Michael Ham - Leisureguys Guide to Gourmet Shaving: Shaving Made Enjoyable

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Michael Ham

All rights reserved.

Edition 6.0 August 2012

ISBN 978-1477436806

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62345-808-9

To EH, who has found it useful

To GM and CM and BH, who someday will read it

To KV, for the phrase gourmet shaving

To K, for taking up wetshaving

And, of course, to The Wife, for listening to all these

discoveries with exemplary forbearance.

Contents

I REALIZED recently that this book might have been more accurately titled The Epicures Guide to Shaving, for Epicurus would surely approve making necessary tasks enjoyable. He thought that chance encounters of atoms falling through the void, randomly interacting, producedafter much timeus and the world in which we live. In his view we cease to exist when we die, while the atoms continue their tumbling journey through time and space.

Because Epicurus believed that life is a one-shot deal, enjoying life has a high priority. A dissolute lifestyle tends to have highly unpleasant consequences, so it makes sense to seek enjoyment first in the small things of life, which is what we mostly encounter day to day. Learning new ideas and mastering new skills are examples of activities that provide enjoyment without harm.

Take, as a random example, the morning shave: an Epicurean who shaves will look for a way to derive enjoyment from the task: to spend his (limited) time doing things he doesnt enjoy makes no sense when he could instead do them enjoyably. Moreover, when a task is enjoyable, doing it requires no willpower: you are drawn to the task rather than having to push yourself. Indeed, a task can even be restorative and energizing; rather than draining you, the task approached properly can provide both enjoyment a sense of fulfillment.

The psychologist Mihly Cskszentmihlyi wrote several books on a mental state he termed flow: a focused, absorbing, satisfying involvement in what is happening in the moment. So another way to state the Epicurean position is that one should arrange his or her life to maximize the opportunities for flow to occur. Flow is a mental experience, so introspection combined with an attitude that encourages the enjoyment of small thingsto look for joy, and to think about how to find more occasions of joyis an obvious step.

This book is my contribution to an Epicurean lifestyle: the book offers a way to make a necessary chore enjoyable. But dont stop with just shaving.

I note that traditional wetshaving continues to grow rapidly:

New on-line vendors of traditional shaving products continue to appear. The vendor list now has well over 100 entries.

On-line forums devoted to shaving continue to increase in number and in membership. Reddits Wicked_Edge grew from 3,000 members six months ago to 16,000 as I writeand is still growing rapidly.

Not only are established manufacturers introducing new safety razors, were also seeing new manufacturers: iKon, Tradere, and Weber, for example, make top-quality razors. I wrote an article in Sharpologist about the implications of this phenomenon.

The prices of vintage safety razors on eBay continue to increase, which indicates that demand continues to increase.

All this is evidence that the number of men who have decided abandon expensive, heavily advertised shaving tools for the pleasures and comfort of traditional shaving is growing rapidly. I hope youll join us.

Although the total number of traditional wetshaving vendors has increased, some vendors have closed their doors since the previous edition. Many of the vendors mentioned in the Appendix are small operations that depend totally on one or two people. Naturally enough, such businesses are vulnerable to disruption or sudden shutdown from any number of causes: health problems or the passing of the proprietor or a family member, or financial exigencies (or the opposite: the fine on-line store Razor and Brush had to close when its owner, who ran the business as a sideline, was promoted to a more demanding job), or for other reasons.

These businesses, which often offer exceptional handcrafted products of high quality, have a certain cherry-blossom quality: they bloom briefly and their products may be available only for a relatively short time. I now treasure irreplaceable soaps, creams, and equipment that I purchased only a few years ago from businesses now gone, never to return.

If you like any products offered by these artisans and small-business owners, buy promptly. You will get something that you can use and enjoy, possibly long after the business is gone. Shop early and often and stock up for your future needsand when youre thinking about gifts, consider how a good brush and a shaving soap or shaving cream can improve anyones shave.

I thank AM, who kept after me until I wrote this book, and thanks as well to the shavers who have suggested ideas and improvements for the book. Special thanks to betelgeux, cathartica, greyzer, HeyRememberThatTime, mpperry, Dirty Texan, Hyzerflip, NoHelmet, psywiped, wicked_VD, do_not_follow, Release-the-Kraken, JustHereForTheTips, and others of the Wicked_Edge community for their insights and interest. They have increased my understanding with their questions (especially those from newbies) and their discoveries.

Michael Ham

Monterey, California

FOR most men, shaving is a daily yet unappealing task: a routine at best, and more often a tedious, boring, hateful chore. A surprising number of men believe that they have sensitive skin because the tug-and-cut action of the common multiblade shaving cartridge and the pressure these men exert on the razor trying to get a close shave, together with inadequate beard preparation from a pressurized can of dry, foamy shaving mix and a tendency to use the cartridge well beyond its useful life (because of the cost of replacing it), produces skin irritation, razor burn, razor bumps, and in-grown hairs.

You can avoid all that: the daily shaving task can easily be transformed into a pleasurable ritual that leaves the shaver feeling renewed and pampered and his skin healthy. All it takes are the right tools and a little practice.

This book introduces the shaver to the world of traditional wetshaving: the shaving brush, exquisitely formulated shaving soaps and creams, and well-designed safety razorsreadily available and still being manufacturedthat use a double-edged blade to provide a smooth (and enjoyable) shave.

Moreover, the blades (which usually last a week) are much cheaper than cartridgeseven if the shaver continues to use his cartridges beyond their effective lifespan (to postpone the expense of replacing them).

The learning curve is short and the enjoyment immense, so start today. You can jump to the section on the recommended beginners kit, but I suggest you first read through the book: as always is the case, your choice of equipment requires balancing various tradeoffs, and you may be unfamiliar with those involved in wetshaving.

A shave, like Gaul, is divided into three parts:

1. Prep Preparation is everything you do before picking up the razor. Prep usually involves first a shower, and then at the sink a pre-shave soap, a shaving brush, and shaving cream or shaving soap.

2. Shave Once prep is complete, you pick up the razor and shave; this step involves only the razor and the blade (which is not so simple as you think, as youll learn later) with a focus on pressure and angle.

3. Aftershave Once you rinse and put away the razor, you do the final steps, generally involving an alum block and an aftershave and occasionally, should you get a nick, a styptic. Aftershaves come in many forms (splashes, balms, creams, gels, etc.), and your choice of aftershave may vary with the season if you live where winters cold.