Big neck?

[Katielynn]

Can someone share with me any technique on how to get a big inflated neck? Is it just a matter of pulling on the neck once the balloon is full? Are certain brands better for this?

I don't mind doing btp, but I can never get a big neck like I see from the girls on YouTube vids. It seems I fully inflate the balloon, and the neck starts to fill so I get kind of a lightbulb shape, and I run out of room for my lips. But if I blow more, trying to inflate the neck, the thing just explodes in my face. When I try to stretch the neck with my fingers, the damn thing pops in my hands about half the time. Any suggestions?

[cgrocarlos]

Re: Big neck?

A pretty good technique i use to get the most out of my balloon is inflate it fully and let the air out a couple of times, then with your right hand, squeeze the body of the uninflated balloon tightly in a fist so that just the neck is showing out of your hand. Hold the balloon up sideways so that the neck is coming out of the left side of your fist. With your left hand, pinch the back side of the ring that you put your mouth on to inflate it. Now stretch the back of the ring outwards to your left to make the hole where you inflate facing towards you. Put your mouth on the balloon and blow into the balloon while simultaneously using your right hand to pull the balloon outwards to your right, stretching the neck out longer (you should be inflating the neck sideways). This part takes a little practice to figure out how far you have to stretch with your right hand before the neck starts inflating easily, each balloon is different. Once the neck starts inflating, keep blowing into it as much as you can until you think the neck might pop, all at the same time while still stretching the neck as far as possible with your right hand. With your left hand, pinch the fully inflated neck closed and hold it there for like 10 or 15 seconds, you can even move your right and left hands closer and farther apart to sort of "squish" the neck together and then stretch it back out so that the latex loosens up. Let the air out and repeat this process, the more you do it, the bigger the neck you can get. I usually inflate 12 or 14 inch and find that for standard and pearl color balloons you should do it at least about 4 or 5 times while for crystals and my favorite Walmart balloons you can probably get away with doing it about twice if you inflate the neck really huge since those balloons are a little more stretchy.

The uninflated balloon should now have a large, loose bulging neck. When you overinflate the balloon the proper way (without forcing the neck out with your hands) the neck should inflate rather easily once you reach that point. If you want to cheat, once the neck begins to slightly inflate to where it just looks like a bulge at the bottom, wrap your free hand around the where the neck joins the body and give it a slight tug outward, the neck should stretch right out easily. Make sure you keep inflating the balloon much more if you do this though, or else if you let the balloon sit around, the neck will begin to shrink since it's not as full as if you just overinflated the balloon the normal way. Usually (but not all the time since balloons can be unpredictable) i can tell when the balloon is about to pop when any of these 3 things happens. 1) it's extremely hard to force more air into the balloon. 2) when the neck is touching your lips, you can feel it expand outward against your lips on your next blow. 3) you can actually see the neck begin to take on a round shape or begin bulging outward on one side. Once any of these happens it's time to try and tie it without it popping, but you need to experiment with your balloons because i've had a few that popped before showing any of these signs.

I hope this helps!! if it was a little confusing just let me know and i can try to clarify it for you with pictures or something. Good luck!!

[Casey88]

Re: Big neck?

Check out 17danceboy videos on youtube, he always neck out his balloons when inflating

[Katielynn]

Re: Big neck?

Thanks Guys! Carlos, just to be clear, from your directions above, I should tug the balloon outward between breaths, like with the mouthpiece pinched shut, or I should do this while still blowing in order to increase the air inside the balloon so that the neck fills? Sorry, I can be quite blonde sometimes.

[cgrocarlos]

Re: Big neck?

Haha it's alright You should do both tho. While you're blowing, use your right hand to stretch the neck out longer so that you can get more air into the neck. Make sure you keep your fist tight though so that the body doesn't fill with air.

Once you get the neck completely full and really tight, pinch the mouthpiece shut and kind of play around with stretching the neck out and back so that it loosens up the latex. The more you play around with it, stretch it, and re-inflate it, the looser it will get and the easier the neck will be to inflate when blowing your entire balloon up (not to mention the neck will be considerably fatter).

I can attach picture for you if you want to see how it should look

[bignecks]

Re: Big neck?

would love to be able to get a massive neck! Its only happened once or twice and its so awesome! Would like to talk some real looners. xxx

[cgrocarlos]

Re: Big neck?

I'd be happy to help. what seems to be the problem with your balloons? popping before the neck gets fully inflated?

[balloonwatcher2]

Re: Big neck?

I hold the bulb of the balloon tight and then blow and inflate the neck tight. Deflate and repeat two or three times and THEN blow up the balloon normally. The neck has been loosened more than the bulb and should grow nicely.