Thread: How many neck passes?

1) How long does it take you go get a BBS shave?
A. 30 minutes or so.

2) How many passes do you do?
A. 3

3) Is your neck ever BBS? If yes, then how?
A. Never. The grain goes west to east down there, impossible to cut across the grain without losing at least a pint.

4) Any other tips you might want to share.
A. Just a comment. You've shaved now for 8 months. From what you've described, I'm convinced that you are getting the best shave you can. One possiblity for improvement could be the type of razor if you have not tried different grinds. I find that, for me, very heavy classic razors give me closer shaves. Big W&Bs seem to plow the stuff off very close. Again, my face.

Regards,
Marc

I guess that I have only tried full hollow up until this point.

Actually I have a wedge that I borrowed from another SRP user. I could try that again, but it's a spike point so I didn't like it before. However, now that I have been shaving for awhile, and I don't usually nick myself anymore, I could try it again and see how that does. Perhaps I should try a half hollow too.

Is there an online razor rental place like Netflix? That's what I need!

Originally Posted by TyGuy

I have been SR shaving for probably 8 months now. It takes me at least 3 if not 4 passes to get my face BBS (WTG , XTG L to R, {XTG R to L}, ATG) <-- the 2nd XTG is not always done, but it does seem to help.

...I usually do a pass down from my jaw line toward my chest, then a pass up from my chest towards my jaw line, then optionally { I do a pass up from my chest towards my jaw line with the blade purely horizontal but my pass is diagonally up and towards my ears}, and then I finish with a motion up from my chest towards my jaw line with the blad purely horizontal but my motion is diagonally up and in towards my chin.

-Ty

From this description, it sounds like your first pass is actually ATG and the rest are all WTG. This is the opposite of most shaving routines. While neck hairs do grow in every direction they can find, in general, I believe they tend to point in a northern direction. This would make a pass from jaw to chest against the grain. If you're doing only your first pass this way, the subsequent passes probably aren't doing much. Try reversing your method and see what happens.

I've been SR shaving about 4 months and have the same sideways & lay flat to the skin neck hairs. I've been experimenting for 2.5 months (of daily shaves), and am finally getting somewhere. Here's what's did the trick for me:
- 1 N-S pass with the razor angled a bit and the skin stretched toward the direction the tips of the hair point - but just until taught and not farther (overstretching was causing a LOT of razor burn for me).
- Clean up the valley alongside the trachea (if pass #1 was worse than usual) using a sything motion (which gets the tip moving "almost" horizontal).
- 1 S-N pass while pushing my trachea into the valley that's normally alongside it and stretching my skin the other direction. (I think stretching the skin "wrong" direction has more to do with getting the skin onto a different curvature of my neck than getting the hairs to stand up).

My neck still isn't BBS, but the stubble is short enough now that I don't feel it sticking into my shirt collar until evening.

I can get my neck smoother with another pass or two (DFS), but always get razor burn when I do. I'm hoping that in another few months my technique will have improved enough to allow the extra pass...

ps: I notice that I do better with both razor burn and smoothness if I wash off the lather and relather to do my neck. I'm slow enough that the lather has become stiffer (dryer), and it makes a difference. My total shaving time with lather prep, stropping, etc is ~ 25-30 minutes.

Originally Posted by Obie

The best tip I can give you is this: Embrace the whole ritual of wet shaving with the straight razor and don't put a heavy emphasis on BBS, especially on the neck, if yours is as difficult as mine.

Wise counsel, as always, Obie!

Originally Posted by LarryP

Wise counsel, as always, Obie!

Hello, Larry:

Bless your heart for the kind words. Thanks.

Your friend,
Obie

I shall try some of the suggestions given here, and I'll let you know how it goes. I'll also mention that I re-wet and re-lather my face after each pass. I have a scuttle from George Town pottery that I keep on a candle warmer so at least I have nice hot lather.

I used to really enjoy the SR shave, even though it took 20-30 minutes. I think my frustration lately has been from feeling that I have reached a plateau and that my shaves won't get any better. I hope that they will.

I pretty much duplicate what you do.

30 minutes.

4 passes

BBS on all areas.

Stubear's comments on scything and toe leading are right on mark. For sideways neck growth under the jaw, I would never be able to get these areas without it.

Obie also is giving you sage-like advice. Who cares if it takes 30 minutes? I have to admit that when the shave is over, it is a little like finishing a good book. I wish it hadn't ended. I treat each shave as unique, building upon the foundation from all previous shaves.

Now, one more suggestion. Based on some advice I was given by Jeremy (ShavedZombie), I strop 20-30 strokes before the ATG. Think about it. The hardest pass with the need for the sharpest edge is the last one we do. I have read that a man's whisker can have the tensile strength of a piece of copper wire of the same diameter. If that is true, we are beating the hell out of the edge in the first 3 passes, then use the edge to make the hardest pass. So give that a try, I have really noticed a difference in my ATG pass.

Good Luck to you.

David

IME I shave for about a month now, manage to get 3 passes in 30 minute or so and yeah it's BBS...somehow I don't like to finish it faster....

anyway, about the neck, hell that area really annoy me when I start straight, but I'm pretty much managed to have BBS in that area (recently in the last 2 weeks) what I did is to have WTG first then ATG, I do stretch when I did ATG but I move my finger with my blade, so it's might like I just stretch small area then move to the next area when the blade is done...however one thing that I notice is that you don't overstretch, just like how the blade touch ur skin, you only need to touch the skin lightly with 2-3 fingers or so, and make sure the stretched area is quite flat or anyhow ease the blade movement.

in my case I use shorter blade ~2", normal length of blade didn't feel right for me, anyhow I also fond of spike point since I believe that's the only point that works best in difficult area, but my 2" MAB is in oblique point and I can tell you it even better for me.

just my 2 cent

Erick

You should never need pressure, ever. Also You need to always use a scything motion with the razor to cut the hairs closely, this is the way straight razors were designed to cut, head on isn't really correct (Check old manuals). You need to slice with the blade while moving the blade downward (on wtg for example) to use scything motion.