For years I've had trouble shaving my neck. It's been really bad the past few months as I've experimented with ways to handle it. I think I've figured out what part of the problem is and I'm not sure what to do about it.

It seems that the hair on my neck (starting at my jaw and going to my neck) grows in all directions. In any given small patch of skin, the hair grows either up, down, left or right. There doesn't seem to be a sustained area of more than an inch where it goes in one direction. Complicating it even more is that there are other areas where the hair swirls and goes all 4 directions seemingly at once. The result of this is that every shaving pass I do goes simultaneously with, against and across the grain. Add to it tough, wiry hair and it's no wonder I've been dealing with irritation for years. It was pretty workable with an electric razor, but the shave was terrible. The shave was better with a cartridge, but the irritation was through the roof. I'm at the point now where I just do the best I can...sometimes it's good, but most of the time it's not.

Does anyone have this issue? If so, how do you deal with it? If not, what do you advise? Does the use of a straight help negate this issue? It's one of the reasons I bought one...the hopes that it would eliminate (or significantly lessen) this ongoing issue.