- facilitated by myofibroblasts that disperse throughout a granulating wound, coordinating to pull the the wound bed together - myofibroblasts appear on day 3, max on days 10-21 - stick to the wound bed using macule adherens and pull it together using desmosomes - Less contraction when more dermis is present in wound (e.g. full-thickness sin grafts vs split-thickness grafts)