chin, or, toward the mirror). If I could shorten the length of my blade by 1/2" I'd have it made, but I just can't get the whole blade to fit in the area I need to go straight against the grain. Maybe if I experiment with positioning my head so that the concave area becomes flat, I might have to use my left hand to hold the razor...hey, I think I've got it!!

Tom

Go to my gallery and read the article about neck irritation. It pulls together all the things everyone's been saying.

The skin on the neck seems to be the most sensitive, so you need to be diligent about stretching it flat. Be careful bout not applying too much pressure to the razor and keep the razor angle as flat as you can. Don't shave too aggressively. Don't try to shave off too much at one time. And when you finally get down to skin lighten up on the pressure some more so you don't shave off a fine layer of skin.

Joe is dead on with all his comments. At first I thought I was using a light touch on my neck and chin, but I really wasn't. What I'm actually talking about is a "feather" touch. I now lay the razor against the spine just slightly lifting it to shave my neck and chin. It's also important that, when shaving the chin, you follow the contours as exactly as you can. This may sound obvious but I've caught myself lifting the spine until the razor was sometimes at 45 degrees. So you'll need to rotate the razor as you go vertically up or down. This requires you to shift your hold slightly so be careful not to drop your razor. And in case you do, I hope you're wearing clothes and protection for your feet (Never shave in the buff with a straight razor!). My ability to shave my neck and chin has improved 200% in just the last few shaves using these techniques.
I've pretty well conquered shaving the remaining areas of my face. Now I just need more practice so I can (safely) pick up my speed. When I get a little faster I'll start using my straight razor to shave through the week. I really look forward to using my straight on the weekends though. It took me about 45 minutes yesterday (I know, I'm really slow) but I got a really close and really comfortable shave...at least as close as my Merkur HD DE and with less nicks and burn. It really is amazing to me how much more comfortable a straight razor shave is vs a DE. And I thought my DE's were giving me great shaves...far better than my cartridge and electric shavers. But still not as comfortable as my straight.

Tom

Thanks Joe and Straightman,

Today was my first straight razor shave since I badly razor burned myself on Monday. My neck turned out much better this time. My focus was on stretching the skin and blade angle. I had to keep that thought going in my head or before I knew it, I had the blade at a too high of an angle or I'd realize I'd stopped stretching my skin as much.

I'd say I got about 70% of the hair on my neck, which is good for my third shave. I did have a problem figuring out how to hold the razor though. For going north to south on the side of my face, it's the standard overhand grip. But when I'm trying to shave my neck south to north, it's tough to figure out how to hold the razor. I'm trying to learn to shave using each hand so it's a bit awkward trying to hold the razor that way.

I went slowly and took as light of a touch as I could. I could almost feel each hair being cut. The hair on my neck is much more coarse than on my face. I could probably get by shaving my face every other day, but my neck is a whole different story and the grain is in all sorts of directions. I only got one slight nick that stopped bleeding almost right away and I didn't have to hit it with the styptic pencil. I ended up doing 3 passes on my face and 2 on my neck and it felt great. Nothing can beat a straight razor shave.