Friday, September 19, 2014

In Praise Of Dry Shaving

While hanging out with my homies downtown at Catholic Charities a while back, I met a homeless man who, while waiting for his turn with us, asked me for a razor. I dug around and found one and brought it out to him. I proceeded to watch him shave dry. No water, no lotion, nothing but zip zap zurp and his two day beard was gone.

Since then, my wife bought me a Gillette 5-blade razor and some shaving cream. The razor does a great job, but within 3 shaves, it's gummed up with shaving cream goo no matter how much you clean it. Recalling my homeless friend, I've taken to shaving dry or slightly wet. The shave is just as close and the razor blades last a lot longer.

3 comments:

B-Daddy said...

Harry's blades last a long time even with gel and are far less expensive than those mentioned in the article.

tim eisele said...

I never liked the way that multiple-blade razors clog up, or the somewhat waterproof tendencies of modern shaving creams/gels, so I've been using an old-style safety razor and a cup of soap with a brush for years. It works fine, and a blade lasts about a month. And the soap washes out of the blade almost instantly.

I'd probably leave off the soap altogether if it wasn't so useful as a tracer to show where I haven't shaved yet.

lee said...

I still like the old fashioned safety razor for me legs. Interestingly enough, I'm a lot less likely to scrape off skin like a cheese grater with one of them then I am with a new plastic multiblade things. Just let it ride, close shave.