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An unconventional way to get BBS on the neck

Howdy B&Bers, what I am about to share with you is strongly YMMV.

I have long been in search of a BBS shave on my neck. I never shave ATG as weepers and ingrown hairs are commonly the result. I have what I would consider sensitive skin, and medium-coarse dark hair.
I was in the experimenting mood the other week while shaving after having just read a thread (now which I cannot find) that had a link to an article about a street barber in India I believe.
The street barber mentioned that instead of pulling the skin tight on his clients faces to perform a shave, he pushed the skin toward the direction of the blade, creating a loose roll of skin which he then shaved. He claimed this helped the hair stand up better and was easier to cut.
This, baffled me. We have always been told to hold the skin tight while we shave!
I decided I would try this type of technique on my neck (which is pretty much the only place on my face I have issues).
So instead of lifting my chin up to tighten my skin on my neck, I tilted my head down and to the right slightly (while shaving the right side). This caused my neck skin to relax. I'm not a big guy at all, and I tilted my head down till I almost got a small skin roll. I took my Progress on #2 and started buffing away ATG (south) and expected to start feeling the familiar warmth and burn with immediate weepers of my usual ATG pass.
To my amazement I didn't feel a darn thing. I had to double check to make sure my razor was cutting the hairs. Indeed it was, and what a fantastic job it did. I couldn't believe it. Had I stumbled upon my holy grail shaving technique? Yes!
I have continued this way every shave since on my neck, and each time it has gone by without a hitch. It takes a little while to get used to doing something so against the book, but it works for me.

If you have sensitive neck skin and are interested in doing an ATG pass, give this technique a try. But please, be very careful. You should know right away if this is going to work for you. For those of you that try, let me know what you think.
 
I'm going to try it, even though my ATGs on my neck have been improving (still not perfect, get those ingrown hairs and weepers sometimes)

i'll report back after a few shaves to see if it made any difference
 
There's a spot just below my cheek (part of my second chin) where this technique works very well. Instead of any pushing or pulling, I merely tilt my head down, thus exaggerating my double chin. I shave the area, and usually end up with positive results. I don't always do it, as the burn created when pulling taught is tolerable.

Just my experience.
 
Interesting-- I think I'll give this a try as well. I've noticed a somewhat similar effect when buffing the sides of my chin along the jawline, when I sometimes neglect to keep the skin taut. When I catch myself doing this, I immediately do whatever contortions are needed to stretch the skin. Perhaps a little skin roll action wouldn't be a bad thing. Definitely worth a try.

Thanks for the tip, Gareth.
 
I've noticed the same thing on my "wattle": pulling taut, I still feel microstubble, but if I buff lightly ATG while it's loose, I get BBS.
 
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I have noticed that nice feeling of burnfree ATG shaving as well when I let my skin relax. Thank you for bringing that technique up.
 
I do this too.

When you push the skin towards the blade, creating a roll as you say, it brings the hairs out of the skin.

It applies to your chin area too (if you have a chubby chin).
 
I believe this is the article you were thinking of.

I have been doing the same thing since I read the article also, tilting my head to relax the skin. Most of my face shaves fairly easy without much irritation but my neck is another story. My hair swirls like crazy, so it didn't matter which way I shaved, at some point it was ATG and I ended up with pain and irritation there. This technique has been great to me. Pain free and no irritation! I will say that mine are mostly DFS and getting closer to a BBS. My DE razors are fairly mild too so I think that with a little practice and maybe trying a little more aggressive razor I will get a BBS shave for sure.

I do encourage everyone to try this. But as the OP said, YMMV.
 
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Skin stretching has never been part of my routine, aside from a little facial gymnastics to make an area flat enough for the blade.
To me, it seems like stretching is more likely to pull the stubble in towards skin level.

Thanks for posting this, Kodiak.
 
I do that too. I drop my chin to puff out my neck when I shave my XTG passes. I really works great.
 
I believe this is the article you were thinking of.

I have been doing the same thing since I read the article also, tilting my head to relax the skin. Most of my face shaves fairly easy without much irritation but my neck is another story. My hair swirls like crazy, so it didn't matter which way I shaved, at some point it was ATG and I ended up with pain and irritation there. This technique has been great to me. Pain free and no irritation! I will say that mine are mostly DFS and getting closer to a BBS. My DE razors are fairly mild too so I think that with a little practice and maybe trying a little more aggressive razor I will get a BBS shave for sure.

I do encourage everyone to try this. But as the OP said, YMMV.

Yes, thanks for the link. That's the one.
 
I will be definitely trying this tonight. My neck is the one area I always have issues with. I get BBS above my jawline EVERY shave with no issues at all. South of the jaw it's a different story. Will report back
 
Do you push from behind the razor or in front of it? Or just whatever's convenient?

I don't think this would work for me going ATG, but might give it a try.
 
Do you push from behind the razor or in front of it? Or just whatever's convenient?

I don't think this would work for me going ATG, but might give it a try.

Hey Ray,
When I use this technique, I don't do any pushing of the skin. I just let my neck skin relax comfortably. I suppose one could push the skin toward the razor while shaving it but since the skin is so loose already I didn't feel it would be necessary. Perhaps give it a try both ways and see what works for you.
I feel that the pushing of the skin might work better on the cheeks and jawline, rather than on the neck.
 
This might just be my imagination too but is seems that this technique is more forgiving as to how much pressure you apply with the razor. When I started with a DE, everyone was saying that you just let the weight of the razor do the shaving and any extra pressure will cause cuts. With the relaxed skin, it seems that you can push a little and have no ill effects from it. But again, YMMV.
 
Have you guys tried J-Hooking? It helps for BBS under neck.

Oooo, I remember learning about this way back when, but TOTALLY forgot about it until now. When my technique was worse, I used to do blade buffing on my chin quite a bit, but now I have eliminated the need to do too much of that. But this is definitely something to revisit for the ever-tricky lower neck area.
 
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