For the last 7 or so years of wetshaving I've shaved in pretty much the same way. I've used various slant razors, either a 37, wunderbar, or these days mostly a razorock super slant. I've always stretched my skin pretty tightly. Somewhere along the way I felt like doing so helped deliver a superior shave wherein the hairs are cut more effortlessly. I always felt like only slants worked for me. Some of the really meticulously machine straight bars worked okay, such as the blutt and overlander. But for me overall slants felt like they were perfect for my beard.
Today I was mindlessly scrolling youtube only for a geofatboy video to appear on my recommended. I clicked on it for lack of anything else to do and noticed he barely stretched his skin whilst shaving. I wondered why I was the only one. Thereafter I looked up various shaving videos. And each one regardless of beard density or coarseness seemed to have the lack of stretching skin in common. So for S&G today I tried just shaving without stretching my skin. To my amazement many sensitive areas I had experienced really didn't feel that sensitive when I didn't stretch. However not stretching to me feels "unsafe". The razor occasionally pulls a random hair if I don't stretch and my mustache and chin area seem to catch the blade alot if I don't stretch. Stretching makes me feel like I'm in control of the hair and razor. However stretching also seems to make certain places sensitive and as though the blade is cutting painfully close to the root of the hair in areas. All that being said I'm kind of at a strange cross roads right now. I've spent years shaving the same way, assuming it was the best for me. But now I almost feel like I'm back at square one. Should I just gently stretch my skin to flatten the skin instead of tightly pulling taut? I'm at a loss here as melodramatic as this all sounds . I wonder if other razors I waved off would have worked if they hadn't been fighting stubble that is pulled up and at attention very tautly.
Today I was mindlessly scrolling youtube only for a geofatboy video to appear on my recommended. I clicked on it for lack of anything else to do and noticed he barely stretched his skin whilst shaving. I wondered why I was the only one. Thereafter I looked up various shaving videos. And each one regardless of beard density or coarseness seemed to have the lack of stretching skin in common. So for S&G today I tried just shaving without stretching my skin. To my amazement many sensitive areas I had experienced really didn't feel that sensitive when I didn't stretch. However not stretching to me feels "unsafe". The razor occasionally pulls a random hair if I don't stretch and my mustache and chin area seem to catch the blade alot if I don't stretch. Stretching makes me feel like I'm in control of the hair and razor. However stretching also seems to make certain places sensitive and as though the blade is cutting painfully close to the root of the hair in areas. All that being said I'm kind of at a strange cross roads right now. I've spent years shaving the same way, assuming it was the best for me. But now I almost feel like I'm back at square one. Should I just gently stretch my skin to flatten the skin instead of tightly pulling taut? I'm at a loss here as melodramatic as this all sounds . I wonder if other razors I waved off would have worked if they hadn't been fighting stubble that is pulled up and at attention very tautly.