Angle AND azimuth? Hairs laying close to your skin

Hi all,
I am picking up my DE razors after, frankly, a few hiatuses I’ve the past couple of decades. I’m now committed to trying to just get better at it. I’ve been experimenting a ton the last few months and have made considerable progress. 

One place I still have difficulty with, though, is the very base of my neck. I had a breakthrough when I got my Stirling DE - finally I was able to feel the blade exposure and know that I was making good contact. This provided the best shave I’ve ever had. It also produced the biggest gashes... 

However, I have also noticed that the pesky areas grow with a very acute angle to my neck. This means they almost lay flat against my neck when they grow. Having a technical background I would say that the azimuth is the direction they grow as measured by a compass laying flat against my face. The angle, however, is how much the growing hair points away from my face (straight up like a tree or laying down like a fallen log). My stirling seems to allow me to really get close and catch those low-angle hairs. 

I rarely see this angle discussed, only what I call azimuth. Does anybody else encounter this issue? It kind of kills any mild or negative exposure razors for me with my current technique. 

Regards,
inspirado

It is plotted and discussed amongst those face mapping. Unfortunately, few outside straight shavers bother face mapping because DE shaving does not require the discipline necessary when one employing straight razor.

Thanks - I understand the concept of with/against/X the grain, but is there something even straight razor /facemapper folk do for these hairs which are laying close to the skin? For me they are simply problematic and I need a lot of razor feel to indicate that I’m going to get them.  

If not for lots of razor feel and k owing that I’m in good contact with the skin, my razor skips over them.

I have found my slant is the best for picking up these hairs that lay flat against the skin and the lather won't keep vertical. Others, it might take a couple passes to pick them up.

However, I have also noticed that the pesky areas grow with a very acute angle to my neck. This means they almost lay flat against my neck when they grow. Having a technical background I would say that the azimuth is the direction they grow as measured by a compass laying flat against my face. The angle, however, is how much the growing hair points away from my face (straight up like a tree or laying down like a fallen log). My stirling seems to allow me to really get close and catch those low-angle hairs. 

From my days of aligning satellite dishes, I would call that angle the "elevation".

It’s a fair point - I think elevation probably makes sense from a flat surface (I suppose like the face) but I was always taught angle and azimuth (and radius) for spherical coords.

Elevation probably is better here…

Theoretically, the pre-shave wash and the lathering with a brush will lift the hairs somewhat to aid in their being cut.

I also have these very flat lying hairs on my neck. ATG is a definite no no for this part of my face, even on a 3rd pass it will cause terrible razor bumps. The best razor I have ever used for this area of my face was a rex ambassador. But in general, this is one strength of an adjustable razor. You can use a smaller gap everywhere else and really crank it up for a WTG pass on the flat lying neck hairs.

Troublesome areas you really need to just shave against the grain in those areas. Run your hand across those hairs, whichever direction lifts them make sure to do an extra pass in that direction. Also keep the blade as flat as posssible to skin when going ATG. You want to blade slide along the skin to slice through hair not scrape across the skin.

Interesting - I wonder whether a milder shaver (or an adjustable turned way down) could be used against the grain in this case with slightly higher pressure - maybe this would allow the razor bar to depress the skin a bit, and get under these nuisance hairs. The negative exposure would ensure the blade still isn’t really scraping the skin.

Too bad I can only shave once a day to test these theories out…