How do you stretch?

[MikeB]

Hi,
So I was wondering how everyone else stretches their skin when shaving - especially with a straight?
Pulling faces into weird contortions?
A bit of alum rubbed on your fingers to stop slippage?
A bit of tissue paper in the stretching hand?
Any other suggestions? I've tried all of these, and get pretty good results, but there's always room to learn.

 

[UKRob]

Hi,
So I was wondering how everyone else stretches their skin when shaving - especially with a straight?
Pulling faces into weird contortions?
A bit of alum rubbed on your fingers to stop slippage?
A bit of tissue paper in the stretching hand?
Any other suggestions? I've tried all of these, and get pretty good results, but there's always room to learn.

If your fingers are dry you should not need to use alum or paper - simply begin stretching from above the lather - once you have shaved an area, move your fingers down.

Remember to stretch from behind the direction of growth where possible as this raises the hair whereas pulling from below flattens. However, when shaving your neck you have to stretch from below and it's still preferable to not stretching.