Thread: Why Bother ????

There are several reasons why I bother.

Ostensibly I do it because it is, IMO, the best shave possible. Absolutely no question in my mind.

I also bother because I think ritual is important. I think, more and more, rituals are missing in our lives, particularly the lives of men. I feel that in the modern world, even just one ritual you can turn to each day can keep you centred and grounded and allow you to put into context everything else going on around you - I like to think while I shave...

Another reason why I bother is because I also think nothing worthwhile in this world comes without effort - you work for your shave with a straight: from honing to stropping to lather-making to the actual shave itself and beyond, there's effort involved. I like that I can see the results when I am done, and know that they are directly attributable to the effort I invested and nothing else.

Related to this last point, I also bother because I like the enhanced action and consequence aspect of straight razor shaving. You get what you put into it, nothing more and nothing less. You screw around, you'll pay for it. You pay attention to detail, you'll be rewarded for it. Not prepared to put the time into developing your skills? Fine, the consequences of that will follow just as day follows night. Take the time to learn, practice, experiment and really develop - again, the consequences of your actions will follow. So much of life today is coddled and swaddled in warnings or prohibitions, I find straight razor shaving is a touch-stone to a more "realistic" existence.

Finally, I bother because of people like you guys. Like-minded men (and women) gathered together from all parts of the world in straight razor camaraderie. In my time here I have seen pretty much everything discussed, usually in an open and frank way, and generally in a gentlemanly (or civil) fashion. People may say online forums are unreal, and yes there can be a lot of bollocks thrown around, but in the end what they really are is, literally, a forum - a public space for open expression. We are very lucky, I think, to have this space and to be able to share together in the way we do. As the old saying goes, "kids today don't know how good they've got it".

James.

Good question, but really, when you get right down to it, it isn't any bother at all.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

There are several reasons why I bother.

Ostensibly I do it because it is, IMO, the best shave possible. Absolutely no question in my mind.

I also bother because I think ritual is important. I think, more and more, rituals are missing in our lives, particularly the lives of men. I feel that in the modern world, even just one ritual you can turn to each day can keep you centred and grounded and allow you to put into context everything else going on around you - I like to think while I shave...

Another reason why I bother is because I also think nothing worthwhile in this world comes without effort - you work for your shave with a straight: from honing to stropping to lather-making to the actual shave itself and beyond, there's effort involved. I like that I can see the results when I am done, and know that they are directly attributable to the effort I invested and nothing else.

Related to this last point, I also bother because I like the enhanced action and consequence aspect of straight razor shaving. You get what you put into it, nothing more and nothing less. You screw around, you'll pay for it. You pay attention to detail, you'll be rewarded for it. Not prepared to put the time into developing your skills? Fine, the consequences of that will follow just as day follows night. Take the time to learn, practice, experiment and really develop - again, the consequences of your actions will follow. So much of life today is coddled and swaddled in warnings or prohibitions, I find straight razor shaving is a touch-stone to a more "realistic" existence.

Finally, I bother because of people like you guys. Like-minded men (and women) gathered together from all parts of the world in straight razor camaraderie. In my time here I have seen pretty much everything discussed, usually in an open and frank way, and generally in a gentlemanly (or civil) fashion. People may say online forums are unreal, and yes there can be a lot of bollocks thrown around, but in the end what they really are is, literally, a forum - a public space for open expression. We are very lucky, I think, to have this space and to be able to share together in the way we do. As the old saying goes, "kids today don't know how good they've got it".

James.

Well said mate; I'm almost at a loss for words...

(I know that's kind of hard to imagine for those of you who've met me in person)

I'll be the devils advocate here.

Originally everyone used a straight and probably a tiny minority shaved themselves with the idea of it being a pampering experience and indulged in the acquisition disorders many here have. Back in the day if you wanted to be pampered you went to a barber. It was simply the only way to shave and most had to shave every day. Also, most hated it and that is why Mr Gillette was so successful. He offered convenience and since most left the straight I would say he was correct. That is an undeniable fact. If you want to think of it as brainwashing the public you can but really simplicity sells and folks are willing to forgo certain things to gain others. This is true with many things out there.

You get what you put into things. For those who see modern day straight shaving as simply a way to get the best shave or cheapest shave and have one of everything and are satisfied with that and have no desire to buy the higher end products I see no problem with that. If you get what you want out of this you are ahead of the game. At the same time if you want to indulge that's great too. There is no ultimate truth here only your truth.

So it's not a matter of bothering or not bothering it's a matter of doing it your way.

This very subject came up a few years back and I wrote a response that I just found and reread after not seeing it for a couple of years. I still feel very much the same, so I'll re-post it here.

In the old days (and by that I mean early industrial revoloution and before), the things that were made were generally necessities. As the ability to mass produce grew, it was quickly discovered that production could easily outpace need. The stratigy of the industrialist changed from filling a need to creating one.

King Gillette did not set out to change the way people shaved. His goal was to create a product that he could sell a lot of. He was a salesman for the Crown Bottle Cap Co. (those are the guys that made the first bottle caps, just like the ones you still see today on the top of your beer bottle). The companys owner pointed out to him why the enterprise was so successful. The caps could be used only once, and then they would be discarded, unlike the bottles, which (as many of us old guys will remember) could be returned and refilled. The caps would always be in demand simply because they couldn't be reused.

Gillette sat down every night and thought hard about what he could invent and manufacture that would be disposable. Well, he settled on the razor, and the rest is history, as they say. After a lot of great salesmanship (everyone probably already knows this, but for those who don't, Gillette actually gave away the razors so that people would try them, hoping that they would like them and have to buy replacement blades eventually), everyone started using them, even though they weren't such an improvment over the straight. The appeal was probably the novelty of the device at first, and then the cost was surely a factor for boys growing up and just starting to shave.

But the initial money savings, disappeared over the years, and before anyone knew it, they were stuck with it. My Father was born in '35, and he never used a str8, and he never saw his father use one either. The skills that would have been passed from one generation to the next were lost. What once was a tool that had been in every household 75 years ago is now just a relic, even though it is a better tool than any of it's current replacements.

But the change is not just in how we shave, it's in how we view the world. Something that was once a valued posession has been replaced by something that will be thrown away. The jobs we used to have as crafstmen and artisans are replaced with assembly line jobs manufacturing more disposable items, manufacturing garbage. The men who toil on these assembly line jobs became disposable. No longer are they tradesmen who an employer values for his skill, his loyalty, and as a fellow man, but they are little more than the soft parts of the machines that they tend, easily replaced and quickly forgotten. Is it any surprise, in light of this, how the governments of the industrialized world sent, literaly, millions of young men to their certain death in the battlefields of Europe during the First World War?

By not valuing an object, we discount the work that went into it. To discount the work, we trivialize the worker. to trivialize the worker, we devalue human life.

Support what lasts, value human life.

After living life in the disposable world we live in and seeing the results... I opted for a way to use what was already there, and in HUGE quantities. That and my general regression of technology in general, heck my cell phone is 8 years old... and I still have no clue how most of it works...

I am fortunate in that I happen to really enjoy the whole rutine of straight shaving. Even when all my buddies think I'm nuts, I care not, I enjoy it.

Recently, I cut my thumb pretty badly with my straight. The next couple of days, I couldn't hold my razor properly. The first day, I thought, "I suppose I could use that old injectable with the blades that are still in the medicine cabinet". I inserted the blade and said to myself, "Forget this (paraphrased). I'd rather not shave than use this", and I went to work unshaven. The next day, I really had too much growth to go without shaving, so I used the injecable. In five minutes I was done. Got a decent shave. But I got no satisfaction out of the process. There was clearly something missing. Why bother? Because I'd rather drive a Ferrari than ride the bus.

Because I can.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Why Bother???

To quote Dame Lauren Alesha Masheka Tanesha Felicia Jane Cooper
"Am I bovvered? Am I bovvered though?
Look at my face. Is it bovvered? Arks me If I'm bovvered!
Look, face, bovvered?
I ain't bovvered!"

Seriously tho, I bet not many of us find it a "bovver"
I bet a high proportion of straight shavers are very self sufficient, problem solving types with an understanding that some time & effort can be well worth the outcome in anything we do, be it reloading, martial art, smelting steel, knife/razor making, etc.. etc.. Even those who might not get their hands dirty as a rule that shave this way would do it for the same reasons i.e. the process & the results. You get neither with cartridges & canned goop, not at all attractive or seductive. I wonder if cartridge users are increasing ? Historically, people left straight razors behind but now we have people leaving cartridges behind. We are surely not a huge part of the market but in my few years on SRP I've seen the membership increase around fourfold. Obviously the Muck16's are not "the best a man can get."