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Pulling skin taut?

I never really figured out in what direction to "pull" skin to make your face taut during a shave. Do I pull the skin and move the blade to wear my hand is holding the skin or do I move my blade away from my hand that is holding the skin taut...

Sorry for the dumb question as I have been Wetshaving for years now and just thought about it

Thanks!
 
You should stretch your skin against the grain of your beard to expose a little more of the hair to your blade. If you shave with a DE, over doing it can lead to ingrown hairs. Mantic has a short video cautioning against overstretching.

-Clarke
 
Shave Cat..so it doesn't really depend on how the blade is traveling. Just pull it the direction the hairs grow? So if a ATG shave on my cheek would be S-N shave then I should be pulling my skin to the S (or down). Thanks for the help!
 
i have yet to pull my skin taught since starting with my DE ... i used to do it with the multi-bladed junk ... and that likely lead to me having a face full of ingrown hairs .
 
No, you should be stretching your skin ATG, which in your case would be upwards. Doing this, even when shaving WTG, will allow for a closer shave. Here is a link to Mantic's shaving videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/mantic59. You will find many videos related to shaving. It's not that stretching the skin always leads to ingrown hairs, it's that stretching it too far can allow you to end up with cut hairs below skin level. It is not so much of a problem if you shave with a straight razor. Generally, DE shaving doesn't require as much skin stretching as straight razor shaving. Again, please watch Mantic's instructional videos for some really good info.

-Clarke
 
Welcome to the B&B!

Personally, I don't stretch my skin, except to tilt my head back a little bit when shaving my neck. But to use my free hand - nope, I don't do it.
 
Since most of my whiskers grow downwards, I pull up when going WTG to get most whiskers to stand up. I pull up around the chin to shave my neck hairs. I still do some pulling when I go XTG, usually pulling back on my ears or skin around ears and make faces to stretch out the moustache area. I usally get lazy when going ATG and hardly ever pull by then.
Ernest
 

OldSaw

The wife's investment
I never really figured out in what direction to "pull" skin to make your face taut during a shave. Do I pull the skin and move the blade to wear my hand is holding the skin or do I move my blade away from my hand that is holding the skin taut...

Sorry for the dumb question as I have been Wetshaving for years now and just thought about it

Thanks!

Generally it is best to shave away from the direction you are stretching from. I stretch in whatever direction is needed, ATG, WTG, XTG. The goal is to keep the skin from bunching up in front of the blade. However, stretching also requires a very delicate touch with the blade to avoid damaging the epidermis.
 
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