Thread: Taking the Path of Most Resistance

Well I returned in October to using a straight after a six year exile into the land of full beards trimmed with DEs and hedge clippers.

The most memorable shaves thus far are these six:
My first shave was done by a barber using my Dad’s Boker when I was 14. My Dad and grandfather used straight razors until it was no longer safe to allow them to shave themselves. Every Saturday though they went to the barber for a shave, and when their health got so that a trip to the barber was too taxing especially in the winter, he would do a house call. It was a practice I adopted until college… my first foray into a beard. It was a bit frightening though when I was a junior and senior in high school because I was dating the barber’s daughter.

Next my wedding day, in 1990, that morning I went to the barber again and instead of the barber, who just watched my Dad and grandfather performed the shave, again with Dad’s Boker.
One year later my wife convinced me that after watching for a year she was certain she could shave me, I had by that point, learned to faithfully say “yes Dear” it was not real pretty, I could not shave for 3 days, but she got better. The razor a Dubl Duck Dwarf. Within a moth we lost a closet and expanded the master bath to accommodate a nice Collins’ barber chair. What sinfulness. She shaved me nearly every Saturday after that until October 2000. The last shave was as wonderful and smooth as the first one was not.
The morning of her funeral I shaved with the Dwarf and then slipped that a bottle of T&H West Indian Limes cologne (her favorite) into the coffin, and promptly began to grow a beard.

After much ribbing from my daughters about how there was more grey in my beard than in my hair. I took my dad’s old Boker to the same barber I started at and he took it for a week and honed it up and then as a personal favor gave me a shave like when I was a kid… his daughter is even single again.

This past Saturday morning, I let the girls, 14 and 9, watch me shave I only got 2 nicks, one by the right ear and one under the nose. I still use the T&H limes everyday and recently found a Dubl Duck Dwarf, in nice shape, on ebay.

So that is the story as to why I like to use a straight lots of really great memories, a skill set that will impress women and it is so relaxing even though you need to stay focused.

Sorry for the long blithering post but there it is.

Thank you for sharing that. It brought a tear to my eye.

Welcome to the forums, too BTW.

Originally Posted by dennisthemenace

Thank you for sharing that.

I'll second that. Great narration of a touching story.

wow that was one great story. You have some wonderful memories.

Quite poetic I must admit --- and makes my reasons seem quite banal. Tears --they don't come easy----but this one got me.

Please don't apologise syslight, that's a beautiful story. Thank-you so much for sharing it with us.

X

I have several walking sticks that I have made myself.
Not crap sticks that I just picked up but something I spent a long time making.
You have to walk through a lot of woods to find just the right little tree to cut out of the ground and work with.

Made my first around 12.

I still have a club I made of black ash and finished with at least 500 coats of linseed oil over 2 years time.
I trapped with that club for years, it saved my life once in a good ol fashioned stick fight (course his stick was aluminum).

I miss making sticks. Its gonna take a while to start again as I always let them cure 1 year before peeling and carving.

I may post a pic of one later.

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the kind words.

In reality the only thing that truly matters is that we all enjoy taking the time to revive a dying art that at the same time is pleasurable and satisfying.

This site has provided me with many hours of reading and lots of interesting ideas and suggestions.

For me, it just called to me. Straight razors, fountain pens, fly rods...all say class to me. Whenever I heard of someone shaving with a straight, I thought "wow, that's class, that's skill"...that and there is something manly about shaving with a tool that can take your head clean off .

syslight,

I just read your story. I agree with xman, it was beautiful and touching. thank you for sharing your story