WELL ACTUALLY BOTH..
I hold the head at about 1/3 back from the tip.
With my thumb on one side and index and middle finger on the other. (using two fingers evens out the pressure as your thumb is pretty strong)
I grind 20-30 times back and forth on all 3 sides at 1st with a fair amount of pressure...just grinding at this point.
Then 15 push strokes on each side( 15 on one, rotate, 15 on next etc)
Then 10 strokes, then 5, then 3, then 1 stroke.
I use lighter and lighter strokes each time I step down to the next count.
I do the 1 stroke & rotate 15 times. with barely any pressure at all.
..then do the same whole process on the next grit stone.
Once I get thru my finest stone, I strop backwards on corrugated cardboard "against the grain"
At that point the heads will about make my eyes bleed if I look at em too hard.
ps...if they're REALLY beat up, I'll start with a few push strokes down a 14" babbit file then switch to stone.