Concave areas under my jaw and on my neck

[Seelector]

After about a year of DE shaving the spots that give me the most trouble are below my jawline and on my neck either side of my Adam’s apple. I’ve always been skinny and these two spots are concave, making it really hard to get the blade to contact in there. As a result there’s always too much stubble left there for my liking.

The best way I’ve found is to stretch my skin and change try shaving in a different direction. This works ok but not great, and often leads to irritation.

Anybody have any good tips to help with this?

 

[Mysterious Mose]

After about a year of DE shaving the spots that give me the most trouble are below my jawline and on my neck either side of my Adam’s apple. I’ve always been skinny and these two spots are concave, making it really hard to get the blade to contact in there. As a result there’s always too much stubble left there for my liking.

The best way I’ve found is to stretch my skin and change try shaving in a different direction. This works ok but not great, and often leads to irritation.

Anybody have any good tips to help with this?

If you do a partial swallow, your Adam's apple moves out of the way.

 

[rbscebu]

For the hollows of my neck, the growth is mostly horizontal from the throat out. I use a SR with a very keen edge and shave S to N with a Gillette slide motion towards the throat, heel leading. Works well for me.

 

[StewB]

I have sensitive neck skin too. Cream shave and gel products that create slickness might help.

 

[BigJ]

I do ‘skin stretching’ using pressure from the hand that is not holding the razor to move/temporarily reconfigure skin in difficult areas. I also move my head to help with these spots.

 

[DanielD]

Same. Very tricky area to shave.

 

[silverlifter]

I have the same hollows. A combination of skin stretching and bullfrogging creates an almost flat plane to shave. When bullfrogging, don't fill your cheeks, but take a deep breath, block your glottis and and push air up from your trunk to inflate your neck. It might take a little practice, but it makes shaving that part ofyour neck much simpler, and more comfortable.

 

[Hair Scraper]

I'm in the same boat. The concave area under my jawline seems to be too tight of a radius for a DE razor to make contact with the skin. Some razors have more difficulty getting in there than others, too. I'll try to make multiple back to front passes and try to bias the razor with a little bit more pressure on the bottom edge of the blade. I'm considering getting one of the Merkur Moustache Razors. They look like they're about half the width of an ordinary DE razor.

To the left and right of my 'apple I start out with the skin taught, but find if I make clean-up passes with my skin rinsed of all shave lather the razor tends to pull on my skin raising the "grove" that grows just above the collar line.

I'm going to try some of the other suggestions brought up here.

 

[HazMat Shaver]

I found Pushing in on the opposite side of the neck pushes that hollow out enough to get a clean shave of it. It's tricky as stretching the skin and pushing in on the opposite side plus swinging the razors. Almost a 3 handed move but it can be done with two. But then that is only when I really want to be as close to BBS as possible. Most of the time I don't worry about it as my whiskers are gray so if I don't get BBS it's fine. Nobody can see them.

 

[T Bone]

After about a year of DE shaving the spots that give me the most trouble are below my jawline and on my neck either side of my Adam’s apple. I’ve always been skinny and these two spots are concave, making it really hard to get the blade to contact in there. As a result there’s always too much stubble left there for my liking.

The best way I’ve found is to stretch my skin and change try shaving in a different direction. This works ok but not great, and often leads to irritation.

Anybody have any good tips to help with this?

These are my 2 most difficult spots too, seems that way for a lot of folks.

The jawline seems like it shouldn't be as hard as it is. I can tell which way I grow there (pretty nearly straight east-west, from the chin to the ear), but it's still hard to get it all. My guess is because it's so rounded and the blade edge is obviously straight, so it doesn't make contact with much at a time. One thing I found helps is actually not stretching the skin. I noticed that after going over it, there's still stubble, but when I stretch the skin, I don't feel it anymore, so the blade won't be able to cut it when stretched either.

I found Pushing in on the opposite side of the neck pushes that hollow out enough to get a clean shave of it. It's tricky as stretching the skin and pushing in on the opposite side plus swinging the razors. Almost a 3 handed move but it can be done with two. But then that is only when I really want to be as close to BBS as possible. Most of the time I don't worry about it as my whiskers are gray so if I don't get BBS it's fine. Nobody can see them.

Holy cow, I tried that today and that's the closest my neck has ever been to BBS! And minimal stretching there too, so no crazy 3-handed maneuver needed, either. Hopefully this is repeatable and not a lucky one-off!

 

[Lowcountry_Glocker]

for the persistant and errant hair or two on the neck / jaw line no matter how many passes made, I find the back of my old harry's cartridge razor can tackle them with ease, or get a cheap SR for finishing touches. I assure you nothing will be left behind with the latter.

 

[Cal]

... the spots that give me the most trouble are below my jawline and on my neck either side of my Adam’s apple.

I've always found this "How To Shave Your Trouble Spots!" video by geofatboy to be helpful:

The whole video is worth watching, but specifically, for below jawline start at 3:20, and Adam's apple start at 1:40.

 

[Seelector]

Thanks everyone for you tips. Different/better skin stretching has really helped along my jawline, and my adam's apple area is getting better.

I found Pushing in on the opposite side of the neck pushes that hollow out enough to get a clean shave of it. It's tricky as stretching the skin and pushing in on the opposite side plus swinging the razors. Almost a 3 handed move but it can be done with two. But then that is only when I really want to be as close to BBS as possible. Most of the time I don't worry about it as my whiskers are gray so if I don't get BBS it's fine. Nobody can see them.

I'm definitely trying this for my next shave. I spent some time in front of the mirror pushing my neck from side to side and it really fills in that hollow area.

 

[musicman1951]

I make some pretty interesting faces while stretching the skin with my other hand. Below the jaw some shavers stretch the skin up, some down. I'm with the down stretching group. It helps if I lift my chin up (as if I'm looking at something on the ceiling). You can also make a face like you're trying to kiss the ceiling for some extra stretch.

For the Adam's apple I stretch the skin sideways to get a flat spot to shave. That's the bottom line - find a way to make the concave spots flat.

 

[geneaut]

There are times my troublespots respond well to a 45 degree angle upwards pass just across the trouble area. Think starting from about the midpoint between your mouth and ear on your lower neck and moving upwards toward the point of your chin. That's usually one of my last buff passes and it's only one razor head wide. Some days the Whisker Gods are appeased by that and reward me with a BBS. Some days I have to add one more East West mini-pass there. I usually make that call depending on how well the entire shave has gone at that point, and/or what hardware I am using.

I'm convinced those two spots on my face have randomly growing hair follicles. Luckily I think my WTG passes usually shear off enough of the hair there that the area isn't actually visible after so if I choose to ignore it I still look socially acceptable. I have to actually drag my fingers across those spots in just one direction to feel them.

 

[Seelector]

I've used @HazMat Shaver's trick of pushing one side of your neck to fill in the hollow on the other side for the past two shaves.

I have to say that it works freakin amazingly! This is a genius level hack that changes the game for my neck

Anyone with hollows on his neck needs to try this immediately. Do it! You won't be disappointed.

 

[T Bone]

I've used @HazMat Shaver's trick of pushing one side of your neck to fill in the hollow on the other side for the past two shaves.

I have to say that it works freakin amazingly! This is a genius level hack that changes the game for my neck

Anyone with hollows on his neck needs to try this immediately. Do it! You won't be disappointed.

+1.

Third try today, and Monday wasn't a fluke. On a good day, I could get a jawline smooth, both jawlines if the stars and planets aligned just right, but I was resigned that there was no way to get BBS on my neck. I'm average weight (not especially skinny), so I don't think the area by my adam's apple is really concave, but each individual hair follicle just seems to grow its own random way there. But with this hack combined with some deft j-hooking, my neck is pretty damn close to BBS!

 

[HazMat Shaver]

It's not really a trick or anything. It comes from years of trying different things to get the job done. Glad I was able to help.

 

[Happy Jack]

My solution is just to use a very aggressive DE razor (e.g., Futur, Ikon Tek) under my jawline and on my neck for the final pass. BBS every time. Might not be such a good idea if you have sensitive skin, though.

 

[Butch Waxx]

My solution is just to use a very aggressive DE razor (e.g., Futur, Ikon Tek) under my jawline and on my neck for the final pass. BBS every time. Might not be such a good idea if you have sensitive skin, though.

I concur Happy Jack, nothing a Muhle 41 and feather blade can’t handle.