Thread: stretching the skin when the skin is...well lubricated

+1, on the block of Alum works like a charm

No Alum block, but I've just been lathering the areas that I'm immediately shaving leaving the rest so I can pull the skin taunt as needed.

+1 to what Jimmy said, I shave down the sideburn and hold the just shaved skin. If it gets slippery I grab an ear...(maybe that's why they're so big...)

I use two solutions: 1) I grip with a washcloth when the skin is too slick for fingertips, and 2) I start my shave at the base of my neck and work upwards. That way my first stretch points are at my upper chest (no lather there) and subsequent ones are almost always where I've finished shaving.

does your facial hair grow S-N? How do pull down on your skin and properly expose the hairs by stretching?

I don't worry too much about grain when I stretch; I stretch the skin as best I can and generally shave toward my stretch point. Sometimes I do a second pass over my neck, shaving upward toward my jawline (first pass was downward toward my chest) but my stretch points and directions remain the same as for the first pass. I hope this helps...

Not to discount your personal method, but if this is your normal hair "/":

pulling with the grain should cause it to lay down / ==> _
pulling against the grain should cause it to stand up / ==> |

I could wrong, it has happened once before.