Thread: The end of men...who are these people?

Originally Posted by ronnie brown

long years spent on boats with cold water showers get wet soap up and warsh off total 5 min. shave about the same toliet time about same all total 15 min. and that is taking my time, now that i am at home i ues warm water to shower and it does fell nice but a 30 min. shower i cant understand .

What a luxury!! The 3 S's should never take more than 5mins!

i get up grab my pants and gun and go check traps, kill my critters (if any) comeback skin them quick come in grab a fast shower to knock the stink off me lol grab a fast shave with my straight, and head off to do my other stuff including school and all this is done between 5 and 715 am

You'll forgive me for thinking this is all a storm in a teacup based on what is laughably called "research" nowadays. A sample of 3000 households? What is the population of the UK in terms of households? What proportion of all households does that number represent? Do they mention how the households were selected? Did they stratify their sampling based on important factors such as socio-economic status, household type (single male, hetero couple, homo couple, couple with kids etc...). Was it a phone survey, a written survey, an online survey? Did they stop when they got the numbers they wanted? How were the questions asked? Was it part of a larger survey?

Who conducted the survey, and could they possibly have something to gain out of misrepresenting the results, or deliberately choosing a sample they knew would heighten the effect they were after?

What kind of data would have been collected and collated? Are these weekly averages? Averages are effected by extremes both low and high. It would have been interesting to see the median times.

In any event, I don't trust these results and I am disappointed, though not surprised, that the media outlet in question did not critique it more thoroughly. I mean, it just reads to me like one massive advert for Superdrug, dressed up (poorly) as a newspaper article. Shame!!

James.

This thread is kind of funny coming from a bunch of guys who spend a half hour shaving, talk about getting that perfect baby's butt smooth face, and can list about 100 luxury soaps, creams, balms, and aftershaves off the top of their head!

Originally Posted by ChesterCopperpot

This thread is kind of funny coming from a bunch of guys who spend a half hour shaving, talk about getting that perfect baby's butt smooth face, and can list about 100 luxury soaps, creams, balms, and aftershaves off the top of their head!

I was wondering when someone was gonna say that. I don't get the whole 'metro-sexual' thing (guys getting their nails done? seriously?), but how many people will just give you funny looks when you tell them about your shaving routine, all your soaps and creams, scuttles, strops, etc., etc.?

I do see what I think is a general adaptation by many men to a more 'citified', safe suburban existence-there seems to be less demand (or even tolerance!) for the rugged John Wayne archetype who "can skin a buck, and run a trot line, 'cause a country boy can survive" to quote Hank Jr. Remember all that dithering in the 70's from women saying they wanted a more 'sensitive' type man ala Alan Alda or Phil Donahue? And then when their men started "sharing their feelings," crying, etc., women were shocked, and decided they really like tough guys after all (so back to Ronald Reagan, Magnum PI, and guys like that in the 80's). Just as women's roles have evolved dramatically in the last few decades, a lot of people don't stop to think that so have men's. I'm not saying good or bad one way or the other, but it's interesting to follow.

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

I was wondering when someone was gonna say that. I don't get the whole 'metro-sexual' thing (guys getting their nails done? seriously?), but how many people will just give you funny looks when you tell them about your shaving routine, all your soaps and creams, scuttles, strops, etc., etc.?

I get silent laughs every now and then when i read about people who tell what their mates/gf/wifes/boyfriends
think about their unique/strange/exciting way of shaving. After they had first told them about it of course.
I live in a country, or in a culture where shaving is sort of a private thing. Like brushing your teeth or having sex with your partner.
I tried straight razors in 1993-94 but couldn't get much of it then. Tried again about 5 years ago and shaved with straight ever since. If my wife has ever seen me shaving she hasn't mentioned a word and that is the way it should be. There is nothing to comment about. I do not comment the method she shaves her legs or private parts. She has seen me sharpening and polishing blades of various tools ever since we met so ther is no anything special with razors. I've shaved with straight razor few times at work and those who had seen me haven't mentioned it either. I like it that way. Shaving is a sort of a private thing and my way of shaving isn't any better than someone else who does with Mach 3.
I like to keep things minimal. 7 razors, 1 brush, 1 soap, 1 aftershave that i use occasionally. And that is what is so great about SRP. We all have our own approach on this topic. Some collect, some make beautiful blades and handles, some just shave, some want to show the world how good they are. No way is better than another.

What i wonder every now and then is they the way that people overcomplicate all this. Should i go to 10k or 12k after this. We have brains to use. My feet got wet after walking in a rain with my canvas shoes. What should i do?

I may get badgered by the lady for taking longer to shave, but at least I'm ready when I say I'll be ready.

Originally Posted by Sailor

I live in a country, or in a culture where shaving is sort of a private thing. Like brushing your teeth or having sex with your partner.

Sailor-Yours is also an interesting point. I don't know much about Finland (vodka, saunas, ice, midnight sun? My next-door neighbors are of Finnish descent), but I have no doubt your culture is as private as you say. In the USA now, however, it's interesting to me how now-iconic internet paradigm shifters such as YouTube, blogs, plus social media such as Facebook and Twitter have dramatically altered American views on privacy. I don't do Facebook because I don't want my life to be that public (and as a teacher in a conservative Southern school district, exposed to prying, judgmental eyes). But everywhere you see people posting their every sneeze, the daily moods of their cats, and yes, even their sex lives, on these media for the world to see. Do they ever stop to think how permanent (and disastrously misused) these things can be?

Our daily lives are now so surveilled, our every move and transaction so digitally stored, our movements open to GPS tracking with the simplest technology, that I'm not even sure we have the expectation of privacy any more. I wonder what Orwell would think of the parallel rise of these phenomena with a government entity such as Homeland Security.

Having said all that, I love to brag on here about the limited gear I can afford, and talk endlessly about esoteric details of our hobby no one else knows (or cares) about. Same with my fly-fishing forums.

Anyway, sorry for the boring hijack, gang. I have been interested in these sorts of pseudo-sociological questions ever since I semi-slept through a 7:30 am undergrad course on the topic a quarter century ago (and behind mirrored aviators, for god's sake-I must have come off as a real douchebag, now that I think of it!).

Happy Thanksgiving, all! Will shave with my Fili DT 12 tomorrow before eating a dangerous amount of food. Aaron/SHD

I take pride in my appearance and like to look good. My face gets dry, so I put cream on it. I shave so I look better and slap on some AS or cologne so I smell better. That's what I do. If guys want to do these other things to look/feel better, it's no skin off my behind.

Grooming or lack thereof does not define a man or masculinity. A real man for me is someone like my grandfather, a small-town farmboy who worked his butt off to make life better for his family, got himself an education and produced three very successful children. I consider myself a real man because I take care of my family, spend quality time with SWMBO and SWMBO Jr. and I still find time to take care of myself.

This is just fodder for magazines because someone needed an article.

So...I know I'm still relatively new to SRP...and I've enjoyed reading all these posts, but since no one has said it: That article probably isn't reality. These magazines exist to try and get you to buy things. Men are the great untapped market for cosmetics/skin care companies, so how do you tap it? Start writing articles about how guys take 83 minutes to get ready and are wearing makeup. Most guys will laugh or shake their head...but really young guys who are reading these types of things to learn how to "be a man" are getting conditioned from a young age to spend lots of future money on male cosmetics...

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into everything?