Hi Jmahra3:
You are right. If the foreskin is retracted, then there is no place for the smegma to accumulate.
Smegma, however, is normal, harmless, and nothing to worry about.
Don’t let people frighten you with horror stories about smegma. They aren’t true.
Smegma collects harmlessly under the foreskin from birth. It is normally white in color. Some people believe that smegma resembles cream cheese. It is common for a teen who retracts his foreskin for the first time to find a large accumulation of smegma, which has been harmlessly accumulating under the foreskin since birth.
Smegma is not “filth”. It is a natural, normal, harmless, and healthy substance. It is a mixture of exfoliated skin and skin oils. The skin oil is beneficial to health of the glans penis (head).
Smegma does NOT cause cancer. There is a lot of false and incorrect information about smegma circulating on the Internet and elsewhere.
It won’t hurt if it stays there for a while, but it can get irritating and smelly if it stays for a very long time without being washed away, so it is good practice to wash the smegma away once in a while. Washing with soap should be avoided because it can dry out the mucosal tissue and cause non-specific dermatitis.
Since smegma is composed of exfoliated skin and skin exfoliation occurs continuously, smegma is continuously forming. You may expect to see a little more every day.
Accumulated smegma may get hardened and difficult to remove if it stays a very long time such as under a foreskin that is not retracted. Olive oil has been recommended for softening and removing hardened smegma.
Do not worry too much about your smegma. It Is harmless.
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I just started keeping my foreskin retracted permanently (I am 42). The skin stays there usually. Sometimes I need to go to the bathroom and retract it if the skin rolls forward.
I get hard-ons almost every time I go to pee, which is a little embarassing. But it feels very liberating to have the foreskin retracted.
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From a woman's perspective I can tell you that a penis with the foreskin retracted is much sexier than when the head is covered. Most of my friends prefer their husbands and boyfriends penises to be uncovered. there is just something majestic about large exposed mushroom head. One of my friends husband was uncut and my friend wanted him to get circumcised. He refused, so they worked out a compromise that he would pull back his foreskin and keep it retracted.
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The foreskin is where most of the pleasure nerves are found so your friend's husband acted very wisely.
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My own permanent retraction occurred spontaneously, with no conscious decision, some time in my mid-teens. I wonder how common (or rare) this is? It's so long ago now (some 50 years) and caused so little discomfort, I simply can't remember it happening, or how long it took to become my normal state. I can remember experiencing up to about 10 or 11 years of age the mild discomfort involved in retracting the foreskin for washing (and the sensitivity and redness of the glans and frenulum as I washed them clean of smegma), but after that it's all a blank. As with most who are in this state, the foreskin has partially atrophied - it was never excessively long to begin with - and now only partially covers the glans at best. I've never felt that the condition affected my sexual pleasure, and have always been content with the way I am. Not to mention VERY grateful to have avoided circumcision.
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You mentioned retracting it for washing when you were 10. How old were you when you or your mother began retracting your foreskin to wash under there? My mother did that from the very beginning. I have home movies of the baby's bath time showing her doing that to me. When I mentioned that in another discussion on this site everyone was horrified and most claimed you should never retract a boy's/baby's foreskin until he is 16. There was only one person who said she was told to do that by her doctor like my mother. So I'm really curious if you might be only the third guy in the whole world who was accustomed to having his foreskin retracted for washing from birth.
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first couple of months i could feel the friction with garments on the glans penis but it is now normal like the covered penis. i have got relief from frequent erections but when it erects it becomes more hard than before & i can last longer during masturbation.
only the color of the glans has changed from pink to purple(because of dryness) & foreskin bunched up behind the glans, sometimes it rolls back but it can cover only the corona of the glans.
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I keep mine pulled back all of the time. I have been doing it for years. It just stays back with out a problem. It took be about 4 months before it would stay back, but now it just like I have been clipped. My wife loves it like that. During oral sex she says she likes the head deep in her mouth. Loves the feel. When ever I pull the skin back over the head, it just rolls back on it's own. We both love it.
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I really can't remember when I first had it retracted for washing. But not I think from birth; more likely about 6 or 7. I don't recall any major discomfort at any time ever - my foreskin was always pretty loose (and short, which is probably why it began to retract spontaneously as I've already described). It was usually left to me to do the cleaning, once I'd had impressed on me the desirability of doing so. Only did it about once every few months, though; that sort of frequency.
BTW, I think those people who you mention as being "horrified" are talking through their hats.
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I am glad you are happy. If you ever change your mind, you can retrain your foreskin to stay forward by foreskin restoration techniques.
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Thanks, it's nice to know I wasn't the only one who grew up thinking it was normal. My mother turned the job over to me at about 5 or 6 but for a while she checked in at bath time to make sure I was doing it.
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My father showed me what was up with the cleaning of the foreskin. I think I was about 9 or 10 at the time. We both have really short foreskin so it was easy. I do remember that my father was really large, both long and big around, maybe that was the reason for the short foreskin. When I was 16 or 17, I remember how that must been for my mother. She is only 4-11 and really tiny.
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