02-12-2023, 07:32 PM
I admitted awhile ago that I was a hypocrite, being on a SE shave forum and not shaving. In my defense the hospital I was going to for cardiac rehab required masks and have you ever tried to exercise while wearing a mask properly? It's impossible to get enough O2 and exercise. My solution was to cover my face with the useless mask and have a beard to frustrate a proper seal so that I could breathe and exercise, so no shaving. The best I could do for hair removal that made sense to me was clip everything and leave a goatee. Today was my 1st shave since the pandemic insanity started.
Why shave now and not then? I left cardiac rehab at the hospital and joined a gym to further my rehab by doing exercise that just wasn't available at the hospital. Since the gym doesn't require masks now I can shave again.
So sitting here contemplating my "1st" shave I wondered exactly how to go about it. I've shaved thousands of times and maybe because of that I couldn't recall some of what I used to do. But once I got in front of the shave cabinet it all came back to me. It was like riding a bicycle. The brush was one of the $1 salvage boars that I got out of a bin at the local surplus goods shop many years ago. I bought a hundred or so and passed them on at cost + shipping years ago. I figured maybe they might last a month or so, but here I was using it in the rotation many years later and other than the recent past it has been in that rotation constantly. Not bad for $1. I hemmed and hawwed over the soap. My hand reached for Krampert's Finest Bay Rum, then decided on Martin deCandre. The razor was a MicroMatic with a blade that now has 8 shaves on it. I did forget about the MDC being so water hungry and I used too much, but adjusted the water to get the lather correct (I face lather). As I was shaving I realized one thing; I actually like the sensual experience. The 1st pass was completed with no blood, the light touch was never lost, same for the 2nd pass. End of shave, get some fresh hot water on my "shave towel", actually a microfiber chamois, wipe down the face and rinse, wring it out to dry the skin and done except for the splash. Krampert's Finest Bay Rum took care of that. I saw my face for the first time w/o hair between my face, eyes, and the mirror in 2 1/2 years. It went pretty good. This shaving thing could catch on.
So Shadows Dad the hypocrite is a thing of the past.
Why shave now and not then? I left cardiac rehab at the hospital and joined a gym to further my rehab by doing exercise that just wasn't available at the hospital. Since the gym doesn't require masks now I can shave again.
So sitting here contemplating my "1st" shave I wondered exactly how to go about it. I've shaved thousands of times and maybe because of that I couldn't recall some of what I used to do. But once I got in front of the shave cabinet it all came back to me. It was like riding a bicycle. The brush was one of the $1 salvage boars that I got out of a bin at the local surplus goods shop many years ago. I bought a hundred or so and passed them on at cost + shipping years ago. I figured maybe they might last a month or so, but here I was using it in the rotation many years later and other than the recent past it has been in that rotation constantly. Not bad for $1. I hemmed and hawwed over the soap. My hand reached for Krampert's Finest Bay Rum, then decided on Martin deCandre. The razor was a MicroMatic with a blade that now has 8 shaves on it. I did forget about the MDC being so water hungry and I used too much, but adjusted the water to get the lather correct (I face lather). As I was shaving I realized one thing; I actually like the sensual experience. The 1st pass was completed with no blood, the light touch was never lost, same for the 2nd pass. End of shave, get some fresh hot water on my "shave towel", actually a microfiber chamois, wipe down the face and rinse, wring it out to dry the skin and done except for the splash. Krampert's Finest Bay Rum took care of that. I saw my face for the first time w/o hair between my face, eyes, and the mirror in 2 1/2 years. It went pretty good. This shaving thing could catch on.
So Shadows Dad the hypocrite is a thing of the past.
