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Having Better Luck These Days

Hello again -

After my initial problems, I have been shaving now with a Slant/Feather combo for the last two weeks with great success, thanks to the recommendations I have found here at B&B. Thank you all! But I continue to have problems with my neck and my chin, which I understand is not uncommon.

Remember that at 57, I have some "significant" wrinkling on my neck and my chin...

Here is my shaving method:

1. Hot shower - wash face with Neutragena Razor Defense Daily Face Scrub. I leave it on for the duration of the shower, then rinse it off. (it WORKS to soften my beard .... does not seem to irritate me much)
2. Place warm-to-hot wash cloths on face for 2-3 minutes.
3. Will G's Peppermint Soap - lather in warm bowl with Shavemac 220 brush; rinse face with fresh hot water and relather between passes. 8 drops of PSO before each lather application.
4. Shave N-S on cheeks, S-N on neck, lightly N-S on chin
5. Shave ear to chin on cheeks, again S-N on neck (I tried stretching out the vertical "old man" wrinkles on my neck and shaving ear to chin, lightly. Cut myself several times, even with a Progress/Merkur on "1" . Seems too hard to smooth out the wrinkles...). Also shave LIGHTLY across chin (severe wrinkles here, same stretching problem).
6. Shave S-N on cheeks, N-S on neck.
7. Apply DaVinci Toner, followed by Tendskin, (LIGHT DABS -- sorry, Joel!), followed in about 15 minutes with Harris A/S Milk.

My cheeks and jawline are VERY smooth, but my neck and chin still have lots of stubble after 3-4 passes. I've examined the hairs on my neck, and I'm afraid they are just as curly as the hair on my head -- very little discernible growth direction. My chin has severe wrinkling on both sides, and I've found it VERY hard to shave it with a DE. I used the Fusion Power as a test on my neck and chin, one pass up and one pass down, and it took off the hair -- but caused a fair amount of razor burn. I guess this makes sense, since it is the equivalent of 10 passes with a DE, right?

Any suggestions as to how to better shave my neck and my chin? I would love to get better success in these problem areas. There has been no significant improvement in these trouble areas in two weeks, whereas my cheeks and jaw are pretty happy now!

Thanks!

Tom

ps. Joel -- I'm really going as lightly as I can with the Tendskin now. But if I skip it, my face starts burning after about 1/2 hour. Tried 99% aloe -- felt good, but the burn still overcame it...
 
Tom,

Looks like you have made great strides. I would recommend that you forget about the N-S, S-N terminology and go with "with the grain" and "against the grain". Now...add something different..."across the grain". Try that for your second pass. The goal is to reduce stubble with each pass, not totally eliminate it until the last pass. So, to recap, go "with", "across" and "against". See what happens!

Randy
 
Thanks, Randy. The problems I have with my neck and chin are:

1. I really can find no discernible grain direction. The beard grows in all directions.

2. I have so many wrinkles on my chin and neck that stretching is really difficult. Going ACROSS the wrinkles means pulling a razor across lots of vertical hills and valleys. If I can't smooth them out, I'll mangle myself!

I guess I need to really practice my neck and chin stretching exercises. I find it difficult to hang onto loose skin that is covered in lather...

Tom
 
vontech said:
2. I have so many wrinkles on my chin and neck that stretching is really difficult. Going ACROSS the wrinkles means pulling a razor across lots of vertical hills and valleys. If I can't smooth them out, I'll mangle myself!
Tom-- My semi-educated guess is that this will improve with time. Your complexion will improve as your skin starts adjusting to the conditioning you're giving it by using a combination of a good shaving soap and a good toner. I bet that, and continued tweaking of your general shaving technique, will soften up those wrinkles some over the next couple months.

You might also want to check into Charles Roberts' aftershave skin Conditioner (see Joel's posting).

--Mark
 
I seem to remember someone (Joe Lerch?) mentioning an "extreme stretching technique", but I can't seem to find it.

Does anyone have suggestions as to how to properly stretch the skin on an old, somewhat grizzled, wrinkled-up neck and chin? (Just HOW THE HECK do 80-year old men shave, anyway??? I wanna plan...)

Tom
 
Anyone have any suggestions on how to S T R E T C H the skin on my neck and chin??:confused: :confused:

Thanks!

Tom
 
Greetings Tom,
As to skin stretching, it varies as to where you require it. First, remember in most cases you want the hand doing th stretching behind the razor, i.e. not in the path of the razor's travel. Suffering from the "I'm getting better, not older" syndrome, I have transcended good, great, and am now well beyond excellent. So here's my spin on necks. First the whiskers on my neck have always been devilishly tough to shave clean. They are tough and their growth pattern is from right to left with a whorl near midline that goes upward. (Try following the growth of that shrubbery!:001_huh: ) At any rate, I run my fingertips along my neck gently pushing the skin before and the when I reach the end of the zone to shave,, I stop and begin with the razor in the oppositie direction of the push. This technique works on the neck in three out of four directions and gives me just what I need to get the BBS standard of excellence despite some whattle-like wrinkles. Okay, they're folds.
Cheeks are no problem. I use the same technique in an upward direction for my North to South. On my final South to North I will inflate my cheeks with my breath. *Imagine an ancient pufferfish with lather on its face. Now that you have a hernia from laughing, these work for me and my beard. YMMV
 
Ron,

Thanks for the advice. I've been sitting here at my laptop in my favorite chair, stetching my neck as you suggested. Made the back of my neck sore by looking up too long.

I've really found my wetshaving to be an interesting experience... At times, even a TEST of my aliveness. I've only had my best success with my Slant/Feather combination, but I really have to PAY ATTENTION. And complicating matters is the fact that I have not yet had the Carpal Tunnel operation in my right hand that I need. So as I shave, often my shaving hand goes NUMB :001_huh: "Improving" as I get older definitely has its times ...

I think I'll try loading my Progress for the neck treatment, perhaps using it on a low setting.

I'll try you suggestions this morning and report back what happens.

Thanks!

Tom
 
vontech said:
Ron,

Thanks for the advice. I've been sitting here at my laptop in my favorite chair, stetching my neck as you suggested. Made the back of my neck sore by looking up too long.

I've really found my wetshaving to be an interesting experience... At times, even a TEST of my aliveness. I've only had my best success with my Slant/Feather combination, but I really have to PAY ATTENTION. And complicating matters is the fact that I have not yet had the Carpal Tunnel operation in my right hand that I need. So as I shave, often my shaving hand goes NUMB :001_huh: "Improving" as I get older definitely has its times ...

I think I'll try loading my Progress for the neck treatment, perhaps using it on a low setting.

I'll try you suggestions this morning and report back what happens.

Thanks!

Tom
Buona fortuna. :001_cool:
 
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