How does your skin look after stretching? Trying to find proper tension

[elebrias]

I've been tugging for a couple of years now, primarily with the TLC Tugger, but recently with just the manual method. Aside from a very noticeable spurt of growth in the first few months, I have had little to no noticeable progress. Throughout my stretching, I've often noticed that my skin will take on a glossy appearance, and sometimes look stretched. Occasionally I would see dry areas of skin that looked visibly stressed, and would apply some shea butter or moisturizer. These marks would go away on their own in a day or two.

Frustrated, I looked for alternatives, and found the manual method. I've been doing that for about a month now, so it's too early to report on progress, but my skin has taken on a similar appearance - glossy, but not yet stretched or looking too stressed out.

With the TLC Tugger, it was possible to gauge tension by using the 4 Hour Rule. With manual tugging, however, it's not possible, as I can't sit around and tug for more than about an hour a day. So, measuring proper tension becomes harder. I go a bit by feel (basically, pulling just past when the skin is no longer slack) and then by appearance (trying to avoid stretch marks). I have read in a couple of places that skin should not have stretch marks, because this is an indication that you are stretching too hard, and that mitosis (creation of new skin cells) may actually be discouraged.

I would love to hear from anyone on this, especially those who have achieved great results. How does your shaft skin usually look? Does skin appearance even matter at all? I feel that my progress has been sluggish to nonexistent for some time, and am stuck in a place where I don't know if I am either (a) applying too much tension or (b) not applying enough tension.

[Tormod]

I used the T-tape method to restore. The sort of tension that I used, and which was effective, was such that each 1cm of unstressed skin was tensioned to about 1.7cm.

[pimp75]

To me it's far more effective to use a great deal of tension for a short time and then let the mitosis take its course, you should not feel pain but the tension should be significant. You could do this : if you're using manual methods tug in 2/3 minutes sessions per hour, and if you're using a device put the maximum tension you can tolerate for an hour and then let your skin breathe for an hour.

Sometimes you think you're not making progress even if you are, maybe some of your new skin is taking the place of some scrotum skin you had on your shaft before, maybe you have new wrinkles that you don't necessarily see, but imho, if you tug, you will gain, you just have to be patient.

[Going Hooded]

When I put on the t-strap, TLC, TLC X and manual tugging I got use to how the skin on my penis shaft looked under tension.

[elebrias]

To me it's far more effective to use a great deal of tension for a short time and then let the mitosis take its course, you should not feel pain but the tension should be significant.

It's good to hear you say this. I've read in many places that one should use "gentle tension" but the only real gains I ever achieved were in the beginning, when I was tight and even a little tension seemed like a lot and - honestly - caused me a little pain in the middle of the night (I wore a TLC tugger over the shoulder). I wonder, too, if people's skin is different and responds differently to different pressure. I suspect mine could use a little more tension. Thank you, also, for encouraging patience. Sometimes this journey can be frustrating, and it's good to have reassurance from others who have gone through it or are going through it.