Over the years, your skin has responded to your repeated expressions and movements by adding epidermis cells at the places where your actions threatened it the most.
At the places where it is continuously folded.
Those are living cells.
To open up the folds, you have to slowly crush and kill those epidermis cells that pave their paths and hold the folds together.
Coat by coat.

Theoretically, you can squash and remove all the extra cells, and open up the folds, without hurting yourself at all.
But, realistically, you have no experience; so it's easy to work at the wrong places, put too much pressure, or overdo your job.
So, you have to find a balance between the progress of your grooming efforts and the pains and irritations you can endure on an everyday basis.

When you groom your skin using pressure grooming techniques; it's impossible not to leave any nail marks.
Nails marks are a sign that your grooming is effective.
But, they have to fade away as fast as possible.

I've always said, in my grooming videos, that nail marks should fade away in ten minutes, or you're putting too much pressure.
That's a simplified way of explaining the problem.
In fact, the time it takes for nail marks to disappear depends on:
• The region of your body you're working on,
• How folded the skin of that region is.

So, if the marks disappear in the next few hours; everything is fine.
However, if you can still see them the next day, or worse, if your skin is presenting some kind of scab; then, you're really putting too much pressure on your nail.

The skin in some parts of your head and body, such as your scalp, has hardened so much, because of the folds, that your nail will hardly put a dent in it.
While in other places, such as beneath your eyes, the skin may be super sensitive and need special attention.
Make sure you vary your techniques, and when in doubt; do some tests.

● IRRITATION
Your skin gets irritated if you scrape it while you groom it.
Don't move your finger.
Leave it in the same place.
Only apply pressure on one specific point at a time.
Superficial grooming techniques let you move your nail and scrape the skin, but with very little pressure applied.

● REDNESS
If redness is a problem for you; it's probably for social reasons.
You don't want your grooming work to be obvious to everyone, and redness is sometimes a dead giveaway that you've been tormenting your skin.
That may be true for you and your close friends and family, but strangers see you differently.
You may find out that the redness is appreciated by most people, as it shows your health and vitality.
If the redness is too bothersome; try grooming those reddening regions late in the evening, or when you know you won't meet your friends.

● BRUISING
Unfolding skin folds, on your face and on your body, when some of them are as old as you are; is not a game.
Of course, your skin will react with extra pain and bruises.

However, these colorations and deformations are only temporary.
They are necessary steps on the way to the complete elimination of the fold crossing.

Of course, as you would expect, pressing your nail forcibly into your painful spots will only increase the pain.
Temporarily!
The pain should diminish back to where it was before you touched it, within minutes.
But, if:
● You exert too much pressure,
● You apply pressure for too long,
● You work too much on one section of a fold, while ignoring the rest of it,
● You exaggerated your efforts to go faster.
Then you may face excruciating pain at that location.

You're hurting badly, and you know that your actions have caused the increase in pain.
I'm very sorry about that.
This is a situation I had to go through many times during the years I've been grooming.
If you're stuck with acute pain, these are my recommendations:
● At first, stop grooming the location and endure the pain,
● If, after 24 hours, the intensity of the pain hasn't diminished, you have to realize that only grooming can get you out this.
● With your nail, find the most problematic spots.
● Apply pressure on those spots several times daily, but without the exaggeration that created the extra pain.
The pain should diminish slowly.
You can take all the pain killers you want.

Most often, the swelling is caused by factors that are unrelated to your grooming activities, such as:
● Normal occasional swelling,
● A cold, Covid, ...
● You hit yourself...
The swelling can have important consequences on the pain you feel from the fold crossings in the affected area.
It increases the tension each fold crossing exerts on its neighbors, and the pain may grow to intense levels.
Still, since the swelling is temporary; so is the pain.
However, if the swelling is caused by your own grooming actions; the pain will not go away.
You will have to reduce the tension in the fold crossings yourself, using pressure strokes.

Grooming is external medicine.
Grooming concerns only the outside of you.
Your skin is the frontier between what is in and what is out of you.
You only groom the outmost layers of your epidermis.
Hitting blood is a sure sign that you have transgressed this boundary.

As soon as you strike blood, stop grooming that place until it heals.

Ungroomed skin is very brittle and hardened.
It has lost its elasticity, so it resists the moves of your nails.
It rips if you put too much pressure on it.
Things only get worse as it ages.

Most bleeding occurrences while grooming are caused by human error.
Incompetence, hurriedness, exuberance, impatience, ..., can explain most of them.
A big part of these traumatisms may be totally unnecessary.
Of course, grooming your skin without looking is quite a challenge and a few misses here and there are quite normal.
Yet, when the same place bleeds often, take the time to inspect it visually.
Try to determine why the wound is reoccurring.
Often, your lack of sight makes you groom at the wrong place.

Your skin is not folded equally everywhere on your body.
Your head is about six times more folded than the rest, so it has six times more chances to bleed than elsewhere.
You'll notice that you can put a good deal of force on your skin where it is supple and lose, while areas where it is tight and hard will bleed much sooner.

When I started grooming, my skin was in such bad condition it would bleed very easily.
My technique was awful and I would hurt myself daily.
Some places on my face would bleed after only a few grooming strokes every time I worked there.
One spot in particular, in the mustache area, was so folded that it bled, anytime I groomed it, for over three years.
But gradually, the bleeding reduced, then stopped.
My skin became more and more flexible and it could take more and more pressure from my nails.
Now, I hardly bleed anymore.
I can put all the strength I want and groom for long periods at the same place.

As you see, it may be impossible to cure your skin without having it bleed slightly and periodically.
Each time it bleeds, you should stop grooming immediately in the close vicinity and let it heal for the night.
But, it will probably bleed again the next time you groom it and do so for months, sometimes years.
There is no way out.
Gradually though, it will resist longer and lose less blood.
Then, it won't bleed anymore and the flesh will be all flexible, healthy, beautiful and soft again.

Since grooming is done blind, you may not notice that your nails have slashed the flesh.
Blood is warmer than the skin and feels wet.
It gives your grooming moves a slide.
Still, it is so bad to groom in an open wound that you have to be extra careful to react as soon as bleeding occurs.
The only way to be sure is to look at your nails.
I look at mine anytime I'm in doubt.

At first I would clean every wound with alcohol.
I stopped doing so after a few months.
The areas were too large and numerous.
Disinfecting them was painful.
I have not experienced any problem with simply letting the blood dry and be washed away at bath or shower.
Of course I keep my nails as clean as possible by washing them tens of times a day, but sometimes, after just a few minutes of grooming, I would not call them clean anymore.
Grooming is a natural behavior.
Other primates in the wild surely strike blood often while they groom.
Use your brain and wisdom.

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