So I recently stumbled upon a wet shaving channel on that well known internet video site which has got me thinking about my own approach to shaving and the cultural changes which have happened around this task. Now the channel in question has a lot of videos, years of content. The thing that stood out to me immediately after watching a recent video was that the shaver in question seemed to my eyes to obviously lack confidence wielding the blade over his face, something you wouldn't expect after shaving for so long a time. This was juxtaposed with the gear in the videos, customs made straights, artisan soaps, etc. Now this isn't a rant against those who enjoy the hobby aspect of shaving, one can do as one wishes with their hard earned money, and I am not questioning the sincerity of the person in the videos. I just get this sense that this person enjoys the 'idea' of 'shaving', the accoutrements, the routine, the novelty of choice of soap, brush and razor but something essential is missing.

What good is a slick, cushiony artisan soap, a custom straight taken to wicked sharp heights by the latest 'honemeister', a luxurious, dense, super duper badger brush if you can't get the whiskers of your face in a confident way. As much as this is not a diatribe against the hobby, it is not one against shavers who lack confidence. I remember my first months straight shaving with my now trusty old Dovo Best Quality and the Van Der Hagen brush, bowl and soap set. I had fear. My shaves were not great. I felt like I'd gone over my face with a cheese grater more often than not. However I think I was lucky enough to be naive to the explosion in the hobby aspect of shaving because I could actually concentrate on the task of getting the hair off my face, and through that dedicated effort I continually improved my technique.

I wonder if a consumerist mentality has pervaded the space, not necessarily a consumerism of showing off but one of confusion. Where the online space, along with the products sold there have distracted some from the task at hand to where they will lack a development of skill that product, no matter how good, cannot compensate for.

When I left school I worked in industry for a time, many of the old timers were really men of a different time, where life had a simplicity that is lacking today, you worked the same job all your life, you bought the same shaving soap, drank the same beer, always had roast beef for a Sunday lunch. Now I never saw any of these men shave, but I saw them work and there was an effortless quality to the way they went about their tasks and I just wonder if it was the same for them when performing what to them was the menial task of shaving. I cannot help but feel the same is true.

They were shaving, not 'shaving'.

Would be interested on others thoughts about how things have changed as far as this kind of thing goes.