To Shave

Shaving is one of those necessary chores I've endured since I was about 13. It's a time consuming pain in the rear. Expensive, too. Mach 3 blades are criminally overpriced. I try to make each last a week. I have not taken up the Dollar Shave Club's offer as of yet. I keep saying that I will purchase a pearl handled straight razor, the sort barbers use. A sharpening strap would be necessary, too.

I've let the beard grow twice in my life: for about 6 months when I was 25 and then for a bit in graduate school. Both times the follicles became an irritant, likely due to the oppressive Florida humidity and a touch of OCD (couldn't stop running my fingers or tongue over it)

But I've found a way to make the maintenance almost pleasurable. I utilize the old school shaving methods, with mug and badger hair brush. I stopped using foam cream many years ago as it merely seems to stick to your maw, leaving your face reddened and raw. This business of shaving, especially every weekday, really does tear up your pores, but the shave soap - usually purchased from Caswell-Massey or the like - coats and embeds the epidermis nicely.

A month or so ago I was shopping at Crabtree & Evelyn for my wife's birthday gifts and discovered a new tube cream that is heavenly: West Indian Lime. It's a multi-citrus, vitamin E enriched lather that leaves one invigorated, even after fitful slumber. Recommended.