Last year, as I began to gently test the waters of wet shaving, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the realization that my loving father had never really taught me to shave. My father and I have a great friendship and in nearly all areas of life, I view him as an expert, however, the topic of shaving never really came up between us. In fact, the only thing I can ever remember him saying about the matter was the advice he gave me at the age of 12 that, "when the hair on your face feels the same as the hair on your ***, you know its time to start shaving."
Anyway, after several weeks of fairly intensive research into the topic of wet shaving, I called dad up on the phone and asked his opinion on safety razors and such. My father, fully aware of his son's determination when wanting to try something new, softly laughed and told me to let him know how things went.
As Christmas 2005 neared and I had been wet shaving for several months with some degree of success, I decided to make up for the missed father-to-son shaving tutorial by purchasing the appropriate setup and conducting a son-to-father lesson. Knowing the stubbornness that my father can exhibit (I inherited it), I decided to give him a brush and some soap to use with his M3, and maybe on a later date re-expose him to a DE.
The brush and soap, along with several old barbershop style aftershaves, were a huge hit. Very likely, these were the best presents that he had ever received from me. Of course, I did not hear this from him, but from my loving mother who has watched him continually enjoy the use of these items.
Earlier this week, my parents made the long drive south to pay us a visit, and along with the whole line of Proraso products, I decided that it was finally time to present dad with a safety razor.
Day 1 of the visit, I showed my father how to properly lather a cream (he had only used soaps up to this point, and I wanted to make sure he was getting the most from the new products). This went very well and there were quickly two men in the family in love with these great products.
On the evening of day 2, I finally brought up the issue of DE shaving, but was disappointed to find that dad had zero interest in the idea. Without arguing about the matter, we decided to watch each other's entire shave routine the following morning to see if we could learn anything from one another.
I was first, so I went through my shave prep of warm splash and warm towel (one of the few things I did learn about shaving from watching my father when I was a child). I then built a luxurious lather from my Taylor's Avocado, and proceeded to go through a 3-pass shave with my Derby loaded Merkur HD and then finished with some mild touch and cut. I then completed the routine with hot rinse, cold rinse, Thayer's Rose Petal Witch Hazel, and CAR's hydrosol and a/s conditioner.
Next it was my father's turn. He went through the patented warm splash and warm towel routine and then went to the Proraso pre-shave and lathered with the tube cream. His next action nearly caused me to leap across the room and snatch the razor from his hand. The first strokes from his M3 traveled from S-to-N at a speed capable of decapitating the stoutest of men. I stared in complete awe, as he finished a single S-N trip around his face, rinsed off and applied the Proraso post-shave and a/s cream. There were no arterial spurts of blood, not even so much as a weeper. His skin was not raw or abraded and was almost as smooth to the touch as mine!
Seeing my dismay, my father chuckled. Having mercy on me, he finally went on to explain that only in the last 3 to 4 years had he been able to shave this way (he is in his 60's now). He stated that, like me, he had struggled with shaving his whole life and only recently, with age, had his beard changed to the extent that this technique was actually good for him and that he was in no hurry to change razors with things going so well.
Who am I to argue when presented with that kind of demonstration? I guess there are two very valuable things that I have learned from this.
1. The mythical 1-pass, bbs shave is not a unicorn. It does in fact exist, though I don't know that I'll ever want to try it.
2. Every man has his own best way to shave.
Anyway, after several weeks of fairly intensive research into the topic of wet shaving, I called dad up on the phone and asked his opinion on safety razors and such. My father, fully aware of his son's determination when wanting to try something new, softly laughed and told me to let him know how things went.
As Christmas 2005 neared and I had been wet shaving for several months with some degree of success, I decided to make up for the missed father-to-son shaving tutorial by purchasing the appropriate setup and conducting a son-to-father lesson. Knowing the stubbornness that my father can exhibit (I inherited it), I decided to give him a brush and some soap to use with his M3, and maybe on a later date re-expose him to a DE.
The brush and soap, along with several old barbershop style aftershaves, were a huge hit. Very likely, these were the best presents that he had ever received from me. Of course, I did not hear this from him, but from my loving mother who has watched him continually enjoy the use of these items.
Earlier this week, my parents made the long drive south to pay us a visit, and along with the whole line of Proraso products, I decided that it was finally time to present dad with a safety razor.
Day 1 of the visit, I showed my father how to properly lather a cream (he had only used soaps up to this point, and I wanted to make sure he was getting the most from the new products). This went very well and there were quickly two men in the family in love with these great products.
On the evening of day 2, I finally brought up the issue of DE shaving, but was disappointed to find that dad had zero interest in the idea. Without arguing about the matter, we decided to watch each other's entire shave routine the following morning to see if we could learn anything from one another.
I was first, so I went through my shave prep of warm splash and warm towel (one of the few things I did learn about shaving from watching my father when I was a child). I then built a luxurious lather from my Taylor's Avocado, and proceeded to go through a 3-pass shave with my Derby loaded Merkur HD and then finished with some mild touch and cut. I then completed the routine with hot rinse, cold rinse, Thayer's Rose Petal Witch Hazel, and CAR's hydrosol and a/s conditioner.
Next it was my father's turn. He went through the patented warm splash and warm towel routine and then went to the Proraso pre-shave and lathered with the tube cream. His next action nearly caused me to leap across the room and snatch the razor from his hand. The first strokes from his M3 traveled from S-to-N at a speed capable of decapitating the stoutest of men. I stared in complete awe, as he finished a single S-N trip around his face, rinsed off and applied the Proraso post-shave and a/s cream. There were no arterial spurts of blood, not even so much as a weeper. His skin was not raw or abraded and was almost as smooth to the touch as mine!
Seeing my dismay, my father chuckled. Having mercy on me, he finally went on to explain that only in the last 3 to 4 years had he been able to shave this way (he is in his 60's now). He stated that, like me, he had struggled with shaving his whole life and only recently, with age, had his beard changed to the extent that this technique was actually good for him and that he was in no hurry to change razors with things going so well.
Who am I to argue when presented with that kind of demonstration? I guess there are two very valuable things that I have learned from this.
1. The mythical 1-pass, bbs shave is not a unicorn. It does in fact exist, though I don't know that I'll ever want to try it.
2. Every man has his own best way to shave.
and he showed me again. And again, and again. My mom came running into the bathroom, and gave him hell for making me nervous. Well, to make a long story short, I always knew that dad meant well, and he explained to me that shaving is very important for a man, because it helps him to look his best. For many years, he was shaving with an electric razor, and then I bought him a Vision DE, and an Omega brush, and a tub of Taylors almond, when I was visiting my parents in Florida. We joked about the time when he gave me sh*t for not shaving the way he showed me, and he said he wouldn't start using what I gave him til after I left. He said as a joke, that he didn't want me to scream at him! 
