New kid on the block

[A93]

Hi all,

Not sure exactly where to start with any of this, but here goes. I'm 23 and have been circumcised all my life. All I want is to look and feel normal again.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading on the topic of restoration and have settled on a device that I think will suit me best which is the TLC X. I'm around a CI2, getting close to 3 as I've been manually tugging for close to a month. But I'm confused about a few things and would really appreciate as much advice as I can get before going through with a purchase.

First off, which method is best between using straps and weights? I'm leaning towards straps but I'm uncertain as to how you all know when enough tension is enough?

[parsecskin]

Straps are better than weights. Weights move and hang around and can make the device slip. The ideal tension is the elastic limit of your skin, plus a little more. Be careful at first With a device start light and work up to this tension. It's difficult to gauge tension, but I've devised an accurate way to measure and duplicate exact tension.
Get a suspender strap and rig an overhead anchor above your bed. A screw eye into the ceiling works great. Just make sure you hit a stud. You may have to tie a short piece of nylon cord to the eye and the strap. Next get a small inline digital fish scale and attach it to the end of the suspended strap with a split ring. You'll need one for your device too. Now just use the fish scale and adjust the strap to the desired tension. No more than a pound is needed to grow skin. Like in said start light and work up to the right tension.

[Guest]

Here's Tugging 101(for those who like numbers):

1. Your skin responds to tension as though tension is an irritant. Your skin gets "bothered" and responds through a built-in response that skin naturally has, by growing a few extra cells at the base layer (bottom-most layer).

2. Think of the process of tugging as similar to flipping a light switch 'on'. Tension on, skin responds by growing those cells. But here's where it gets tricky. It isn't TENSION which controls your skin's response, it is your skin which controls the whole process. Tension is just the irritant, the kickstarter. There was a member of the old forum who described tension as the boot spurs which dig into a horse's flanks. The spurs belong to you, the flanks to the horse. The horse responds by running, but the spurs don't control that running process (brain, nerves and muscles), the horse does; it's built in to the horse.

3. Now, it gets a bit trickier still: it has been found (by skin expansion research) that if tension is applied for too long, the response from skin STOPS; you don't get mitosis (cell division); no skin growth in other words. That is also part of the built-in process. Everything that skin does is built in.

4. So the idea is to find enough tension so that skin responds, and apply it for periods of time. Obviously, too much tension, and it hurts pretty quickly, and you risk damaging your skin.

5. So do you need to measure tension for this to happen? You don't HAVE to. Tension is only the irritant, NOT the controlling factor. Tension does not shape skin permanently, or deform skin in some way (unless you apply so much your skin tears and scars). Your skin grows according to its own rules, in its response.

6. But guys want to control this whole thing. You can't. That's actually a good thing, but knowing it's a good thing doesn't stop the psychological impulse to think you can. So guys try to apply "science", in the form of misunderstood outside factors, or "technology" in the form of various devices and theoretical ways of measuring tension. Do it if you must, but just realize that none of that counts. Cell division, as a response to irritation, all happens on the skin's side of the equation; skin has natural rules and it follows those rules always. It is just up to you to apply tension roughly at the point that parsecskin described: around the elastic limit of your skin, and perhaps a bit more. We old timers call this the "sweet spot". "Sweet spot" doesn't describe a truly measured point (because you can't really do that anyhow) it describes a intuitive feeling you get with practice. Practice, and you'll get it too.

7. Science, as it exists for skin expansion, doesn't translate very well to what we do, so technology doesn't either. For us, it is, and always will be, cycles of tension, intuitively applied. And it works. That's a promise.

So here's the upshot: you don't have to sweat a bunch of details. Just tug, and it'll all happen.

[greg_b]

I will add a few thoughts. First, there is no best method in terms of growing skin, as far as reports form guys can tell you. Guys do well with all sorts of methods. The important thing is that you will do it on a regular basis over the long haul. So try a method that you think you will be happy with. That is your best method.

Based on my experience, tension is the key, get the tension right and you will make progress. A little less tension and my progress falls way off. So, I recommend experimenting to find the amount of tension that works for you. For me, it seems to be as far as I can comfortable pull my skin, without pain. some discomfort at first, but that fades a few moments later and I can forget I have anything on.

I would try a method that appeals, set a convenient time, for example I tug while eating my breakfast and dinner, about 20 minutes each, and then experiment to find the optimal tension in the first few months of your tugging. Once you have that down, experiment as much as you want with other parameters.

Regards

[A93]

You guys have all been super helpful, thank you!