To Stretch or Not to Stretch...

[masonjarjar]

Read this interesting tidbit on the Herbaria Soap site:

With a clean, sharp razor, take short, light strokes. Hold loose skin taut (unless you’re prone to shaving bumps). Rinse the razor often. Shave a beard with the grain, not against it.

http://www.herbariasoap.com/best-shave-ever.html


Now, as a matter of course, I get bumps (curly hair). My routine is stretch the first pass, then "bullfrog" the 2nd (lower your chin instead of raising it) for neck area. Maybe the stretching is making the bumps worse? Never thought about it that much, but I'm going to try bullfrogging exclusively on the neck area and see if this makes a difference...

 

[kingfisher]

Let us know how it goes.

I stretch the skin a little bit in various places through both passes. I find I get a cleaner shave that way.

 

[mayidunk]

It might be helpful for an older person with loose skin to pull it a little taut in order to stabilize the area being shaved, especially on the neck. Also, for some people it helps to pull the skin up and off of the jaw line, so that they can shave it on the relatively flatter area above.

 

[ddaley212]

i used to stretch and it caused me ingrown hairs on my neck and chin area i would advise you not to stretch and just use a preshave oil instead worked for me

 

[Marco]

i used to stretch and it caused me ingrown hairs on my neck and chin area i would advise you not to stretch and just use a preshave oil instead worked for me

Yes, stretching the skin too much can cause ingrown hairs, in particular on sensitive areas like the neck and chin.
But it is also true that a bit of stretching gives a closer shave.
I think the right thing is "in the middle": slightly pull the skin, keeping it taut, to get a better, cleaner and closer shave, without too much stretching.

 

[sproosemoose]

It's interesting because ins traight shaving you definitely stretch. Both DE and Straight are a single blade so why should it be different?

 

[dpmtherrien]

I think the issue of stretching is another one of those YMMV things. I stretch all sorts of ways on every shave, and I've never had any problems associated with doing that. I stretch using either my straight or my DE.

 

[PigKnappster]

I stretch on all my passes, but when I do my touch up I do the "bullfrog" too in order to get the hairs on the side of my neck becasue for some reason the stretching doesnt do squat in that area. But we have to do what works for each of us.