Your skin loves water.
It cleanses it and hydrates it.
Water auto-grooms you.
Every time you immerse your body, dead epidermis cells are washed away.

Aquatic grooming can be performed:
• Totally immersed,
• Partially immersed,
• By wetting your skin.

Water modifies your skin's texture, making it more malleable.
This permits the use of a special grooming technique: facial fold forcing.

Aquatic fold forcing is one of the most effective human grooming techniques.
But, it's not easy to perform.
That's because both hands are involved:
• One finger follows the path of a fold, and forces it open,
• One finger, from the other hand, holds the skin in place.

The idea is to slide the side of your finger along the path of a fold on your face.
But, your other hand has to pin the skin down, and create a counter-pressure.

Use the index finger of your writing hand.
• Place the side of your finger inside a fold on your face.
• Press it down into your skin.
• Push your finger forward.
• The bottom corner of your nail forces the fold open.

As the corner of your nail forces its way up the fold, it will meet some points of resistance.
Often, your nail stays stuck, and can't advance anymore.
That's your chance to do some fold forcing !!!!
• Wiggle your nail,
• Change its angle so it attacks the problem directly,
• Forcefully press your nail into the blockage,
• Apply all the pressure you can.

When I reach the end of a fold-forcing stroke, and my nail can't go forward anymore, I sometimes end the process with a violent gesture; a jerk.
You can see in the video above that I finish some strokes with a quick, sharp, sudden movement.
I forcefully pull my nail out of the fold, while inflicting the most damage I can on the skin barrier.

You use underpinning in your everyday life when you put something hard beneath a flexible material that you want to work on.
This may be necessary because the material lacks the firmness needed to resist your actions.
Putting something rigid behind it makes working on it possible.
While grooming, your work is often hindered by the fact that the skin is unstable and has no firmness.
Use one or more fingers from your other hand to hold the skin in place.
However, the underpinning fingers should be placed so that they counteract the pressure coming from the grooming finger.

• Press a finger from your non-grooming hand on your skin, about half an inch below the place that is being groomed by your other hand.
• This creates a flab of skin that serves as a work table.

Be mobile, and follow the placement of your grooming finger.
You can change finger, or use several fingers at a time.

Aquatic grooming, in the bath, shower, pool, lake, sea or any other wet place, makes your work much easier.
You don't groom the same way underwater.
Your skin becomes more supple, and it unfolds willingly.
The water cleans off the top coat of the epidermis, thus liberating dried flakes of skin.
This accelerates your grooming.
If you can't immerse your body; try wetting certain parts with a towel.

Adding grooming to your traditional washing activities will lengthen the time you spend in the water.
Some people wash real fast.
Grooming is slow and takes lots of time.
It's important to have a well-planned grooming routine.
Some areas of your body should be groomed every time you get wet.
Try to invent a short grooming-washing procedure that can be easily elongated.

Because the water makes your skin more flexible, it's easier to manipulate.
You'll find out that you don't necessarily need to use your nails to unfold your skin.
Finger strokes utilize only the finger to open up the folds.
Underwater, the flat or the side of your finger will often work as well as your nail would.
As an added benefit, the risks of hurting yourself are diminished.

For a few minutes after you exit the water, your skin is particularly easy to groom.
This effect decreases steadily as time passes, but it may still be present after twenty minutes.
You're usually quite busy during this time period; drying, combing, dressing, ...
The few minutes you devote to grooming will be well worth your trouble.
You can take advantage of your skin's groomability to work on specific regions such as your feet.

It's absolutely essential that you bathe every day.
If you're doing serious grooming, your skin will benefit from multiple immersions a day.
Since the wetting-drying cycle is so effective; the more you do it, the faster you get done.