I took into account three factors when deciding what size of retainer to use. They were:

• Thickness of the penile skin
• Thickness of the penis
• Stage of Restoration

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Some men have much thicker skin on their penis than others. Characteristics of thick penile skin are a smooth contour, slight spongy feeling to the skin even when fully erect, and a lack of many obvious veins. If the foreskin thickness is compared to other men (circumcised men can pull their shaft skin forward over the glans to see the thickness) it appears relatively thick. Uncut men with thick penile skin find that it tends to have a favourite position and even if they move it, it goes back to that position all by itself.

Characteristics of thinner penile skin are many obvious veins (many of them blue), when fully erect the penis feels very hard as the thinness of the skin does not provide much cushioning, the shape of the glans is very obvious through the foreskin, the foreskin can be moved easily - staying where it's put, and the skin wrinkles very easily.

Compare the thickness of penile skin on the men in the graphics below.

[Model: 25yr old, Hobart Australia, CI-9 uncut]

You can see the thickness of Gary's foreskin by looking at the opening, he has few obvious veins and they look "deep" down with no dark colouration. The contour of his penis is smooth and, although you can see the ridge of his corona, it is not sharply defined.

[Model: 21yr old, Sydney Australia, CI-8 uncut]

Check out the thickness of Michael's penile skin, as can be seen at the opening of his foreskin, it's thinner than Gary's. Michael also has more obvious veins, they appear to be closer to the surface and they are darker in colour. Michael's corona is more sharply defined and he does not have the same smoothness of contour that Gary has.

[Model: 32yr old, Christchurch New Zealand, CI-7 uncut]

Mathew's penile skin is thinner than either of Gary or Michael's. Look at the opening of his foreskin, especially along the top, you can see how thin the skin is (the skin at the bottom looks thick - but that's due to a vein running along the edge of Mathew's foreskin opening and not his foreskin thickness). Mathew has very pronounced and dark veins which almost look like they're on the surface. You can see each ridge and bump on his penis. Due to the shape of Mathew's glans he does not have a very pronounced coronal ridge, however men with thin penile skin and pronounced corona have a very obvious ridge visible through their foreskins.

[Model: 36yr old, Christchurch New Zealand, CI-3 cut]

Ian is circumcised and is demonstrating how circumcised men can get an idea of their penile skin thickness by gently holding their foreskin (what remains of it) between their thumb and forefinger. By looking at the foreskin he has lifted, you can see that it is thin. Other characteristic signs of thin penile skin are the dark and obvious veins visible through his shaft skin, and the visibility of various ridges along his shaft.

Men with thinner penile skin require smaller sized Retainers than men with thicker skin as the bulk of skin that must pass through the opening in the Retainer is less.

Another way of conceptualising penile skin thickness is to think about a loaf of bread - the ones that come already sliced and in a plastic bag. After you take a piece of bread out of the bag you close the bag again by gathering the opening of plastic bag together, twisting it round and putting the tie or clip back on. Even though the bag is quite large, it is very thin plastic and so the point where you tie it is very narrow.

Now image how different it would be if the bread was wrapped in bubble wrap. You would need a very much bigger tie or clip to seal the bad up again even though the bag itself would be pretty much the same size.

Some men's penile skin is thin, like their penis has been wrapped in plastic while other men have thick penile skin like they have a bubble wrapped penis!

I have thick penile skin so took that into account when considering the next two factors.

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Thicker penises have a greater mass of skin on them than penises of a lower circumference. This means that a thicker penis requires a larger sized Retainer than a thinner penis with the same skin type. The greater the circumference of the penis the greater the mass of skin that needs to be passed through the opening of the Retainer.

Compare the thickness of the penises below.

[Model: 23yr old, Melbourne Australia, CI-9 uncut]

[Model: 20yr old, Queensland Australia, CI-10 uncut]

The man in the first photo has a thicker penis than the man in the second photo. Even if their foreskins were the same thickness, the man with the thicker penis would have a greater mass of foreskin simply due to his greater penile circumference.

Although they have never been circumcised they would require different sized Retainers due to the different masses of skin they have.

Using the bread analogy again think about a French loaf and a pumpernickel. The pumpernickel bag has a much greater circumference than the narrow circumferenced French loaf bag. Even though the bags used to wrap them are made out of the same thickness of plastic, the pumpernickel bag requires a thicker tie as you are gathering together more area of plastic than you are when you tie the French stick bag.

I have a medium thickness of penis. So when I took into account my thick penile skin I knew that the mass of foreskin that needed to pass through the opening in my Retainer was going to require a medium to large sized one to be safe. But in the early to intermediate stages of my Restoration - before my new foreskin could be stretched past the end of my glans I needed to take that into account too.

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The temptation for many men in the early and intermediate stages of their restoration is to use Retainers that are too tight. They do this when they get tired of their Retainer slipping off every couple of hours. The answer they decide is to use a smaller sized Retainer in order to get a firmer hold on their new foreskins so it stays on better.

This is very dangerous as a tight Retainer can do permanent damage to the foreskin. Cutting off the blood flow will lead to severe damage which may require surgery to remove part or all of the new foreskin and in serious cases part of the penis may have to be removed. Signs of damage are a darkening of the skin will eventually go black. It will be completely numb as the nerves in the area will have died. There may or may not be pain or aching in the very early stages. If you ever wear a Retainer that is too tight, and remove it in time there will be no damage.

See First Aid in the "Dangers and First Aid" page if you suspect you have Retainer damage

Men in the early and intermediate stages of restoration should in fact use slightly larger sized Retainers than would be expected with their skin and penile thickness. They just have to live with the Retainer coming off periodically, as the foreskin grows that happens less and less.

In the early stages my foreskin would only stretch enough to cover about half of my glans - that meant the Retainer had to be worn some way back , using the friction of the Retainer on my foreskin to stop its pulling back behind the glans. I discovered it was important to keep my Retainer and new foreskin as dry as possible (keep cool) and free from oils or moisturisers. Any of these factors would reduce the grip of my Retainer. The Retainer came off very easily and I had to keep reapplying it often.

As my foreskin grew I was progressively able to use use smaller sized Retainers. This is because the circumference of my glans was less the closer I go to the tip. Eventually when the foreskin grew past the end of my glans I could use the Retainer that would normally and safely be expected for thickness of my skin and of my penis.

In the photo you can see that the Retainer I used during the intermediate stage is larger in size than the one I advanced to - and continued to use until the completion of my restoration. The "Intermediate" photo was taken 2 months before the other two photos (i.e. the "Advanced" photo and the photo showing his penis and Retainers).

Note that the Retainer I used in the advanced stages, while smaller than my "intermediate" one, was never tight on my foreskin. It was, tight enough to stay on (most of the time) and loose enough so it didn't ever run the chance of cutting off blood flow to my foreskin. You can see by the "Advanced" photo that my foreskin remains the same colour as the rest of my penile skin which is a positive sign that the Retainer is not too tight (For more information about danger signs when Retaining see Retainer Safety on the "How I Retained" page and read the "Dangers of Restoring" page ).

In the more advanced stages of restoration my foreskin stayed down a lot of the time without the help of the Retainer. Initially only when cold, but as the restoration progresses my foreskin was long enough to stay down most of the time unassisted. My target was to have a CI-5 foreskin, which isn't really long enough to expect my foreskin to stay down all of the time, but it does except when I'm hot.