Recently in Grooming Category

The other day, I met with a facilities worker who, if he so desired, could have easily braided his eyebrow hair and even added some attractive rasta beads to his dangling brow-locks. It was quite something to behold. He was almost tripping over them.

I have relatively hairy eyebrows and I live in fear that, as I grow older, they will similarly take over my face. In my goth days of yore, I tweezed them into a suitably malevolent arch, but I refuse to go the whole metrosexual route in my advanced years. Ray already barges into the bathroom at inopportune moments; I don't want to have to explain "Daddy's plucking his eyebrows."

Amy will occasionally point out a single lengthy strand when she notices it, and I appreciate her candor and willingness to call my attention to my grooming shortcomings. I've never felt comfortable issuing such advice, even to those close to me. An ex-girlfriend of mine, otherwise quite attractive, had a nose hair issue that I never brought up. There were times I considered waiting until she was asleep and then getting out the scissors.

I guess the true measure of love is the willingness to say: "Honey, you really need to trim/pluck/shave that."

Maybe blogging about shaving will become a regular weekend thing.

The other day, I linked to Merlin's Mann's 5ives site. Merlin also runs the impressive 43Folders, which is "about personal productivity, life hacks, and simple ways to make your life a little better."

Last week, Merlin posted "Shaving tips, or, 'how I remain Gillette’s bitch'," in which he plugs the Gillette Mach3 razor, badger hair brushes, and Taylor of Old Bond Street lavender shaving cream, of which he remarks: "wow, was it ever swell -- plus it makes you smell like a clean grandfather."

Which is what I'm going for, of course. I think I just found a Father's Day present to request.

I tend to write a lot about shaving. Is my life really that unbearably dull? Maybe so; I added a new "Grooming" category to the blog to cover it.

I won't get into details about how I became interested in the Philips Bodygroom, a new shaver designed "exclusively for men" and that "safely trims and shaves all body zones." And I'm normally not a big fan of the sort of viral marketing campaign Philips is employing for this product. But I have to set aside my unwillingness to play into uncompensated corporate shilldom out of appreciation for the bluntness of a commercial that strategically uses two kiwifruit and a peach to represent exactly which "body zones" they're referring to.

As my Major Readers will recall, I recently threw off the corporate yoke and dumped my beloved Gillette Mach III razor in favor of an old-school double-edged safety razor I picked up at an antique store.

This morning, I cheated and reverted to the Mach III in an attempt to hasten my morning toilette. But my new safety razor is a jealous little guy and somehow induced my Mach III to nick up my face like a piece of tenderized meat.

Fittingly, the first page I open with my browser today contains a Metafilter thread about how shaving cream is a scam and weakens your skin. The post links to a rant entitled "The Shaving Cream Racket," and the MeFi discussion that ensues reveals all manner of interesting shaving practices I had never been privy to, including a couple references to the hard-core military method of cold water, no shaving cream, and baby oil.

I'll try anything once. Any other good shaving tips out there in the Mist?

You'd think that after my last experience with a low-cost haircut that I'd learn my lesson. But no....

I feel like even more of a iconoclastic rebel for going with a retro single-blade shaver recently. Even The Economist is chiming on blade-proliferation with an amusing article that applies Moore's Law to razor development.

And since I have The Onion on the brain, here's "Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades"

What part of this don't you understand? If two blades is good, and three blades is better, obviously five blades would make us the best fucking razor that ever existed. Comprende?

I've been wanting to try out an old-fashioned safety razor (similar to the one at the right) ever since I read somewhere that it gives a closer shave than disposables (even my beloved triple-blade Mach3). Men's shaving gear has become a multi-million-dollar industry, with sites like The Art of Shaving catering to the swelling ranks of men who spend loads of money on skin care products. But I wasn't willing to fork out $45 + S&H on a fancy new safety razor because I didn't know if I'd like it or not. So, I've been periodically hunting for one at antique stores.

I finally found one in West Seattle the other day. Next, I needed double-edged blades, and I was surprised to find them at the regular ole corner drug store. One quick stop into the bath and body shop on University Ave. for a shaving brush later, and I was ready to lather up like it was 1929.

I was able to find everything I needed for my excursion into antiquated shaving practices much easier and much more cheaply than I had counted on. This, of course, meant that the actual practice of shaving would either not work as well as I hoped, or I would end up slicing my jugular.

But not so! Today, I withdrew the shining, deadly piece of stainless-steel from its case, screwed it into my new antique Gillette holder, liberally applied my Tom's of Maine mint shaving cream over my beard, and gave my face a scrape.

The result: no blood ... and no hair. I can't say it's the absolute smoothest shave I've had, but it's pretty close to what my Mach3 can accomplish. The one difference is that I shaved only with the grain using my new razor whereas I have to shave both with and against the grain with the Mach3. Most shaving enthusiasts will tell you that it's verboten to go against the grain (it's bad for your follicles, or something) so maybe this will be a good thing for my face in the long term.

I got a disappointing haircut last weekend. It's not going into the Annals of Bad Haircuts or anything, but it's just ... well, disappointing. The edges aren't clean, it's not entirely proportional, the sideburns were really messed up (I fixed those). From a distance, it doesn't look too terrible, but up close you can just tell that no pride went into this cut job.

One of the hardest things about adjusting to life in a new city is locating new local versions of all the services you grew accustomed to in your previous locale, and hairstyling is one of the hardest to find. It takes time, money, and you can only check a new place once every month or so.