My Lady Don’t Like Tha’ Scruff
Sunday was Father’s Day, and it was also our Six Month-aversary! Hooray! We celebrated by driving down from Jasper, where we’d been spending the weekend with my parents, and spent the evening at Jessica’s folks’ house. It was a fun time. We played a new game, our gift to Jessica’s dad, Buzzword. (Review: A lot of fun, once you loosen up the rules a bit.) We also played Killer Bunnies, which I won (50% luck, 50% perseverance), and then spent 50% of the ride home discussing with Jessica how much I really don’t like that game.
Anyway, on Monday evening we got together with our friend Jayson and travelled to Lenox Mall where I was to pick out my Six Month-aversary gift: a fancy new razor with brush! Behold, my selection:
This is all the result of an article on 43 Folders, which praised the badger fur shaving brush, and the linked MSNBC article which went on and on about how close a shave one could get using a safety razor. Reading this, some dim corner of my mind sparked back to life, and I recalled my dad shaving, his cheeks puffed out, the scruffy sound of the whiskers getting whacked right off the surface of his face. (Nowadays he uses a cartridge razor, I believe, but he still has the brush.) They also claimed that it would reduce skin irritation — a definite plus! So I came home and shared this with Jessica, and so we found ourselves at Lenox’s terribly, terribly, terribly expensive shaving store, apparently one of the only places in town to carry this sort of gear.
After taking care of one shocking hitch (the very simple, elegant, and nicely-weighted razor- and brush-holder ended up costing $300.00 — we passed), we were off to home with new and dangerous toys.
That night, last night, I whipped the shaving soap into a foam and applied it clumsily to my face. Not trembling as much as I anticipated, I brought the razor up to my face and slid it downward, careful to apply almost no force, and nothing happened. It took me a little fiddling to find the right angle where the razor would make that familiar whisker-slicing sound from so many years ago. I was done five or ten minutes later, bleeding only very slightly from the dent between my chin and lower lip. Not bad for a first time! Not incredibly smooth either, but I figured that might take time and practice. And getting the nerve to go against the grain. This morning’s results were similar, although without the blood.
Thanks to Jessica for such a manly, thoughtful gift, and for being such a wonderful wife. On the ride to Lenox, we were chatting with Jayson about pinball (what else?), and Jessica was getting excited about Creature From The Black Lagoon (it is a lot of fun). I turned to Jayson in the back seat and exclaimed, “Can you believe this is happening?!” I feel so very lucky to be married to a woman who matches me so impossibly well, not only in interests but in humor and ideals and personality. She’s my best friend and my partner for life. To think I was “just friends” with her for four years before it dawned on me, before it suddenly seemed like a really good idea in my mind… Some of you heard me say it at the wedding, but I’m so thankful I took the risk and confessed my feelings to her. It’s turned out better than I ever imagined, and it’s difficult to imagine a time before I felt like this. Crazy.
And now we go to sleep. In the morning I will test my good fortune with the safety razor once more.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:18 am
I’ve always wanted to try a safety razor but I cannot bring myself to try a straight blade.
Nuh-uh, no way. Not even with the stories of how great they are to shave with from a co-worker who explained to me that he used one for years with no issues and that it isn’t possible to get a better shave.
He did note that if I ever do get one that it is important to lock the bathroom door while using it. He pointed to the scar on his cheek and told “wife walked in and bumped me”.
He’s used cartirdges ever since.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:50 pm
I’ve read that when using a “real” razor one should absolutely NOT go against the grain.
I would also think that going against the grain would be the best way to do it, but apparently not. You should read up on that before trying it (or before abandoning it if it doesn’t go well). I’ve never been able to get it to work — my skin always looks and feel farking incredible that day but then erupts into Pizza Face the next day. And then takes me almost a whole week to recover … Thus I’m an electric shaver man, Norelco in my case. The Stubble Life.