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  1. #1
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    Default Do You Need to Pull Your Skin Tight

    Ok guys. Do you really need to pull your skin tight? I am new to this forum and all the wisdom here says "Stretch the skin" but I have been using a straight for two decades with good results and have never pulled my skin taut. I have recently tried stretching the skin and I can see how it can shave below the surface. I can also be a little more thorough and accomplish the same thing. There has to be other guys that don't stretch.

  2. #2
    Vintage Scent shop clerk Leon's Avatar
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    Stretching the skin can lift the hair and provide a closer shave.
    It's not mandatory, it's only one of those many things that can improve the shave.
    Personally, I don't stretch the skin using my hands, I only use head/face/ jaw movements to improve the access to certain shaving areas and improve the glide of the razor.

  3. #3
    Life is short, filled with Stuff joke1176's Avatar
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    I have some spots on my neck and jawline that I have to stretch: the hair lays flat against the skin otherwise.


    That being said, I don't do a lot of the contortions some shave vids show... I am too lazy for that.

  4. #4
    Member AFDavis11's Avatar
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    No, I don't have to stretch the skin, but . . . I often find I need to secure the skin against the blade movement which seems to best be accomplished by stretching.

    I can not get BBS close using with the grain strokes without very adept stretching though, I only achieve a good shave without stretching.

    Sometimes, when I do not stretch the skin, I find myself making some strange faces in order to secure the skin's position.

    As I have gotten older I find that I am forced to stretch the jowl under the chin and that is because it has become a little fatter (looser) than it used to be.

  5. #5
    Senior Member dward's Avatar
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    I can't always pull my skin taut, but when I can it really helps. I find that taut skin is less prone to allowing the blade to catch on the whiskers instead of cutting through them. Otherwise the edge kind of pushes the whickers instead of holding them firmly in place to cut through. Not sure if that makes any sense, but that is what happens to my beard.

  6. #6
    Senior Member blabbermouth JimmyHAD's Avatar
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    Shaving for two decades you're not a kid and if gravity hasn't affected your skin yet trust me it will. I have an angular face and neck with hollows, nooks and crannies that I have to pull flat to make good contact with the cutting edge. All barber manuals stress stretching the skin. Same with tattooing which I do to keep a roof over my head. If you want to punch holes in the skin you have to stretch it. You can do it with out stretching but you get way better results when you do with either pursuit. In my experience anyway.
    Be careful how you treat people on your way up, you may meet them again on your way back down.

  7. #7
    Face nicker RichZ's Avatar
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    I always pull my skin. I watched my barber do my first shave a few years ago and he pulled it tight so when I started I did the same thing.

  8. #8
    Cheapskate Honer Wildtim's Avatar
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    I don't pull it as tight as I did when I first started, back then I was really tugging it tight, and I have found that that isn't needed. If I don't stretch it out at all though, I find that either I get a bad shave or I get cut. I seem to push the skin up in front of the blade when there is slack until it reaches a point where it is cut. My neck I don't stretch with my hands , just twisting contortions etc, but for a few parts I have to "move" the skin to be shaves off to one side or another to get the whiskers out of a hollow or off of my Adam's apple.

  9. #9
    Cream Huffer
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    I find that there are areas of my face that require stretching (right next to the adams apple) and places that prefer not to be stretched (just below the corners of my mouth). If I stretch too much, then I get ingrown hairs.

  10. #10
    Senior Member kevint's Avatar
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    I am a contorter.

    Lately I have been trying for a much closer shave so I have been doing more stretching but I'm always working on improving my technique

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