New DE user: Razors and the neck

[cvac]

The neck is most people's most difficult area in the face to get a good shave on

Agreed.

in the neck area you must find a way to present the hair to the blade by stretching your skin or not (for example in having the head up or down).

Yes. Just be careful not to over-stretch the skin OP, or you will get ingrown hairs and other types of irritation.

 

[BigJ]

A common piece of advice here is to map out your hair growth directions. For a long time I shaved "north to south" on my first pass, which for me amounts to an "against the grain" pass, which is irritating to my neck. Now, my first pass on my neck is south to north, following the growth, and this one simple change resulted in a huge reduction in neck irritation. Sometimes it's the simple things

+1! You beat me to this advice!! Understanding precisely what you are doing with each pass is helpful, especially in problem areas.

I also suggest two other things:
1. Improve your prep (hydration of whiskers and skin, especially in the problem area), and
2. Skin stretching (as noted above).

 

[HDSledge]

My neck necessitated of five passes. The usual three passes done for for the whole face, WTG XTG ATG.Then two more partial passes for the neck only, to cover the 360 degrees growth. The aggressiveness of the razor or what blade I use do not matter. In fact I have given up all moderate or aggressive razors, and I use only my Henson mild.

If you could try a Janus Limited Edition you would change your mind about that. It's the only one I own that can successfully take it off in one ATG pass, if you can get through a shave on 9 (wide open) with no cuts or burn. A feat unto itself and only for those brave souls who don't freak out over seeing their own blood.

 

[Omega48]

A cigarette lighter would work well as well.

 

[NorthernSoul]

The neck is more difficult for most people. The "grain" is often not a straight line, but a series of curves. For me, it is not North-South, more diagonal.

The Henson is a razor with a "designed-in" shaving angle and you can get the best results by staying exactly with that angle. Shorter strokes will help with that.

The mild razor shaves similar to the more aggressive ones, but it does not have as wide a range of effective shaving angles. You have to be more precise and controlled to get a close shave, or you can do more passes. I would agree the more aggressive razors can be faster to use.