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Skin stretching: which direction?

Eben Stone

Staff member
When skin stretching, do you shave towards or away from the stretching fingers?

The fact that I'm asking might indicate my problem.

I use both, depending on the area, more areas away than towards, and in some places technically both at the same time (I stretch my skin using my thumb and fingers in opposite directions between the blade).
 
Usually away.

However everybody's face is different: bone structure, amount of subcutaneous fat, skin elasticity... Experiment a bit with what other people recommend then figure out what works best for you.
 
I shave towards my fingers. I'm using a DE, so my finger is protected. The only danger is pinching some bit of skin between my finger and the razor, causing it to to be cut. That's the risk of chasing a BBS for me. If I cut away from my fingers, I end up with a less than BBS shave.
 

thombrogan

Lounging On The Isle Of Tugsley.
@Tomo mentions stretching in more than one direction. That might help with both flattening the path and making the whiskers stand proud, but I can’t speak from succ experience yet.
 
When doing the first pass WTG ,
the razor moves to the opposing
direction from skin stretching .

At the XTG pass I use both ,
depending on the area being shaved.

Finishing with an ATG pass ,razor
moves at the same direction with
the one of the stretching .
And very-very close to the fingers .
 
I mostly stretch in the direction which opposes gravity. I don't always stretch and the amount of stretching force applied varies between shaves.
When shaving today I realized when doing an east-west pass along the chin that I always stretch away from the stretching fingers. It is other areas of my face that I mostly stretch up and opposed to gravity.
 
When I first started SR shaving I was very attentive to using fingers for skin stretching. Now I tend to go with weird facial contortions to stretch my skin. As for with or against the stretch, it depends on different parts of my face...a bit of both. :straight:
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I have now cut down on a lot of stretching. That way I can get in another pass and still get my desired DFS+ result.
 

Eben Stone

Staff member
I have now cut down on a lot of stretching. That way I can get in another pass and still get my desired DFS+ result.

Your desired result is not too close, so you can shave daily, correct? You've inspired me to keep my AC SS. I could never achieve a very close shave with it. But now I just put it in my rotation and enjoy a easy/mild shave.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Your desired result is not too close, so you can shave daily, correct?
Yes. A BBS result from a SR gives me almost nothing to shave 24 hours later. After all, the goal of SR shaving is to get as many passes in per week as you can yet still be very presentable every day.
 
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