Advise Needed: Shaving Outside to Center on Neck

Anyone have any good ways to shave from the outside of the neck towards the center on the neck - either straight across or on a downward diagonal ?

I'm sure there's a good way to do this, but I haven't found it...

I've tried using my right hand, and holding razor with the toe down about 30 degrees from horizontal, and sything from that 30 degree mark to a 45 to 60 degree mark. It works OK at the toe end (due to the greater horizontal travel of the toe), but I have to make several passes to get the valley alongside my trachea smooth, and this causes rash-like razor burn.

I tried using my left hand to shave the right side, but I can't quite reach, without turn my head to the left - which would cause me to need to shave the area by feel. This worries me, since the razor has to follow the contours of the trachea valley, and the stroke would have to stop before hitting the trachea at a very upright / cut prone angle. This worries me enough that I haven't tried it.

I can do an upwards diagonal on the right side using my left hand since I don't have to reach my hand as far to get to the upper corner (since the toe is now on that side). Unfortunately, the upwards diagonal is WTG, and doesn't get very smooth since the hairs lie along the skin and the muscle from the corner of the jaw to the bottom of the throat won't quite lie flat no matter how I turn my head, and I can't get the skin from the valley to a flat area no matter how I stretch the skin. (I'm sure the lack of smoothness WTG is not due to a sharpness issue, since this happens even with razors fresh from SRD.)

Anybody have a video of someone shaving from the outside towards the center of their neck ? I'm sure there's something simple I'm missing...

Thanks.

I don't know. I don't get too crazy when it comes to my neck. Up and down, that's it.
First pass, I go straight down, below the jawline to the base of my neck, no diaganol, no scythe, just straight...On second pass, I go from the base, neckline area upwards towards my jaw. This is all I've ever done. Irritation normally comes from either too much pressure or improper angle...

Rich

That is the direction I have to go when I go ATG on my neck. It isn't easy at all, and has taken a lot of experimenting to get BBS on my neck.

All I can say is try your best to stretch your skin in a way that lifts the hairs up, and use a smooth (but lightly held to prevent knicks) stroke. Turning and tilting my head as much as I could while still being able to see helped as well. I also use grip 9 and 10 from this page.

That is what works for me. It may not work for you though, as we likely have different growth patterns. Experimenting on your own with different grips and strokes is the only way you will find the best approach for you. It took me 3-4 months of experimenting (and not getting great shaves) before I finally was able to get BBS on my neck.

Speaking from experience some of us have very challenging necks and it's not because of hair growth but just being narrow and deeply concave. I usually do up down with a slight diagonal angle and then a down up which is straight. With my razors with heavy smile I usually get BBS or very close to it. My normal razors forget it. It's acceptable to me and that's all that matters. it ain't worth killing myself for that last nth degree on my neck.

I agree with thebigspendur. At most, I do one down pass and one up pass. I don't get BBS, but come on. Who is going to touch your neck and judge you?

I also have a few patches on either side of my neck where the grain goes out sideways back towards my ears, but only ever do passes up and down... which effectively amounts to two XTG passes on those patches. It's not BBS there, but as with others I'm not too fussed... it's still a far close shave there than I was getting with cartridge razors. With a much smaller blade I guess I could do an ATG pass their without much difficulty, but I'm just not fussed about it.

It's not that I care whether my neck is BBS per se - but I wear collared shirts & ties, and when I turn my head, the stubble on my neck sticks into the shirt collar and my neck gets irritated (plus my collars get chewed up). That's why BBS on my neck is my goal :)

Up and down too. It gets pretty close with practice. Going sideways around the neck area is pretty hard, I think.

There's no shame in taking a DE and touching that part of your neck up until you get it figured out. That way you won't feel "pressured" to get it BBS and end up causing irritation. Try something one day, if it doesn't work touch it up and try something else tomorrow. Eventually you'll find the right stroke and it will all fall into place naturally; in the mean time you'll be saving your shirts and your neck.
Good Luck.

I'm pretty much up and down on the neck as well. I have found that stretching the neck by pulling back towards my ear with my fingers and pulling downwards with my thumb at the same time allows me to get this area very well. I wouldn't call it BBS, but equal to what I used to get with a multi-blade. +1 to the 9 & 10 holds listed above.

I have to do an angle type stroke to get my neck BBS...just up and down doesn't "cut it" for me. I basically just took my razor and held it above my skin and did "air movements" until I found a stroke that would be comfortable and safe and then gave that a shot. :gl:

You might want to try buying a cheapo razor and getting someone to grind the blade down to an inch or two. Having a smaller blade will help you go in many new directions that your 3 inch blade cannot.