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Trouble with lower neck

I've been DE shaving for about 2 months and have been doing really well lately. My lower neck is the only trouble area. I shave XTG on my face because it gives me the BBS shave. I shave ATG on jawline and the top part of my neck. My lower neck grows from S to N, unlike any other part of my face. Shaving XTG in both directions leaves a lot of stubble. Even diagonal passes leave stubble behind. I can't go ATG without bleeding and major discomfort. I don't care to have BBS on my lower neck but I'm not even getting a CCS on the lower neck. I need some help on getting closer here. Any tips for me?
 
I have a similar growth pattern. It takes practice and good prep, but keep at it. Blade angle is key. Over time you will also figure out where to use skin stretching, j-hooking, blade buffing, and the slide. What I do now is basically WTG plus two XTG passes in opposite directions, like the letter X, plus some cleanup work.

Also, March is a good time to try an open comb. I find that my NEW razors are great at catching those pesky flat-growing neck hairs.
 
The hairs on my lower neck lay VERY flat. Is this part of the problem of why it's too painful to go ATG and XTG doesn't get me close?
 
It probably is - focusing on prep and careful stretching will help. Shave after a hot shower, use hot towels, consider a pre-shave product (proraso make a nice one) to soften the hairs and get them to stand proud of the skin.

Also, after you lather for the first pass, massage your fave with your fingertips for a minute and then paint on more lather. This really helps.
 
What I noticed that works in my case is called mild-double-stretching. What exactly does this means? Its a made up word that wants to ensure that you take into consideration both aspects of this type of stretching the skin. The only way you will be able to get away without going ATG is by stretching your skin. How exactly you need to do it? Here are the details:

1. As primary stretch you need to either make a double chin to allow for it, or you will need to learn to stretch VERY LIGHTLY your skin by raising your chin a bit, and this means that you only need to stretch it to the level where you feel like your can't "move" parts of skin with the razor. So if I were to make a scale about how much you need to stretch it, consider this: 1. means no stretch at all, 10 means perfectly stretched at maximum, and you need to stretch it at about 4.

2. As secondary stretch use your hand to stretch the skin sideways, meaning you will stretch your skin towards the ear direction, perpendicular to the chin raise stretching from point 1. If this still not convenient enough, you can either try stretch a bit by hand towards up, or towards shoulder. Also, this stretch can not be more then 5 out of 10, as level of stretching.

I had terrible results with my WTG/XTG passes due to a combination of wrong blade and not using a proper stretch system.

What does stretching ensure? 2 things:
1. the hairs will not get berried inside the skin as it happens when you do a full stretch, resulting in too much hair remaining for ATG pass.
2. the hairs will stay in a proper angle perpendicular to the face, and not laid down that only some blades will be able to catch it. I am a big fan of blades that catch the hair easily without having to do a perfect stretch. However, this technique improves only over time, and you will start feeling yourself how exactly the hair needs to "stand up" and "come out" when you do the WTG/XTG passes.

I use the mild double stretching very successfully on my goatee area(under nose is not needed, tho it does help), and on the sides of my neck just under jaw line, where the head meets the neck, and those 3 places are the only ones that need double stretching.

It worked for me, hope it will give you some better results.
 
I have a similar issue, and it's probably why I started wet shaving in the first place -- constant irritation of my neck when using cartridges and poor prep. Other than general good wet shaving techniques, there are two additional things that helped me. Most important for me was switching to shower shaving. I probably don't have the patience for adequate face prep in the AM and just by virtue of shaving at the end of my shower in a humid environment, most of the prep is taken care of -- beard is well hydrated, even hastily created lather stays adequately moist, etc. Give it a try! Secondly, although a shower shave solves the problem most days, if I am using a more unforgiving razor/blade combo or it has been longer between shaves and the beard is longer, I will switch up my routine and shave WTG first on the neck. My normal routine is 1) North to South 2) South to North 3) ATG. By N to S, I mean starting at the top of my cheeks and working downwards to the bottom of my neck. Because of the way my hairs lie, this is mostly WTG on the cheeks and ATG on the neck. S to N gives me ATG on the cheek, WTG on the neck. This works fine most of the time, but if the beard is longer than usual, I'll switch it up and do my S to N pass on the neck first i.e. WTG. This seems to not cause much irritation and gets enough of the hair out of the way that the next pass, ATG, doesn't cause much problem either...

Hope this helps!

PDM
 
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