Thread: on to the next problem spot

ok so I think I have most of doing my cheeks ironed out to the point to where with a little playing I'll be stupidly smooth. right now Im comfortable not finishing my cheeks with a de.

now I have a problem. I have a total neck beard. I literally shave from my collar bone up. but under my chin the grain goes from my ear to my chin on the left side and from my chin to my ear on the right. and then in the middle it goes straight sideways. I can get bbs around the jaw line but on the straight sideways bit Im having trouble holding the razor in a way as to make it go sideways.

if I flip it point towards my chin the tang gets in the way and if I flip it the other way the point is playing patty cake with my trachea. any suggestions

Don' get to worried about the WTG and ATG and try XTG.

My problem areas are immediately under the jawline, the hollows on either side of my windpipe, and the knob of the chin. I should clarify that by saying that I mean they are the most difficult areas in terms of the toughness of the whiskers, and getting BBS in those areas. That used to be a problem, it no longer is, but it is still more difficult than the rest of my shave.

I do 2 passes. A down pass which is in some sense WTG, but not all the whiskers are WTG on a down pass. I follow that with an up pass, and again, not all the whiskers are ATG on that pass. What I call a "pass" may be me hitting an area more than once per pass, but I still refer to that as "a pass," if you get what I mean.

I learned the "guillotine stroke" which is angling the blade so it is not exactly perpendicular but on a slight skew, sometimes more than slight, and I am slicing whiskers instead of plowing into them as if I was scraping ice off of a windshield.

Some guys get this stroke easily and early. It took me about a year to begin to master it. I started experimenting with it on my cheeks and gradually widened out to the rest of the terrain. If you visualize the way a guillotine slices you'll get the idea. I also move the razor over the skin in a way that I am not going to describe but suffice to say that it enhances the slicing of the whiskers.

That is the good news, the bad news is that if you use any pressure you can slice into the skin as well as the whiskers. So if any of this makes any sense try it on easy areas before you go to the difficult spots. The edge should glide over the skin slicing the whiskers, not digging into the skin at all.

Holding the razor to best advantage in those awkward areas is a lonesome valley we all have to walk by ourselves. Practice makes perfect with that too. I found practicing with a dull razor, a taped edge, or better yet, what I had, a removable blade straight, with no blade, helped me to find better ways to maneuver the razor.

Last but not at all least ...... stretching the skin. More like pulling it taut. Doesn't necessarily have to be drum head tight but it should be taut for best results. There too, try different directions of pulling - pushing the skin if what you're doing isn't working. It was through experimenting with different directions of stretching that I finally found the way to get those difficult areas aforementioned.

I use a guillotine stroke in most spots on my face and a scythe stroke where I can't. the only time I don't do this is when I'm using the very toe for getting around my trachea and my jaw (I have to use the very tip getting right next to my ear because my jaw juts out and if i don't I barely cut hair.

It seems like going back and forth across the grain does little. I think I might just have to find a new way to hold the skin

It is really a matter of trial and error. Sooner or later we figure out what works for us.