Thread: Skin stretching

Stretching the skin in/around the neck and throat area is pretty easy considering I can place my hands on the neck that hasn't been lathered (below the level of lathering), and I jut my chin out and up to stretch the skin.

THe top of my Sideburn area is fairly easily done by grabbing the skin at the sideburn area not being shaved (high up on the ears) and pulling.

The problem I have is the lower sideburn and cheek areas. I need to reach a little lower to grab the skin, but when I do, the skin is slick (even after I shaved the area) and I can't get a solid grip on the skin to stretch without slippage. Now...shaving with a straight, skin slippage is probably not a good thing.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to stretch the skin area without having to deal with skin slipping from the fingers?

Try rubbing the fingers doing the gripping, on an alum block. I heard this helps gain some traction on the slick skin. I've never tried it myself, not being the owner of an alum block. What I do for myself is just a little facial contortion to help with the stretch. I tilt my head over to the other side to that being shaved and open my mouth. Works for me anyway, but I can usually still get a grip on the skin as well.

It might also help to use the opposite hand to the side your shaving, for the task of shaving, so that you can let the opposite shoulder drop down. That should help put tension on the side of the neck and may also help put some tension on the lower jaw area.
Just some thoughts that may or may not help. It will all depend on your own physiological make up as to what works best for you.


Mick

Is that why I feel more comfortable shaving the left side of my face than my right? I was reading that it's better to train your left hand for shaving the left side, but my experience was telling me I liked opposite sides better (though I haven't yet gotten my left hand shaving my right side; I've no faith in my left hand).

I have found that if I dry my off hand with a towel, and if it is still slick just dab away the extra moisture on the already shaved part of my cheek/neck with the towel, I can get a pretty good grip.

What I do is; do the full sideburn with the grain and puff out my cheeks to give a taught surface for the cheeks. I dont know about everyone else bu the cheek hairs are really soft compare to the rest of my face, so it doesnt need to be really tightly pulled, just taught.

regards alex

Alum works well for me. I have also seen people cut a small 2 inch square of cloth to use for grip.

Do the areas you can stretch on your upper cheek/sideburn first...then do your throat or oposite side. I find those extra seconds are good enough to dry the initial area when you come back to it and it's easier to grip for stretching the lower area.

I also find that if I make sure the fingers I am going to use are complety dry and then rub them against my thumb a little creating friction to heat them up a alitlle helps me get a better grip on the slick spots.

As noted above by our good friend Mickr, i put my wet fingers on the alum,give them a little rub and you will be able to stretch that skin. And when the hand holding the razor gets a little slippery,i treat the fingers with the alum,and like magic,you can hold that razor real good.

Don't have an alum block myself...but I like the idea.

As of right now, I generaly do the face contortions and open the mouth to stretch the skin, but I don't know if it is as good as stretching the skin itself.

Have to give a couple of these ideas a shot.