Ive been lurking around the shaving forums, gleaning knowledge from you guys, for a few months now. I figured its time to step up and introduce myself.
First of all, I never liked shaving. I started shaving as a teenager with canned lather and injectible razors. It was generally a miserable experience, with ingrown hairs, nicks, etc. As I started to develop my personal approach to life, I found multiple reasons to reject shaving.
The first was simplicity. As I began to become interested in physics I was drawn to read about Einstein and his approach to life. According to legend he tried to drastically simplify his life so he could think about important things. So he did away with things like socks, and purportedly used the same soap for washing and shaving in order to simplify life. I figured I could do Einstein one better, and do away with shaving altogether, thereby not only eliminating all the associated paraphernalia, but also saving several minutes each morning that could be better spent on philosophical contemplation of the universe.
Another reason was the natural order of things. This was articulated by my favorite Stoic philosopher, Epictetus.
That was the clincher. I felt I was on solid philosophical foundation by not shaving, so I wore a beard for the next three decades. I felt satisfied that I wasnt wasting my time, my face was warm in the winter, and mosquitoes didnt bite my face in the summer.
I developed a number of hobbies over the years, to utilize all my extra time. One of them was knives, and sharpening. I would often test the sharpness of a blade by shaving off some arm hairs. That led me to wonder sometimes about razors, but never enough to start shaving my face.
By this time my beard had substantial streaks of gray. I married my second wife, who had never seen me without a beard. After a couple of years she idly mentioned that she wondered what I looked like under the beard. I decided last May to shave it off so she could see my uncovered face, and then grow it back again. I figured that if I was going to shave anyway, I may as well have a little fun and learn to use a straight razor. That was the decision that led to my downfall, and the destruction of my personal (not)shaving philosophy.
I turned to the internet and discovered the shaving forums. I bought a Dovo straight razor, and then a few inexpensive antique straights from E-bay. I had fun sharpening them up, and learning the mechanics of the straight razor shave. It was challenging, but I could see progress from day to day, and that kept it interesting. It became fascinating to me to buy at a pittance an old razor that had been purchased for a days wages or more, and passed down through two or three generations, and then restore the old quality implement to functionality.
Some of my hobbies burned themselves out naturally. For instance beermaking. After getting sloshed a few times and developing a beer gut from overindulgence, it started to lose its charm. But shaving is hard to over-indulge in. The beard only grows so fast, and after the 14th pass the skin starts to get a little raw. With so many old razors to test, and then creams, oils, soaps, aftershaves, and then every possible combination of one with the other, it is hard not to anticipate the next days shave. Ill admit, sometimes Ive squeezed two shaves into one by shaving one half of my face with one combination, and the other half with a different combo. I overlap a little on the chin but that part doesnt count.
Ive had to extend the schedule for growing back my beard a bit. I figure that, if no one comes out with any more new shaving products, I should have exhausted all the possible combinations around 2070 and should be ready to return to my, formerly simple, philosophically coherent, bearded life.
A sincere thanks, and a hearty curse, to all of you on the forums that facilitated my new addiction!
First of all, I never liked shaving. I started shaving as a teenager with canned lather and injectible razors. It was generally a miserable experience, with ingrown hairs, nicks, etc. As I started to develop my personal approach to life, I found multiple reasons to reject shaving.
The first was simplicity. As I began to become interested in physics I was drawn to read about Einstein and his approach to life. According to legend he tried to drastically simplify his life so he could think about important things. So he did away with things like socks, and purportedly used the same soap for washing and shaving in order to simplify life. I figured I could do Einstein one better, and do away with shaving altogether, thereby not only eliminating all the associated paraphernalia, but also saving several minutes each morning that could be better spent on philosophical contemplation of the universe.
Another reason was the natural order of things. This was articulated by my favorite Stoic philosopher, Epictetus.
That was the clincher. I felt I was on solid philosophical foundation by not shaving, so I wore a beard for the next three decades. I felt satisfied that I wasnt wasting my time, my face was warm in the winter, and mosquitoes didnt bite my face in the summer.
I developed a number of hobbies over the years, to utilize all my extra time. One of them was knives, and sharpening. I would often test the sharpness of a blade by shaving off some arm hairs. That led me to wonder sometimes about razors, but never enough to start shaving my face.
By this time my beard had substantial streaks of gray. I married my second wife, who had never seen me without a beard. After a couple of years she idly mentioned that she wondered what I looked like under the beard. I decided last May to shave it off so she could see my uncovered face, and then grow it back again. I figured that if I was going to shave anyway, I may as well have a little fun and learn to use a straight razor. That was the decision that led to my downfall, and the destruction of my personal (not)shaving philosophy.
I turned to the internet and discovered the shaving forums. I bought a Dovo straight razor, and then a few inexpensive antique straights from E-bay. I had fun sharpening them up, and learning the mechanics of the straight razor shave. It was challenging, but I could see progress from day to day, and that kept it interesting. It became fascinating to me to buy at a pittance an old razor that had been purchased for a days wages or more, and passed down through two or three generations, and then restore the old quality implement to functionality.
Some of my hobbies burned themselves out naturally. For instance beermaking. After getting sloshed a few times and developing a beer gut from overindulgence, it started to lose its charm. But shaving is hard to over-indulge in. The beard only grows so fast, and after the 14th pass the skin starts to get a little raw. With so many old razors to test, and then creams, oils, soaps, aftershaves, and then every possible combination of one with the other, it is hard not to anticipate the next days shave. Ill admit, sometimes Ive squeezed two shaves into one by shaving one half of my face with one combination, and the other half with a different combo. I overlap a little on the chin but that part doesnt count.
Ive had to extend the schedule for growing back my beard a bit. I figure that, if no one comes out with any more new shaving products, I should have exhausted all the possible combinations around 2070 and should be ready to return to my, formerly simple, philosophically coherent, bearded life.
A sincere thanks, and a hearty curse, to all of you on the forums that facilitated my new addiction!
