Intro
The penile skin is a combination of both skin and Dartos muscle. The muscle is what causes the skin to "writhe" when you watch it. It is evident that the scrotal skin also contains Dartos muscle.
Different Regions of the Penis
The shaft skin is less sensitive, but most of us have more shaft skin than inner skin. The inner skin, the area between the rim of the glans and the scar line, holds most of the nerve receptors. Some of us have been left with lots of inner skin, with the scar being placed fairly high up on the shaft, and others have almost no inner skin (to start with) and have the scar very close to the glans.
Manual Stretching
Here are some links for manual stretches that are best done in the warmth of the shower, while you have the device and tape off. The skin/muscle combination tends to keep the stretch longer when it is stretched warm.
Manual stretching is used as a supplement to device use and is very helpful. It tends to tension the areas that are not targeted by device use. On that note, many devices are designed to focus tension only on one part of the skin, either the shaft skin, or the inner skin. With that said, there is no one perfect device that gets everything evenly, so it's good to use stretches as a supplement.
Tensioning
When tensioning the skin, always maintain moderate tension. You want enough tension so that you can wear the device without pain all day long. Having too much tension and needing to remove the device after an hour is counter productive. To much tension produces a tearing force on the skin and this is preceded by the appearance of a rash. If you notice this happening, slack off the tension on the device. The rash will be healed by the morning if you respond soon enough to the discomfort. Just powering through the pain and wearing the device longer just means you are slowing the process down.
The natural elasticity of the skin will allow the skin to expand, but after a time nature will realize the tension is more permanent and begin to alleviate the tension by producing more skin cells. Skin cells are produced from adjoining healthy tissue. Over a period of time, enough new skin is produced to form the double fold of the restored foreskin. Too much tension causes the fascia, the connective tissue connecting the cell walls, to tear and often tear the skin cell itself. This is what causes the red, sore rash. Healthy new skin cells are replicated from healthy existing skin cells. A damaged or torn skin cell cannot replicate healthy new skin cells. The body must first remove and grow replacement skin from healthy adjoining tissue, before it can begin to replicate additional new skin cells to form the new foreskin.
I use the "grilled cheese sandwich" as an example. If you take a hot grilled cheese sandwich and pull the bread slices apart slowly, the connective cheese will form a continuous sheet as it is stretched apart. If you tear the bread slices away with lots of force, the sheet of cheese will develop holes and the bread will tear. This is what happens to the skin when too much tension is applied for long periods of time.
Too Much Tension
Another thing that happens is the thinning of skin when under tension. As the skin is stretched, the blood vessels also constrict reducing blood flow. Our body has a way of notifying us of this by causing a tingling sensation. Same as when you sleep on your arm and wake up with pins and needles from the blood flow being restricted by your weight. Don't ignore this tingling sensation as it means the skin is being starved of normal blood flow. Good blood flow produces new skin cells faster, so again, this is another reason why too much tension slows down the restoration.
The reason I harp on this matter so much is that it took me almost two years to get this simple concept into my head. Of course, I knew it, but I felt I could take the tension and the discomfort because I wanted to restore in record time. When I stopped working with higher tension, my whole restoration attitude began to relax and I started to forget about the time it was taking. It was just something I was going to do and time was not going to stop if I stopped restoring.
Taking a Break
With all of tension talk out of the way, it is important to note the utilization of breaks. Your skin simply needs a break from restoring. Restoring 24/7 is counter-productive, in my opinion. It's almost like getting contacts for the first time. You wear them for 4 hours the first day, 8 the next, and so on. But with restoration, you eventually get to the hours amount that you are comfortable with 12-16 hours gives the skin more than enough time to recover and relax. You should go with what you feel is necessary, but don't over do it.
Summary
Overall, foreskin restoration is accomplished by tensioning the skin over long periods of time. We all want our restored foreskin, and we all want it now! Non-medical foreskin restoration takes time and it cannot be rushed.
Please do not be fooled by adverts for commercial devices that claim you can be fully restored in 18-24 months. A good restoration takes 3-5 years, but there are many variables.
It can depend on high tight you were cut, how much loose skin you have to start with, the method you use, the time spent tensioning each day, your personal metabolism, how fast your body replicates new skin cells, the proper amount of tension, and what you consider yourself to be complete. We will never know what nature intended for us; a short foreskin that retracts during erections, or a long, prominent one with a significant overhang. We just have to keep restoring until we feel we are satisfied with the results.
