I hate shaving and am always looking for a way to improve it. Saskatchewan is dry (we invented the term dry cold), wind swept, and my skin is always irritated. To deal with this I am always using some skin conditioner which means that I smell like aloe or something else all day when what I really want to smell like is The Old Spice Guy (Who knew? Marketing works). A couple of years ago I thought I came up with the perfect solution, I would grow the bald man ponytail and a lumberjack beard. Not only would I not have to shave but I would always have a place to store my wallet and cell phone. Well, Wendy vetoed that idea (she won't let me rock the mullet anymore either) and I was back trying to find a way to improve my shave.
One of the things I asked to get for Christmas was a shaving brush and some shaving soap. Jon Armstrong mentioned it to his wife Heather Armstrong (creator of Dooce) a couple of years ago as a great Christmas gift and I was wondering if there was a good alternative to smelling a like I lived in an aloe plant every time I shaved.
On Christmas Eve I opened my stocking and found a Wilkinson Sword shaving brush and soap. Later that night I tried it out - running some hot water, getting the brush wet, lathering up some soap, lathering up some more, getting a little carried away with it, making a mess, cleaning the mess up, and then realizing I had left the hot water on the entire time and had fogged up the mirror. By this time Wendy was mad that I was wasting water, Mark had to go to the bathroom and all momentum was lost.
Fast forward to Christmas morning and I tried again - this time with less mess and pretty good results. The brush helps hydrate the shaving cream in order to form a thick rich shaving lather. Using a brush to lather up helps get the shaving cream up under each whisker which results in better, smoother shaves. At that point my face cried out in a chorus of joy. It felt good, really good. Not only that but I didn’t smell like a plant and over the next couple of days I realized I didn’t need to use any after shave skin conditioner either. There is something to be said for kickin’ it old school. Now if I can only find my Zubaz pants and my Tony Hawk skateboard.
Since I was reinventing my shaving time, I decided to see if the razor needed an upgrade. Now I know a real man would get himself a straight edge but I like my Schick Quattro Titanium and my jugular veins enjoy not being nicked up. After looking at some Gillette products and seeing that a blade is now over $3, I went cheap and picked up a M5 Magnum five blade razor. Its blades cost half the amount that the Quattro blades do and are a fraction of the Fusion Pro Glide blades. I thought to myself, “How bad can they be?”. Well it’s not as good as the Quattro but it’s not horrible either. I got a better shave then my old Gillette Sensor 3 razor but it wasn’t as comfortable as my Quattro. For whatever reason I have found that many razors included in the original case are of lower quality than the replacement blades (which has never made any sense to me) so I won’t make my final decision for a couple weeks but unless things change, I will relegate the M5 Magnum to my dopp kit or to the cabin.
Next week’s old school trick? Downgrading your web browser.