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okay i have been using a straight razor for about a month and i have gotten pretty good at it. I got the with grain, cross grain, and the agaist grain on my face. However the neck area is always troublesome. either i miss spots, or i cut myself there. and when its all done i have a close shave on my face but my neck feels like i did little or no shaving.
The neck is a trouble spot for most newbs (if not all of them). If you're like me your whiskers grow in all different directions, which is why there is no easy solution to this problem. First, take extra care mapping the whiskers there and try your best to follow the grain for your respective passes. Second, and this is essentially the trick, experiment with skin stretching; try every which direction until you find what works for you.
For me, my whiskers on my neck grow from the middle to my ears, so a N-S or S-N pass is XTG for me. Often have to pull the skin either up or down, and sometimes side-to-side, to get a smooth shave.
Good luck!
as already stated neck hair grows all willy nilly. To add to that (for me) there is a section that was nearly impossible for me to hit. where my throat hits the neck there is this spot that is like a trench. I have to stretch my chin out and pull the skin sideways to get it as flat as possible and after all that I have to use more of the heel to get in there.
Everyone's face is different and everyone has their own trouble spots, and there isn't always an easy answer other than keep trying and you'll get it.
As for missing spot, with practice comes consistency.
Right on about crazy grain direction indicated above
Also stretching different directions. To stretch down put your fingers just above the collar bone, THEN tilt head up and to the opposite direction
Count me in too. That is a troublesome spot. I have even gone as far as sitting in a chair and leaning my head back then shaving my neck area. It works fairly well. I can get the skin of my neck stretched and flat. I guess that's how it's done at the barbers!
Personally, I don't worry about the BBS shave. I think that it's overrated. I try for a smooth comfortable shave(they typically are good enough to pass inspection at work 24-30 hours later). My 17 year old son strait shaves and he has the same problem as I do with just below the jaw and at the top of the neck; as in that the beard flows from left to right while the rest pretty much goes up and down. He's learning the lingo and knows what a smiling blade is. He figures that someone should come up with a razor with an extreme smile in a round tip so that we can get a closer shave in our problem area! :)
I'll echo everyone's comments about mapping out the direction of growth. I remember people saying this and I'd think to myself "come on, I know which way my beard grows." But, after really looking at each part, I realized I was wrong.
Also, I'm just getting back into shaving with a straight after a 4 month hiatus (my razors were dull, I struggled with honing, kept meaning to send them out but didn't, etc etc) and in that time grew a beard. Now, I finally got my razors back, but am keeping the beard for awhile longer because it really helps me focus on just my neck (I'm shaving right up to under the jawline) with is most difficult for me. I've noticed a lot of improvement doing this.
Another thing that is helping me (I'm still very much a newb) is focusing on each pass individually. If your job allows a less than perfect shave, try just wtg for a couple weeks. See how good you can get at that. Then try adding in xtg and focusing on that for a few weeks or even a month (or indefinitely as a lot people don't do atg). I'm doing that because I realized I was using the atg pass as a crutch. If I did a sloppy job on the previous passes, I knew the atg pass would get it, even if it meant more irritation. So doing this helps you get the most hair removal with a given pass, making the next pass that much better/easier. Not sure if I'm making sense here.
Again, I'm still learning myself, so keep that in mind. These are some things that are working for me as I'm learning.
Ken
I've always found when it comes to the neck the razor has to be matched to your neck if you want BBS all over your neck. Now I'm talking about me here. I've found with many razors no matter what moves I use there are just areas on my neck that will never be BBS. However with certain razor there is no problem. I've pretty much figured out razors that are shorter like a Kamisori or even the TI Crownwing and razors with heavy smiles get in the deep hollows of my neck better.