An introduction to the forums

[Howard Wallace]

I’ve been lurking around the shaving forums, gleaning knowledge from you guys, for a few months now. I figured it’s time to step up and introduce myself.

First of all, I never liked shaving. I started shaving as a teenager with canned lather and injectible razors. It was generally a miserable experience, with ingrown hairs, nicks, etc. As I started to develop my personal approach to life, I found multiple reasons to reject shaving.

The first was simplicity. As I began to become interested in physics I was drawn to read about Einstein and his approach to life. According to legend he tried to drastically simplify his life so he could think about important things. So he did away with things like socks, and purportedly used the same soap for washing and shaving in order to simplify life. I figured I could do Einstein one better, and do away with shaving altogether, thereby not only eliminating all the associated paraphernalia, but also saving several minutes each morning that could be better spent on philosophical contemplation of the universe.

Another reason was the natural order of things. This was articulated by my favorite Stoic philosopher, Epictetus.

From the Discourses of Epictetus http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/di...s.3.three.html

Young man, whom do you wish to make beautiful? In the first place, know who you are and then adorn yourself appropriately. You are a human being; and this is a mortal animal which has the power of using appearances rationally. But what is meant by "rationally?" Conformably to nature and completely. What, then, do you possess which is peculiar? Is it the animal part? No. Is it the condition of mortality? No. Is it the power of using appearances? No. You possess the rational faculty as a peculiar thing: adorn and beautify this; but leave your hair to him who made it as he chose. Come, what other appellations have you? Are you man or woman? "Man." Adorn yourself then as man, not as woman. Woman is naturally smooth and delicate; and if she has much hair (on her body), she is a monster and is exhibited at Rome among monsters. And in a man it is monstrous not to have hair; and if he has no hair, he is a monster; but if he cuts off his hairs and plucks them out, what shall we do with him? where shall we exhibit him? and under what name shall we show him? "I will exhibit to you a man who chooses to be a woman rather than a man." What a terrible sight! There is no man who will not wonder at such a notice. Indeed I think that the men who pluck out their hairs do what they do without knowing what they do. Man what fault have you to find with your nature? That it made you a man? What then? was it fit that nature should make all human creatures women? and what advantage in that case would you have had in being adorned? for whom would you have adorned yourself, if all human creatures were women? But you are not pleased with the matter: set to work then upon the whole business. Take away- what is its name?- that which is the cause of the hairs: make yourself a woman in all respects, that we may not be mistaken: do not make one half man, and the other half woman. Whom do you wish to please? The women?, Please them as a man. "Well; but they like smooth men." Will you not hang yourself? and if women took delight in catamites, would you become one? Is this your business? were you born for this purpose, that dissolute women should delight in you? Shall we make such a one as you a citizen of Corinth and perchance a prefect of the city, or chief of the youth, or general or superintendent of the games? Well, and when you have taken a wife, do you intend to have your hairs plucked out? To please whom and for what purpose? And when you have begotten children, will you introduce them also into the state with the habit of plucking their hairs? A beautiful citizen, and senator and rhetorician. We ought to pray that such young men be born among us and brought up.

That was the clincher. I felt I was on solid philosophical foundation by not shaving, so I wore a beard for the next three decades. I felt satisfied that I wasn’t wasting my time, my face was warm in the winter, and mosquitoes didn’t bite my face in the summer.

I developed a number of hobbies over the years, to utilize all my extra time. One of them was knives, and sharpening. I would often test the sharpness of a blade by shaving off some arm hairs. That led me to wonder sometimes about razors, but never enough to start shaving my face.

By this time my beard had substantial streaks of gray. I married my second wife, who had never seen me without a beard. After a couple of years she idly mentioned that she wondered what I looked like under the beard. I decided last May to shave it off so she could see my uncovered face, and then grow it back again. I figured that if I was going to shave anyway, I may as well have a little fun and learn to use a straight razor. That was the decision that led to my downfall, and the destruction of my personal (not)shaving philosophy.

I turned to the internet and discovered the shaving forums. I bought a Dovo straight razor, and then a few inexpensive antique straights from E-bay. I had fun sharpening them up, and learning the mechanics of the straight razor shave. It was challenging, but I could see progress from day to day, and that kept it interesting. It became fascinating to me to buy at a pittance an old razor that had been purchased for a day’s wages or more, and passed down through two or three generations, and then restore the old quality implement to functionality.

Some of my hobbies burned themselves out naturally. For instance beermaking. After getting sloshed a few times and developing a beer gut from overindulgence, it started to lose its charm. But shaving is hard to over-indulge in. The beard only grows so fast, and after the 14th pass the skin starts to get a little raw. With so many old razors to test, and then creams, oils, soaps, aftershaves, and then every possible combination of one with the other, it is hard not to anticipate the next day’s shave. I’ll admit, sometimes I’ve squeezed two shaves into one by shaving one half of my face with one combination, and the other half with a different combo. I overlap a little on the chin but that part doesn’t count.

I’ve had to extend the schedule for growing back my beard a bit. I figure that, if no one comes out with any more new shaving products, I should have exhausted all the possible combinations around 2070 and should be ready to return to my, formerly simple, philosophically coherent, bearded life.

A sincere thanks, and a hearty curse, to all of you on the forums that facilitated my new addiction!

[Joe Chandler]

Killer post, and welcome, thou fallen philosophical angel! Abandon hope and facial hair, all ye who enter here.

[FiReSTaRT]

Welcome aboard. Unfortunately I find your estimate too conservative. Colleen keeps coming up with soaps that you just have to try and then you get custom razors by Bill and Maestro. As if that wasn't enough, just wait until Tony M comes up with another strop design. Finally you have Matt and his brushes. Don't even get me started on mugs. If you look at number eight from a 90 degree angle, that should give you an idea of how long you need to live to try out every aspect of straight-edge shaving. That's assuming you don't also get bitten by the DE-bug.

[wvbias]

Howard,

Welcome to the forum. I do hope that you
will stick around.


Terry

[cloudwilliam]

Great post--more of an essay than a forum post. I liked Stoic philosophy as well, and Marcus Aurelius' advice was one of the reasons I took up straight razor shaving.

"Ask yourself, What is this thing in itself, by its own special constitution? What is it in substance, and in form, and in matter? What is its function in the world? For how long does it subsist?" Meditations, 8:11.

In reference to my straight razor and my old Gilette Sensor, they're both for shaving, and both are products sold for profit. I like to think, however, that the men who made my straight razor made it largely by hand with an artisan's care, and sold it to make a living; the Gilette corporation is an object of industry, mass manufacturing and planned obsolesence; and they sell their razors not to benefit or enable their customers, not to pay the rent or buy food, but to make a fortune. The former subsists for generations; the latter for about a week, if I skip Saturday and Sunday. A simplistic analysis, but as Thoreau advised, "Simplify, simplify."

Dan

[Howard Wallace]

"Ask yourself, What is this thing in itself, by its own special constitution? What is it in substance, and in form, and in matter? What is its function in the world? For how long does it subsist?" Meditations, 8:11.

In reference to my straight razor and my old Gilette Sensor, they're both for shaving, and both are products sold for profit. I like to think, however, that the men who made my straight razor made it largely by hand with an artisan's care, and sold it to make a living; the Gilette corporation is an object of industry, mass manufacturing and planned obsolesence; and they sell their razors not to benefit or enable their customers, not to pay the rent or buy food, but to make a fortune. The former subsists for generations; the latter for about a week, if I skip Saturday and Sunday. A simplistic analysis, but as Thoreau advised, "Simplify, simplify."

Thoreau and Marcus Aurelius are two more of my very favorite philosophers. Perhaps if I would have read the emporer Marcus Aurelius' work before the work of Epictetus the slave, I would have followed the slightly more materialistic straight razor path from the beginning. As it is, you have given me some philosophical underpinnings to put my feet on solid ground and helped me to begin to formulate a defensible position. Thanks!

I have to admit I have been captivated by the enduring nature of the straight razor. A razor that can last for more than a hundred years and still shave well. They intrigue me. I have had no desire to use one of the modern straights with disposable blades. Now I am beginning to understand myself, and why the enduring old razors, and the quality new ones, hold such attraction.

[xman]

Epictetus might have constructed his argument well, but ultimately he was displaying his agenda by responding to the rising and waning popularity in shaving over the ages. I know a certain man who has no need, desire nor pressure to shave and so he doesn't. Works fine for him. I look like a mess if I don't at least trim. Not shaving would keep me unemployed.

Epictetus is also mistaken about why women prefer hairless men. I believe it is an evolutionary preference in action perhaps because seeing the skin directly allows for more accurate determination of health, perhaps because it allows for more precise interperetation of non verbal communication skills. Whatever the reason(s) men have been shaving for millenia and I doubt that'll ever stop. It's a species specific hazard.

Good to have you here.

X

[wvbias]

Could hairless men be less likely to harbor
lice? Perhaps he would seem to be less
threatening. Or they may actually like their
guys a little on the feminine side......

Hey, I had to say something. I want to sound
intellectual as well.......


Terry

[Howard Wallace]

perhaps because it allows for more precise interperetation of non verbal communication skills...

I'm having to learn this. No more easy poker face. I was accostomed to be able to smile and chuckle to myself when people said silly things at work. Now they look at me and ask me what I'm smiling about.

[ForestryProf]

I could tell you why women prefer bald men, but you'd only feel inadequate

I'd never intentionally make any of my friends feel bad.

Ed