A firm, crusty exterior is one of the things we love best about homemade bread. That crust helps give your loaf shape. When you cut that surface tension by slicing off some of the crust, it’s no longer pulling the end of the loaf upright. This is why many recipes for round loaves recommend slashing your loaf before baking. Slashing helps to cut the tension before a solid loaf bakes, which helps to prevent your loaf from drooping. If slashing doesn’t do the trick, try cutting your loaf from back to front in the slicer. That way, you can stabilize the loaf as much as possible against the slicer’s back wall instead of cutting from front to back, where there’s next to no support for droopy dough.;;;