Downfall of Modern Shaving/Variety is the Spice 'o Life

[bonusmarple]

After a few months of wet shaving, one thing I have noted about the trend in "modern" or cartridge shaving is the absolute lack of variety. It seems shaving took a turn for the worse and ended up being a task with no room for variety. Just a simple binary task. In this world, all anyone would want to do is to get it over with, or avoid it all together.

The interesing thing with wet shaving is the tremendous variety that is out there. Take soaps and creams for example. There is a huge number of possibilities if you consider super lather.

Blades and razors, there are hundreds of combinations and possibilities here as well, especially if you consider that settings on an adjustable really should count as separate razors.

Brushes
Straight razors
Injectors

It is realistically possible to go for months without the same shave twice. While I think that a routine is good for learning how to wet shave, however, once you have the fundamentals, I think the best part of wet shaving is breaking out of the routine and exploring the possibilities. This is something that "modern" shaving just can not offer.

 

[analog_kid]

I'm half surprised some scented canned goop hasn't come out recently with some huge marketing campaign. Think of all the people who would be floored by how revolutionary that would be!

 

[Shave Cat]

In this world, all anyone would want to do is to get it over with, or avoid it all together.

One of the new Gillette commercials even mentions (in relation to shaving) getting it over with. Personally I enjoy shaving the old-fashioned way. It provides me a nostalgic link to a simpler time. Sure, it takes a little longer, but sometimes it's nice to stop and smell the roses.

-Clarke

 

[masonjarjar]

It is realistically possible to go for months without the same shave twice. While I think that a routine is good for learning how to wet shave, however, once you have the fundamentals, I think the best part of wet shaving is breaking out of the routine and exploring the possibilities. This is something that "modern" shaving just can not offer.

As far as razors and blades go, haven't you all found ONE combination that works better than the others?

I can understand using different scents, creams, aftershaves, etc.

But I'm kind of not understanding using different razors, other than you enjoy the "beauty of the tool" or something like that...

 

[htownmmm]

I think the best part of wet shaving is breaking out of the routine and exploring the possibilities. This is something that "modern" shaving just can not offer.

And this is why the number of wetshavers will continue to grow-no matter how 'modern' shaving becomes.

One of the new Gillette commercials even mentions (in relation to shaving) getting it over with. Personally I enjoy shaving the old-fashioned way. It provides me a nostalgic link to a simpler time. Sure, it takes a little longer, but sometimes it's nice to stop and smell the roses.

-Clarke

Or even the SCS Savory Rose SS followed by Thayer's Rose w/h and topped off with SCS Savory Rose shave milk!

As far as razors and blades go, haven't you all found ONE combination that works better than the others?

I can understand using different scents, creams, aftershaves, etc.

But I'm kind of not understanding using different razors, other than you enjoy the "beauty of the tool" or something like that...

Yes I have, but the joy is in the journey to find as many combinations that leave me with the perfect shave. Plus, the beauty and craftsmanship of the equipment adds to the overall enjoyment of the shaving experience(for me anyway).

Marty

 

[spinyeel]

I for one would have died laughing a few months back if someone told me that shaving can be an enjoyable experience.How things have changed.I still can't believe the difference and the error of my old ways.

 

[robertw]

I for one would have died laughing a few months back if someone told me that shaving can be an enjoyable experience.How things have changed.I still can't believe the difference and the error of my old ways.

+1

 

[A.de.Lioncourt]

The ability to find joy in shaving, or in any other Banal thing, is the ability to live well.

 

[AsciiSimon]

The ability to find joy in shaving, or in any other Banal thing, is the ability to live well.

Absolutely!

I am something of a creator. I make things and do things. Odd things. Usually just for the joy of doing it. And based on the comments I get through my web sites for my 'things' it always amazes me the number of people who don't understand doing something just for the joy of doing it, regardless of if it has a point or if there was a 'quicker' or 'better' way of doing it. I find these people lack creativity and imagination.

As I said recently on another board I frequent I'd rather live in a world full of eccentric thinkers than one full of unthinking consumers.

I think I am going to make that my motto

Simon

 

[Mr. Gillette]

Good observations, all! This is the essence of why we do what we do.

I lived through the change from DE to cartridge systems. I also saw the birth of microwaves (around the same time in our homes) the remote control, the instamatic camera, the video camera for instant gratification, the expansion of the McDonald's menu from 1) Hamburger 2) Cheeseburger 3) Fish Sandwich 4) Fries 5) Coke 6) Shake to a melange of specials and combos. During that same time we saw clip on ties, (and I actually SAW someone wearing one the other day!) We watched 8 track tapes and cassettes come into our cars, then CD'S and now MP3's.

About a decade into Trac II, Sensor, Atra time, came the first home computers, Atari Games, Nintendo. In the very early 1990's came "Bulletin Boards" then Al Gore invented the Internet. Cable TV began to supplant the broacast medium, and 24 hour news filled our lives.

My point? I think I used to believe that cartridge systems were forced upon us with a lot of other changes...and they WERE. The whole idea was that 2 blades, or 3 or 4, could help one shave faster, with less passes. And, as pivoting heads came in, ANYONE could shave well...technique meant nothing.

But the big question is-- how many of us walk across the room to change channels on the TV anymore? How many of us have a big tower or an antenna on our roof and not cable? How many of us haven't used a microwave (or a dishwasher, for that matter) or a home computer (guilty!), CD's, DVD's, etc. How many of us have a plain old Ma Bell dial phone on the wall- no cell phone, no cordless?

I submit that our lives are typically FULL of things that make life easier than it was, say c. 1972. (Except for clip on ties...PLEASE get rid of them if you have them!)

In my case, I tried at various times to switch to Cartridge systems, but the quality was simply not there. I might as well have not shaved. Never had an ingrown facial hair, but I just didn't enjoy the experience, so for 30 years or more, I thought I was the one last holdout in DE shaving.

I think we've chosen this as a QUALITATIVE statement, that we want something better than the world will accept. I've eaten a microwave meal or two, but in the final analysis, nothing is better than good, simple, wholesome food, cooked well over heat, (as God intended it!) and cooked well. So it is with shaving, either DE or Straight Shaving.

And yes, it's a throwback, and is enjoyable, in the same way that splitting and hauling firewood is a fun activity, or walking instead of driving, or spending a few weeks in the woods can be refreshing. But we choose it as a way of life.

Much has changed since the invention of Trac II. If we say that it was a tragedy, then so would any of these other things-- remote controls, heated seats in the car, cell phones, computers...yet we all use them. I am typing this on a computer screen because I can't type it on a Selectric, mimeograph it, and mail it to all of you as quickly as I can in this medium.

But I made the decision a long time ago to never, EVER use another cartridge, twin blade, 8 blade, or any such thing again.

 

[Bflobill 1125]

GREAT POST! I can relate! Sometimes when I'm shaving with my safety I feel like there still is some sanity left in this world! We've seen alot of change, some good some for sure not good!

 

[Tales101]

I think there's also something to be said for developing a difficult skill and that you continue to get better at your whole life, especially when that skill pertains to something as manly as shaving. How long does it take you to get good at using a Mach 3 and even when you are good it can still cut up your face from time to time.

 

[Mr. Gillette]

I think there's also something to be said for developing a difficult skill and that you continue to get better at your whole life, especially when that skill pertains to something as manly as shaving. How long does it take you to get good at using a Mach 3 and even when you are good it can still cut up your face from time to time.

Right! In the old days, it was a bit of an art to tuning in a TV. For those of you who are too young to remember...indulge me.

The TV had two bands, UHF and VHF. VHF was channels 2-13, and were usually the longer distance of the channels, and 14-83 were on the UHF band.

Now...let's say it's a Sunday night in 1965. Your dad asks you to go turn off Family Classics (on Channel 9 in Chicago, where it was probably "Boys Town" or "Cheaper by the Dozen") and switch it over to NBC, because Bonanza would be on. (No Ed Sullivan on CBS...dad gave it up when those Beatles looked like a bunch of girls!)

So you get up, and you click it either to Channel 5 in Chicago or Channel 16 in South Bend Indiana. Step one...prepare yourself for a MASSIVE static electricity shock. Then change the channel. Easy? NO!!!

"Awwwww...now look at that!!! That's not right...LOOK at the picture. Here, let me do that!" Dad gets up, and you take a seat on the couch. "Now get over here and watch what I do...you'll LEARN something!"

First you'd have to see which NBC channel looked better, and the weather affected this, or a plane flying over, or snow on the antenna, etc. Dad has chosen NBC affiliate WMAQ, channel 5 from Chicago. "Click-Click-Click" (You had to move the control slowly or it would "WRECK THE TUNER!" and the TV would have to go into the shop. Having put it to the right channel, then the fine tuner would be used. This is why there was a mirror in our living room, so someone could see the picture while tuning the TV in.

About the time Lorne Greene's hair snapped into "Living Color", the vertical hold would go. This required reaching around the TV, to the bottom of the back.."OW! $$@#%%!!!!" (another static shock). Finally the vertical hold is in place, and now you notice that Hoss Cartwright is a sickly shade of green, and Ben's hair isn't white anymore but slightly blue, with a red halo. This required adjustment of Hue and Tint, (which nobody really knew anything about)...

When this was finished, a plane flies over, and the horizontal hold goes crazy. "Here's where we rotate the aerial." (It was never cable or an antenna, but an aerial, from which I think we get our word areola). The antenna rotator was on top of the TV...a big box with N-S-E-W on it, but we were told to "NEVER EVER TOUCH THAT THING!!!" It had 4 wires going into it, that were prone to breakage, at inopportune times. Dad would turn the knob about 3/4 of the way around, and then back a bit, and it would start to light up and click..."ka-CHUNK! ka-CHUNK!" And the picture would go from bad to worse.

"Isn't Chicago to our West?" "Shut up," he would explain, "I know where it is."

Eventually the picture would improve, and more vertical hold adjustments, more horizontal hold adjustments, tint/hue and fine tuning would make it look like the movie screen at the local Bijou. "THERE!" And as he would make his way to his chair, the picture would fall apart into a world of static, snow, noise...

"Hmmmm...must be sunspots-- we'll have to try it on Channel 16 out of South Bend!" And the process would start anew. By the time it was done, 25 minutes of the story was over, and you'd not only wonder how the Cartwright boys were going to get themselves out of the mess but also how they GOT into that mess in the first place.

(And you should have seen him with home movies and/or record albums!)

So yes...developing technique was important in that arena because the equipment needed technique to operate! I watched a woman today try to put a form (not hers) into a typewriter, and line it up. She is a capable person, and a computer whiz, but the old technology, even though she was old enough to have used it, threw her for a loop.

You're entirely correct it IS fun and rewarding learning a skill like tuning in a 1963 Magnavox TV or a 1959 Fatboy by Gillette!

 

[Bflobill 1125]

GREAT POST! AHH, the memories!

 

[AsciiSimon]

Memories?!? TV in New Zealand is still like that!

GREAT POST! AHH, the memories!

 

[spinyeel]

Memories?!? TV in New Zealand is still like that!

 

[michaelskar]

I have such strong memories of the "bizarre" ka-CHUNK ka-CHUNK thing...never really seemed to solve the problem...but it felt like you were a mad scientist or something (and remember the SMELL that came out of the back of the TV...ozone or whatever?)

 

[AsciiSimon]

One comment here that Mr. Gillette made is the telling one I think. "Better than the rest of the world will accept". Our office manager asked me yesterday why on earth would anyone want to shave with a 1950s razor when the modern ones must obviously be better. I get all my shaving stuff delivered to work and I think she is always amused at how excited I am about getting it.

I told her that was where the flaw in her logic was, assuming modern was better. Faster maybe (though not really once you know what you're doing). More convenient perhaps. Easier (once again experience wipes that ones). I don't think it had actually occurred to her that modern wasn't necessarily better.

The way I always explain it is a bit like Mr. Gillettes analogy. Not with microwaves but with fast food. Sure McDs is quicker and more convenient but no one in their right mind is going to say it's better than a proper cooked meal!

Simon