I wrote yesterday that I wouldn't do an acid test today because this would be about my 8th or 9th day of shaving in a row. Actually I've shaved a lot recently: last Friday I shaved twice (had to go to the Harry Potter release that evening), skipped shaving Saturday (I'm a wild man), and I've shaved every day since then. I rarely do anything like that, and I don't really recommend it. But I couldn't leave it alone, this idea of testing. It's true that I don't want to scrape my neck raw. But that's not the fault of the vast Anger of Compassion readership, is it? And yet, they're the ones, hungry for wetshaving knowledge, who'd be hurt if I slacked off.
So, today's test included Williams Mug Soap and a touch of Kiss My Face mint cream, whipped into lather using a small German boar brush, similar to the Burma-Shave brush available from Wal-Mart. Once again, in the interests of frugality and simplicity, no pre-shave preparations were applied.
The first pass was, for the second day in a row, a Merkur blade in the 1953 Gillette Super Speed. No worries. Rewet, relather, and go for a second North-South pass...with an early 1950s Eversharp-Schick Injector.
Good thing I'd had my coffee already.
You'll read on the shaving boards about how mindlessly easy it is to shave with an Injector. That is not my experience at all, and I've come to see those comments as being from sociopathic liars guys shaving with 1960s-1970s era razors, which as far as I can tell offered a lot less blade exposure than the older ones, like mine, which appear to have considerably more bite. Anyway, no problem with this pass, either.
Rewet, relather, and this time (third pass) it's the Injector across and against the grain. Now, I frequently use an Injector (usually this one) for some touch and cut in tough places at the end of a shave, but I avoid using it for an entire shave because these razors are very much lighter than the silo-head DEs many wetshavers love (the Merkur HD, for example, or my recommended Weishi or beloved Super Speeds). So much lighter, in fact, that they tend to bounce off my beard. Not fun when I'm shaving my neck. But I was careful and there was no problem.
So I rinsed and slid the small remainders of some ice cubes on my face and neck, and then splashed on some witch hazel. Still no problem with razor burn, and remember that witch hazel contains 14% alcohol. At that point I decided to go for acid test greatness: instead of reaching for a balming aftershave, as per my original plan for the day, I grabbed the bottle of Aqua Velva instead. I took a deep breath, then splashed it on.
So I've shaved now for nine days in a row, the last three days of which featured low-cost ingredients followed by alcohol-based aftershaves. Today I did the same, and the shave included two passes with an Injector. So how did it go with the Aqua Velva? Did I experience that familiar feeling, from my cartridge-using days, of a crazed band of Africanized honey bees attacking my neck?
Nope. Bracing, as usual, but no pain, no soreness, no baboon-ass-red tone to my skin. Inexpensive ingredients, inexpensive brush, tested against three different razors so far, and satisfying shaves every time. This, even on a neck shaved nine days in a row and assaulted with alcohol-based aftershaves.
Cheap stuff rules.
"The standard, schoolbook history of alcohol prohibition in the United States," writes Donald J. Boudreaux, "goes like this:
Americans in 1920 embarked on a noble experiment to force everyone to give up drinking. Alas, despite its nobility, this experiment was too naive to work. It soon became clear that people weren't giving up drinking. Worse, it also became clear that Prohibition fueled mobsters who grew rich supplying illegal booze. So, recognizing the futility of Prohibition, Americans repealed it in 1934.This popular belief is completely mistaken. Here's what really happened:
National alcohol prohibition did begin on Jan. 16, 1920, following ratification of the 18th Amendment and enactment of the Volstead Act.
Speakeasies and gangster violence did become familiar during the 1920s.
And Americans did indeed keep drinking.
But contrary to popular belief, the 1920s witnessed virtually no sympathy for ending Prohibition. Neither citizens nor politicians concluded from the obvious failure of Prohibition that it should end.
"There's no doubt that widespread understanding of Prohibition's futility and of its ugly, unintended side-effects made it easier for Congress to repeal the 18th Amendment," continues Boudreaux. "But these public sentiments were insufficient, by themselves, to end the war on alcohol.
Ending it required a gargantuan revenue shock -- to the U.S. Treasury. "
And what was that shock?
What happened in 1930 that suddenly gave the repeal movement political muscle? The answer is the Great Depression and the ravages that it inflicted on federal income-tax revenues.
I think we've all heard numerous opponents of the War on Drugs come up with a solution along the lines of "Legalize it and tax it." As if there should be a tax on all things -- which, frankly, quite a few folk think there should be.
Seems the power to tax is the power to destroy, yes, but not only that which is taxed, but morality itself.
(Read the whole thing.)
Last year, when my safety razor technique was a little bit less than fully reliable, I had a few occasions where rinsing my neck with cold water was stingingly painful. I had occasion to recall those moments this afternoon, in the Anger of Compassion Budget Shaves test lab. Today's experiment: a cheap shave with a slightly more aggressive razor than yesterday's Weishi.
Williams and the Kiss My Face mint. Yesterday's combo, and it's a pretty nice one, too. They mix together well as a lather, and the aromas mingle well, too. I recommend the procedure. Whipped the mixture into lather with an Omega brush from Proraso, a much larger (and slightly more expensive) brush than the Delong I used yesterday. This, by the way, is the brush formerly available from Target, before they discontinued Proraso products. Made it a lot easier to create a greater volume of lather. Again, no pre-shave (we're talking budget here), and I'm getting a little tired of that. I've really come to like using that Proraso pre-post shave cream.
Popped yesterday's Merkur blade into a 1953 Super Speed, and off I went.
Went pretty quickly, too. I did three passes this time, two North-South and one up against the grain. No touching up after the third pass -- I just let it go.
That was probably my biggest problem as a newbie wetshaver: letting it go at the end. Had to get every last little bit of all stubble. The problem with that, of course, is that running sharp steel up, down, and across one's neck is, erm, shall we say not inherently safe? It's pretty easy to learn to wield a safety razor without nicks or cuts, and that bit of learning doesn't take long, but avoiding irritation or razor burn or whatever you want to call it takes a bit more alertness. Or a lot. As in, all you have.
In other words, I started getting great, close shaves as soon as I began shaving this way -- but it was some time before I was consistently getting comfortable shaves.
So at the end of three passes I had a slight bit of burn. Not too much. Still, I should have known better: since I didn't take a break from shaving yesterday, I shouldn't have tempted the Fates today. But I did. Now, ice always feels good at the end of a shave, and today was no different. A splash of witch hazel (14% alcohol), after the ice, was painless. Acid test? Well, yesterday's was Aqua Velva; today's was Old Spice.
Yes, I tempted the Fates: a more aggressive razor, no pre-shave, three passes, and, most offensively, a seventh shave in as many days, followed by an alcohol-based aftershave.
And the tax -- this time -- wasn't harsh: the Old Spice was bracing, not painful. I still do not recommend tempting the Fates, nor do I plan to continue doing so.
How aggressive a razor can the cheap stuff budget shaving gear handle? The ultimate in aggression, of course, would be a straight razor, but mine aren't sharp enough for shaving. Nor am I (sharp enough to shave with a straight, that is). Or a slant, but I don't have one. So I could try the Feather Portable, the GEM Micromatic, or a couple of old Injectors, all of which offer more bite than the Weishi or my Super Speeds. Ultimately, I could put one of the scary-sharp Feather blades into the Feather Portable or the 1954 Super Speed. That (or the GEM) is about as aggressive an approach as I can put together here.
I think I'll do it -- but probably not tomorrow. Hello, seven shaving days in a row, followed by something unusually aggressive? I think not, not on my neck. I think I already know, too, what the results will be: consider that the Williams mug soap was introduced, after all, when the straight razor was the order of the day. I'm pretty sure that the budget wetshaving items I've recommended can handle any razor/blade combination, and produce an acceptably-comfortable shave.
How acceptable? Well, I'm willing to try. Just...probably not tomorrow.
And does it work? This was today's shave:
Williams Mug Shaving Soap
a small Delong boar brush, made in China, bought online
no pre-shave oil or lotion
hard El Paso water
Weishi razor, made in China, bought online
Merkur blade, made in Germany, bought online
In other words, an all-American shave.
I managed to create a nice, slick lather with the Williams, which doesn't happen every time (last time I impatiently added too much water). Still, if you've been reading this blog (and the wetshaving boards), you'll know that I had all the odds against me in creating a good lather today: a soap instead of a cream (and not a luxury soap, either), boar brush instead of badger, and hard water. And yet it worked.
I still recommend the Weishi razor. I used, this afternoon, a new Merkur blade. The Merkur blades aren't as low-cost as some -- I have and could have used Personnas -- but I recently spent a week shaving with Personnas in one of my Super Speeds, and the Weishi characteristics make it very similar to the Super Speeds I use, so I think the results would have been similar. Even there, DE blades aren't expensive, anyway.
First pass was nice and smooth, no cutting, no nicking, no scarring. No irritation. I wasn't pleased with how long or how well the Williams lather lasted, so I added a touch of Kiss My Face mint cream to the lather (you'll recall, I hope, that I did recommend the Kiss My Face creams in the previous post. Less than five bucks a tube, and good stuff). I rewet my face, but not the brush, and I didn't add water to the lathering mug. It whipped up nicely with the remains of the Williams lather and I applied it to my face for the second pass. This one also went well, and I left the shave at that, as it's Saturday and I like to give my neck a break.
Rinsed everything, including my face. Slid an ice cube all over my face and neck, and then, since I'm doing a theme of all-American and budget-conscious, I selected Aqua Velva for my aftershave. Bit of a sting here and there, so okay, there was some slight bit of irritation, but basically it was nicely bracing and felt great.
Evaluation: I shaved with low-budget ingredients. No luxury touches. Two passes in about ten minutes.
Some guys like the aroma of the Williams, and I'm one of them. I wish it lathered a bit easier and lasted a bit longer, but that's partly a matter of the hard water and the boar brush. It does its job, and for a buck a puck (97 cents at Wal-Mart, $1.19 at a local grocery store) it does so in acceptably low-cost fashion.
I'd say the same for the Delong brush: although there are boar brushes I like better, and I prefer badger, it did its job.
Game MVP status probably goes to the Kiss My Face mint.
I like the Weishi, and I like the Merkur blades, and I've now used the Merkurs in the Weishi. Satisfied there, too.
The acid test, in one sense (after I saw that the lather had lasted) was the Aqua Velva. I actually forgot to splash on my usual witch hazel this time, so I went straight from the ice cubes to the Aqua Velva. No screeching pain from applying alcohol to freshly-shaved neck. No baboon-ass redness. No worries.
So a low-cost safety razor was used to shave a tough beard through a lather created with low-cost soap and a low-cost brush, and the shave was good.
I'd say a beginner could have done about as well as I did, with some caveats: patience in creating the lather, for one, would have been needed. Or the beginner could have used a water softener, or moved out of a hard water area. Or just cut immediately to use of the cream, and forget about the soap. But I convinced myself, with little trouble and no pain or irritation, and no rationalizations, that these are good products, that they work well together, and that, therefore, that my recommendations are sound: wetshaving on a budget is indeed possible.
So today's question, left in comments here by The Inspector (who also blogs at Capitalist Paradise), is: "Craig, I want to get an Anger of Compassion shave, but without having to run the baccarat table at Casino Royale or raid the 401(k). Does taking up wetshaving mean taking out a second mortgage on the house?"
Okay, so I rewrote the question. Slightly. But, wetshaving on a budget: is it possible?
Sure it is. In fact, I'll take it one step past that: wetshaving is the budget way to shave.
Let's take inventory, first: what do you have on hand?
You have coffee mugs? Any bowls? Good: most normal people do. Good, also, because it means you don't need to go buy a shaving mug. It's the same damn thing, really, just a vessel to hold your soap (or cream) and some water. How cheap do you intend to be in this, your quest for the Anger of Compassion shave? No wrong answers here, guys: it's your money and your face. Let's stipulate, also, that you're using a cartridge razor now (since The Inspector tells me he is using a Mach 3), and you can't bear the idea of throwing out unused cartridges, 'cause you've already paid for them. So you'll be using a coffee mug from the kitchen cupboard, and your Mach 3 or Fusion or whatever you have on hand. For now.
Oh, and you'll need two mugs, not one. Or a mug and a bowl. We'll get to that later.
What have we spent so far? Zero dollars. Well, you spent a lot of money on those damn cartridge thingies, didn't you, but that's not wetshaving's fault.
Let's talk (American) drugstore: there you can find King of Shaves, a nice UK import. If you're gonna go with goo, go with good goo. And, as Corey Greenburg once opined on his Shaveblog, "This is good goo." Maybe a little bit expensive for the seriously budget-minded wetshaver, and I've never tried it with a brush. But it's good stuff.
Williams Mug Shaving Soap. Oh my yes.For about a dollar, no kidding, you can get good shaving soap. $1.19 at my local grocery store, 97 cents at Wal-Mart. I've seen my local Walgreens offer brush and soap, from what was once the Surrey brand. The soap was a little over a dollar. The brush is about six bucks. Other options: Kiss My Face creams, Tom's of Maine cream, King of Shaves. Pretty easy to find. No brush necessary. Or, for a bit more money, Nancy Boy cream. Again, brushless by design.
I do recommend using a brush and mug, though, and I have done so with all of the above (save King of Shaves). This is the single most important step you can take toward improving your shaves, even if (especially if) you continue using a swoop 'n slash, mega-blade cartridge razor. It also opens up the entire world of fantastic shaving creams and soaps from all over the world and you can't beat that, guys: there's great stuff out there, just waiting for you to attain the skill of creating an excellent lather.
What do you put it in, this soap? Easy. But let's stick with cheap here: any coffee mug or soup or cereal bowl will do, as we agreed before. I have a ceramic shaving mug crafted by a potter up in wildest New Mexico, and an old, somewhat collectible Old Spice mug...but I also have some soaps sitting in coffee cups. It all works, and it's all commonly done, too (and if you read around the boards you'll find that some guys prefer to build the lather on their faces anyway, and some in the palms of their hands).
Oh, and since we're talking frugality: Here's a tip, one I learned the hard way: don't create your lather in the mug your soap sits in. Put some water on the soap's surface before you shower; put a different mug or bowl in a sinkful of hot water. Then go shower. When you return, pour the soap slurry from the first mug into the second, swirl your brush around the top of the wet soap until there's enough for creating a lather, then do your lathering in the second mug. Sure, you could create your lather in that first mug, swirling your brush for a few minutes over the puck of soap until you've built a workable lather -- but then you'll be wondering why everyone says their soaps last six months, while yours never do.
You have to do some shaving, and since we're talking cheap, go with Personnas or any store brand blades made by the American Safety Razor Company (Personna is The American Safety Razor Company). Just look on the back of the label. Don't get obsessive about blades, either: DE blades are cheap, as you'll see in your Excel spreadsheet in a few minutes.
Your razor: the ideal I'm holding in my mind for you, for now, is the Gillette Super Speed. Unfortunately, you can't buy what's not being manufactured, and the Super Speed and its godson, the Gillette Adjustable, are both long out of production. So we have to do some actual work. That means, in this case, thinking. Since we're talking beginner and budget, I'll recommend either the Merkur HD or the Weishi. I lean toward the Weishi. I've never tried the Merkur myself, for one thing, but it's a very common first razor among wetshavers, and a popular razor all around. Or go with the super cheap, Chinese-made Weishi, available online for under twenty bucks. I've shaved with the Weishi for a week at a time, and I've used different blades in it, and so has Mark (of Mantic shaving videos fame). It reminds me (and Mark) of the Super Speed, and from me that is high praise indeed.
Now let's grab a beer or three and a blank Excel worksheet, shall we? We'll have a look at the numbers and see if I'm (ahem) all wet. The numbers I'm using are drawn from trips, made today, to a giant chain drugstore (Walgreens), a small chain grocery store (Lowe's/Big 8), a Wild Oats specialty grocer, and Wal-Mart. How much, we need to know, does it cost to put some shaving essentials together?
(DISCLAIMER: We're going to ignore some variables, all right? I have no idea where you are, Dear Reader, so I have no idea what sort of sales tax -- or VAT if outside the states -- you pay; or, if you're ordering online, what shipping charges you'll incur. Also, cartridge razors usually come with one or two cartridges in the package, but then, many vendors include blades with the sale of a safety razor, too -- the Weishi comes with Dorco blades -- so I'm ignoring both.)
Example A: Cartridge-Using Guy
Razor: $ 9.99 for a Gillette Fusion, $ 8.99 for a Schick Quattro
Blades: $ 24.99 for 8 Fusion cartridges, $21.49 for 8 Quattro cartridges.
Ouch. That's a lot of beer.
goo: $3.99 for 7 ounces of Gillette Fusion
No need for mug or brush.
Total: $38.97 to get going.
Example B: Wetshaver
Razor: $18 for a Weishi at cottonblossomcrafts.com
Here I should admit: that's a lot of beer, too.
Blades: $4.99 for a pack of ten store-brand Personnas at Walgreens, or $2.79 for 10 at Big 8
Lather: $1.19 for Williams soap
Brush: $ 6.99 for a boar brush at Walgreens
Total: $28.97 to get started.
You did open a copy of Excel, right? Which way of shaving is the more expensive proposition, at least as far as initial expenses go?
But now let's have some real fun. You bought 8 Fusion cartridges, right? Let's say you get a week's shave out of each one -- and, in my experience as a decades-long cartridge user, that's not so unrealistic. So 8 weeks later, you buy another 8-pack, thus spending another twenty-five bucks. Forty shaves for twenty-five bucks.
In your guise as a wetshaver, however, you bought a ten-pack of Personnas for $ 2.79. Assuming the same one-week-per-blade rate, then 8 weeks out, you spend: nothing. Nada. Zip. You still have two blades left, at which point you go out and spend another not-quite-three bucks. At the eight-week mark, you've gotten forty shaves for under three dollars, and you still have ten shaves left.
You may not get five good shaves from Personnas, but I think you will. I do, with my barbed-wire beard, and so do lots of other guys -- and all of my shaves involve at least two passes per. But remember also that any DE blades will fit any DE razor -- so, even without getting another razor, you can experiment with blades made by Gillette, Derby, Wilkinson, Feather, Merkur, Dorco, and others. (And you should.)
And now.....
Ever heard of capitalism, my brother? We need to talk about Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart doesn't carry Feather blades. And they probably never will. You won't be picking up a tub of Taylor of Old Bond Street lavender at Wal-Mart, either. No Pre de Provence, no Tabac. But remember their big sign in the parking lot? It reads, and I quote: "We Sell For Less." Both Cartridge-Using Guy and our hero, Wetshaver, can save money by getting their gear at Wal-Mart.
Cartridge-Using Guy can go to Wal-Mart and walk away with:
Razor: a Gillette Mach 3 Turbo for $7.84 (or a Fusion for $6.74)
Blades: 8 cartridges for his M3 at $17.97 (or 8 Fusion cartridges for $22.64)
can of goo (Gillette Series Gel) for $1.97
For a total, this time, of $27.78 (Mach 3 version), or $31.35 (if he chooses Fusion).
But Our Humble Hero, Wetshaver, can save money there also:
Razor: the Weishi, again from cottonblossomcrafts.com, for $18
Blades: Personna brand ten-pack for $1.54
soap (no goo for Wetshaver!): Williams Mug Soap for 97 cents
Brush: a Burma-Shave boar brush for $4.54
For a total of $25.05.
So: the Wal-Mart advantage carries over to wetshaving, too. The initial advantage is smaller, because the cartridge-using guy saves a lot by shopping at Wal-Mart as opposed to the drugstore or grocery store. A whole lot. But the cost of blades, over time, is still going to eat him alive compared to Wetshaver's Personnas -- and he'll run out of two or three cans of goo long before Wetshaver uses up that 97-cent puck of Williams, too.
So, if things go according to the norm: Cartridge-Using Guy and his friends will laugh and accuse Wetshaver of being obsessive about shaving. Meanwhile, they're spending all their rent money on shaving stuff, wondering where their girlfriends are all weekend, as they sit home alone with stubble and razor burn. Meanwhile, Wetshaver is getting all the girls and is taking them to Vegas, two at a time. And they coo over his cool razors, too.
Come on, guys: $1.54 for ten blades?
By now, you should have closed Excel, ordered your Weishi (and your flight to Vegas. For three.), and headed out to Wal-Mart. Don't forget those tickets to Penn and Teller!
The transition from shaving with a cartridge razor to real wetshaving (this is pretty much what I did) can be gradual, too:
Start with the shower.
Light a scented candle, pour a glass of wine, and put some Sinatra on the hi-fi ...
Use a brush and soap (or cream) to create your lather. That's a big step in the direction of creating your quality shaves.
Okay, you're still using a Schick Quattro, Mach 3, or other cartridge razor until your safety razor arrives. (You ordered a safety razor, yes? Remember Vegas?) Begin now by practicing a very, very light touch with whatever razor you're using. How light? No pressure at all, that's how light. Speaking of saving money: you've already started. Those cartridge blades and cans of goo are costing you about the equivalent of the annual GNP of Chad, as you saw above, and that is about to end. You'll love buying blades for your safety razor, believe me.
Tip: don't drive yourself crazy trying to stretch the useful lifespan of these products. Especially the blades. For god's sake do not try to get a month's worth of shaves out of a single blade. If you use these products properly, they'll reward you with quality -- as I've blogged before -- and economy -- as I believe I've demonstrated here -- with normal use.
Take, for example, a cake of soap. A cake of Pre de Provence soap. Oh baby. Great aroma, great feel, excellent protection and lathers easily. Now you'd think that at $10.95 for 5.25 ounces (150 grams), I'd damn well better like it. A lot. Okay, fair point. But I've had it for about a year, and my brush has barely made a dent in its surface. A year. And I absolutely love this stuff.
Let's recap: scary-close shaves with no irritation. Luxury scents and sensations. Obtained frugally. And all the girls.
Your call.
(Update: Corrected some infelicities.)
Craig Biddle applauds Jack Shafer: "Kudos to Jack Shafer for identifying “loophole” as a smear term—and kudos to Ayn Rand for identifying the broader category of smear technique under which it falls."
Next: I suggest that a related term is "technicality," as in "Yeah, they put him on trial, but he got off on a technicality."
Nice: 7 wonders of the industrial world, presented to us by Peter Cresswell.
They do seem impressive to me, all seven of 'em (the SS Great Eastern, the Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Brooklyn Bridge, the London Sewers, the Transcontinental Railroad, the Panama Canal, and the Hoover Dam), although I have to agree with the commenter at Peter's blog about government subsidies (especially about the Transcontinental Railroad). But what occurred to me before that was a question: what about the Boeing 747?
I wonder if we could have a blog symposium, with entries from the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, on the topic of Seven Wonders of the Legislative World. But I don't know whether the standard should be risibility or rationality, because I haven't decided which would be more illuminating (or more amusing). For example, I don't know whether Prohibition (and the Volstead Act) should be nominated, or its repeal.
Anyway, my first nomination would probably be the Fugitive Slave Act. Anyone else?
Face it: when it comes to celebrating Cuba's Revolution Day, they'll let just about any scumbag give a damn speech.
But Objectivists know how to celebrate: by producing material for -- or at least going to read -- the second Objectivist Round Up, courtesy of Kim's Play Place.
I've created a new section for the blogroll, "Wet Work." All about razors and blades, soaps and creams, brushes and aftershaves, and more. Articles and blog entries, videos and old TV commercials...and some history and biography, too. Check it out --- and, like fellow OBlogger Allen, why don't you give wetshaving a try?
My carbon footprint, that is: 15.15 tons per year.
(Hat tip: Allen's Image Adjustment)
You know, I like southern California, but I don't know if I'll continue visiting there, because I get blamed for traffic trouble on I-5, what with all those women exclaiming, "Look at the shave on that guy in the rental car!" And now I'm starting to receive messages from guys blaming me for their forays into wetshaving. The one is possibly more gratifying than the other, but I find myself provoked to create The Anger of Compassion's Top Twenty Tips for Wetshaving Newbies.
1. Read the boards and learn from other wetshavers: ShaveMyFace and Badger and Blade. Take a look, also, at the archives of Corey Greenberg's (dormant and apparently discontinued) Shaveblog.
2. Pay attention to your blade angle: experiment, but at first, keep that head at approximately 30 degrees. A cartridge razor's flexible head does this for you. The head of a safety razor stays where it is.
3. Remember to keep that angle: in other words, don't bend your wrist as you shave. That head, again, is not flexible, as it is on a modern cartridge razor, so the proper angle must be maintained. By you.
4. The injunction "Apply no pressure" means just that: Apply. No. Pressure. Ever.
5. Before going over any area, rewet and relather it. No kidding.
6. Accept the inevitable: not only will you continue wetshaving once you try it, but you'll also succumb to some form of acquisition disorder. Whether it's razors, blades, soaps, brushes, creams, advertisements, mugs, whatever, something will grab you and you'll be hooked.
My own case is, I think, illustrative: I wanted Injectors and Super Speeds and wanted to try a variety of creams. Like, all of them. Blades, too. I felt myself immune to Shaving Brush Acquisition Disorder, and still do -- but I also remember declaring to loved ones that I would always be immune to Aftershave Acquisition Disorder. I was sincere, too. But I have about ten aftershaves in my shave shack as I type this. And two types of witch hazel.
Witch hazel, people. Heed my words.
7. Ice cubes. Yep. Take a few ice cubes and put them in a paper cup before you shower. Fill the cup the rest of the way with water. Each time you rinse your razor, dip it into the ice water and you'll be applying nice cold steel to your face as you shave. After you've finished shaving and rinsing, lightly rub what's left of the ice cubes on your face and neck. You'll thank me.
With a bit of experience, you won't be creating razor burn or irritation, but the ice cube/ice water rinse will still feel good.
8. Practice making lather, Grasshopper, especially if you're using soaps. And especially if you're in a hard water area. Look, I'm not saying that this is any sort of "When you can take the pebble out of my hand, it will be time for you to leave" martial arts thing. It's not. But it is a skill, so practice a little bit and learn it.
9. Watch Mantic's videos.
10. Now that I've written # 8, it occurs to me to offer this advice: begin with creams. It's simply far easier to create a workable lather with creams than with soaps. Kiss My Face and Tom's of Maine are widely available across the US -- but if you're reading this, you're on the internet, so you also have access to San Francisco's Nancy Boy and to Italy's Proraso -- both excellent formulations and excellent bargains as well -- and to the bespoke English creams.
11. You must come to The Straight Razor Understanding:
a. You are not yet ready to try shaving with a straight.
b. This doesn't make you less manly than those who use one.
c. You won't kill yourself when you do try one.
d. You are not yet ready to try shaving with a straight.
12. Fidelity vs. Variety: In wetshaving palance, "fidelity" refers to using the same gear and products on a regular basis. In this way, you learn how good your technique is as well as how much you like certain items (blades, razor, whatever). The problem with fidelity is that it runs smack into the wetshaver's desire for variety, hence the term "rotation."
13. This brings up another important wetshaving term: YMMV, as in, "Your Mileage May Vary." Whether we're talking about blades, brushes, razors, techniques, creams, soaps, aftershaves, or any other damn thing, we don't all like the same things and we don't all get the same results. Read the boards, yes, but your experience won't always match those you read about.
14. The "heritage scents" question: what about those traditional aftershave products from days gone by? I don't mean Billy the Kid's rose water, but traditional British concoctions like Trumper's Skin Food or those midcentury American alcohol-based potions like Old Spice, Aqua Velva, and Brut? Well, you may not have considered them before -- you may have never heard of the English stuff, and you may associate alcohol-based products with pain -- but the chances are very good that, as you pursue wetshaving and get better at wielding those blades, you'll find that you create less and less razor burn as time goes on. You may want to take another look at them.
15. YMMV, as it applies to blades: It happens to many guys that they love certain blades, but find those same blades to be really, really tough on their skin if used for three days in a row. Feathers and Injectors are notorious for this. The official Anger of Compasson/Bruce Lee solution? Don't use 'em for three days in a row.
16. Take a break, maybe one or both days on a weekend, from shaving.
17. Nirvana vs. variety. What is it you hope to gain from wetshaving? Some guys want shaving Nirvana: they want that perfect shave, that combination of gear and products resulting in perfection. Others want variety. Most of us, unfortunately, want a permanent melange of ... both. You're probably in this last group as well. There is no known cure for this malady.
18. Speaking of which, you won't be able to try it all, even in a month. I still haven't tried it all: a slant bar. A full straight razor shave. Derby blades. The Moss Scuttle. Pellas. Tabac. ARKO. Musgo Real. L'Occitane. Relax: most of it's not going anywhere.
19. Relax: you'll hit that perfect shave of all shaves next time.
20. Did I emphasize it enough? Apply. No. Pressure.
About a year ago, I had some fun with this, and kept notes. The question "What would Roark do?" is well known to Ayn Rand fans. But as an exercise for fans of Ayn Rand's fiction, as well as fiction she was known to like, I wrote up my notes on "How Would Howard Roark Shave?"
Francisco d'Anconia and Midas Mulligan -- Generally, with a Gillette Aristocrat. Gold-plated. Hey, they're rich. But they also have and use another device, as described below.
Howard Roark -- Learned with a straight razor, of course (remember, the first scene of The Fountainhead takes place as the Class of 1922 is about to graduate). During his New York days, Roark uses a Schick E-type Injector, the one with the Bakelite handle and the brass, Art Deco head. He likes that Art Deco head. It reminds him of his buildings, and of Henry Cameron's.
Henry Cameron -- Please. Henry Cameron has a full, black beard. Go back and read The Fountainhead.
Comrade Sonia-- Has given up all shaving because she is sacrificing all such bourgeous comforts to The Revolution.
Peter Keating -- Never has had the confidence to shave comfortably with a straight. Whenever possible, he is shaved by a barber, and he leaves extravagant tips. At home, when he must shave himself, he uses a Schick Injector just like the one he once spied in Howard Roark's room in the early 1930s. However, he feels that Injector blades are too sharp: they always seem to be asking him to make a decision. He often cuts himself.
Lois Cook -- Doesn't shave at all, because she is not bound by any rigid rules of society or probity. Or something like that. That. That. Sat. Cat.
Gail Wynand -- Uses a barber from the barbershop he set up for New York Banner employees years ago. The barber -- almost always the same one -- comes to Wynand's office. They rarely speak, but Wynand knows the man's name. And his wife's name, He tips well.
Ellsworth Toohey -- Uses the same Banner barbershop, which he is trying to unionize.
Steven Mallory -- With the frugality, efficiency, and confidence of a true artist, Mallory uses a straight razor, which he hones and strops himself.
Nat Taggart -- Learned, of course, with a straight. After the success of Taggart Transcontinental he always had his own barber.
Hugh Akston, Judge Narragansett, Richard Halley, Dr. Hendriks -- Straights. That's how they learned, and that's what they prefer. It must also be said, however, that as the Strike progresses, it's getting tougher and tougher to find decent safety razors and blades at any price anyway, so more and more men are turning to straight razors. But by then, quality straights are harder to find as well.
Henry Rearden -- Gillette Super Speed. He appreciates the design, the head geometry, and the engineering. Eddie Willers uses the same razor.
James Taggart -- Patronizes the barbershop in his luxury apartment building. He has never bothered to learn his barber's name. He often forgets to leave a tip.
Orren Boyle -- Loves walking into the barbershop he established for Associated Steel senior executives, to show he is "just one of the guys." The shop is subsidized by a government program.
Mike Hammer and Matt Helm -- Learned on straights. Were issued Gillette one-pieces during the war, and kept the habit, using Gillette Super Speeds from 1948 to this day.
Ragnar Dannekjold -- Nobody knows what he uses at sea.
Wesley Mouch -- Uses an electric. Beardless punk.
James Bond -- When traveling, Bond carries a Gillette Adjustable (you can see it in the Goldfinger movie). Generally, though, Bond shaves with a cheap, Russian military issue straight razor which was once used on him by a SMERSH agent. Bond's face was the last thing he ever saw on this earth. When in London, he is often shaved at Taylor's of Grosvenor Street. The barbers at Blades, M's club, often shave him, as a courtesy to M. Taylor's and Blades are happy to hone his Russian razor for him, though they do urge him to replace it with a "finer instrument."
Admiral Sir Miles Messervy (M) -- Admiral Sir Miles is shaved at Blades every day, either at lunchtime or before cards after dinner. He has read the assessment of the Service's medical and psychiatric professionals regarding Bond's Russian straight -- they do not like it -- and keeps it in the bottom drawer of his desk. M has read it once, and has yet to initial it. No one else has seen it.
John Galt -- In New York, Galt must be frugal, and therefore shaves with a straight razor he hones and strops himself. Or a Gillette Adjustable, kept to the lower settings. He's blond, after all, and he doesn't need an aggressive razor.
In the Valley, however...
Galt shaves with an electric, adjustable straight razor which never needs honing or stropping and is stamped "1 of 3." The device was invented by Quentin Daniels, with funding provided by Midas Mulligan and Francisco d'Anconia, and it never leaves the Valley. Francisco's own razor, for example, is stamped "2 of 3," but he is a very prominent public figure and cannot afford to have such a device seen in his possession.
Daniels uses his own invention, which is stamped "ORIGIN." Mulligan has one as well, which bears the stamp "I KNOW WHAT TO TOUCH" -- appropriate, on a straight razor. He uses it in rotation with his gold-plated Gillette Aristocrat.
Ragnar Danneskjold has also been presented with a Daniels Straight, stamped "3 of 3." To date, it sits waiting in Galt's Gulch. It has never been used.
Daniels is holding one other such device: for Henry Rearden, on such day as he joins the Strike. It is stamped "THE GIFT."
All such blades are made of Rearden Metal, which is why they never need sharpening, and were fabricated by Daniels and Francisco.
Dagny Taggart -- Guys, please, remember Dagny's "showgirl legs." You will then no longer need to wonder why the Rio Norte Line terminated at El Paso, Texas. Nor will you wonder who shaves her legs. But then, a gentlemen never tells. :-)
Part of their internet catalog copy reads as follows:
Who knew this would be the product that would put us on the map and introduce so many of our (now) long-term customers, to our entire product line? Not us. We were just tired of going in to work so often with those little pieces of Kleenex adhering to creepy blotches of dried chin blood. Then this crazy subculture of guys who shave, it seems, for a living, and used nothing but pedigreed preparations from England, brands with Royal Warrants peddled at $40+ per jar, somehow found about us. (They tend to be a little, um, traditional, so something called Nancy Boy from fruits-and-nuts San Francisco wasn't something they were just going to stumble across.) Turns out these guys didn't just go ape over our shave stuff--they've turned into our very best customers, across almost every product category (except, for some reason, the t-shirts and baseball caps).
Well.
I am of that subculture, and I too, have gone to work many morning with blood on my chin. And on my cheeks and jawline. And on my neck.
So this morning I made a radical move. I used Nancy Boy shaving cream. Now that wasn't the move, though: I've used Nancy Boy before, both the shaving cream and the pre-shave oil. But today I followed the directions on the package.
See, I do not get my lather from a can of goo. Oh my no. I do it the manly way: by swirling a badger brush around some good soap or cream, and whipping up the lather my own damn self.
Except that Nancy Boy is designed for...well, for not doing that. Even after they've cottoned to the high praise and exposure they've gotten from the internet shaving boards, their catalog copy for what they now call their Signature Shave Cream still contains offensive language like "even if you shave with a brush" and, even worse, "if you don't shave with a brush (neither do we)."
Ahem.
See, the problem is that only savages shave without a brush, and that's a fact. And when I first used Nancy Boy, I whipped up a nice lather with my brush -- and I liked it, liked the lather, liked the product. My lathering technique wasn't that great back then, nor was my razor technique. But it's easier to make a lather from a cream than from a soap, so that was no big deal, and I already had my beloved 1948 Gillette Super Speed, a very gentle and forgiving razor, so that was no big deal, either. The results from the Nancy Boy were great.
Now, though, I've been wetshaving for over a year, and I could probably get a decent shave from laundry detergent, a paintbrush, and the top of a tin can. But it did occur to me that I'd never used the Nancy Boy in the brushless manner for which it was designed. Hence this morning's radical move.
I have some concerns with using their pre-shave oil, because it's, well, oily, and I don't wish to gum up my brush. But with today's plan to go brushless, that was no concern. On it went.
I applied the cream with my fingers and smeared it around until I was satisfied with the coverage. Then I went to work with my Weishi DE and an almost-week-old Swedish Gillette blade.
The results were excellent: the shave was smooth and close, and the cream offered a lot of protection. I never did relather and go for a second pass, which I almost always do, but I did do some touching up with some more hot water and a 1950s-era Schick Injector.
I've now used Nancy Boy with at least three razors, with and without a brush, and with at least three (this is from memory) blades (the Swedish Gillettes, Merkurs, and Personnas). Good results each time.
For my money, I'll stick with using a brush, which means that I'll generally pass on the pre-shave oil. But this stuff is great: lathers easily, smells great (peppermint, mostly), provides excellent lubrication and protection, and costs about half as much as the top-tier British creams. And the motto ("Tested on boyfriends -- not on animals") is cute, too. It cuts through my barbed-wire beard without going postal on my touchy skin. For any guy who shaves, but especially for newbie wetshavers, I recommend it highly.
You can read another review of Nancy Boy here, and >one here, too. There's also an interview with Nancy Boy founder Eric Roos here, and the Nancy Boy blog here.
Tampa, Florida.
That's where I was, to answer James Lileks's question.
On this day in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon.
(Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds)
I've discussed the idea of memorizing the kings of England, and taking an approach that would get the job done quickly and easily. What I aim to do now is to recommed some good books on the subject in order to get you, the legions of loyal Anger of Compassion readers, to the subject. You may not be interested in memorizing the names of everyone in the Tonight Show audience, as magician Harry Lorayne has done, but how about just being more confident about remembering faces and names? Or foreign language vocabulary? Or anything at all?
Popular Introductions:
The Memory Book, Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas.
Use Your Perfect Memory, Tony Buzan.
Great introductions to the subject. Covers a bit of history (Simonides and Aristotle, Francis Bacon and Peter of Ravenna) and the basic systems (loci, the Peg, Link Words for vocabulary, the Major System). The Lucas and Lorayne book is widely available in America and was a bestseller in the Seventies. Lots of stories and examples. The Buzan book is more of a straightforward nonfiction book, with a few more facts and a bit of history.
By the way, the title here -- "A Beautiful Naked Blonde Jumps Up and Down" -- is the title of a chapter The Memory Book. It's also a mnemonic -- for remembering numbers. Check it out.
I was introduced to memory improvement and mnemonics by the Lucas and Lorayne book, and read Buzan shortly thereafter. After reading them, I was inspired to acquire more books on the subject (the classics by Bruno Furst, for example, and collections of mnemonic tricks).
Master Your Memory, Tony Buzan. I haven't seen the new edition, but this is an excellent, quirky masterpiece. How would you like to memorize thousands of things in dozens of categories? This one will get you started on doing it.
Collections of Mnemonics:
The Absent-Minded Professor's Memory Book, Michele Slung.
WASPLEG and Other Mnemonics, Bart Benne.
The advantage of books of mnemonics is that they are arranged by topic and you can use them immediately, with little or no practice. Such mnemonic tricks as "Every Good Boy Does Fine," for learning the names of the lines in a musical staff, or "HOMES," for learning the names of the Great Lakes, have been around for ages. They're simple, they've helped lots of people, they work. And these two books have tons of 'em.
Your Memory: How it Works and How to Improve It, Kenneth L. Higbee , PhD. This one can go in the "What's going on?" category. As the title indicates, Higbee is a professor of psychology (at Brigham Young University) and he's written a book on what memory is and how to use and improve it, how best to use memory systems and mnemonics and where their use is most appropriate. Higbee backs his statements and claims with lots of research evidence as well as stories about his students, his daughter, and himself. Along the way, he's written an objective, excellent book.
There are plenty of web sites dealing with memory systems in general and with particular applications as well. I don't list any here, but that doesn't mean there aren't any good sites out there: there are, but you can find a bunch of them just as easily as I can recommend them.
There are also courses available. One famous one is Kevin Trudeau's Mega Memory system, which I emphatically do not recommend. My negative evaluation of the Trudeau product is because of what I regard as its lack of value: it's expensive, and teaches fewer techniques than you'll find in The Memory Book. There are other courses, too, but I have no direct experience with them.
But The Memory Book will teach you plenty. Start there -- and you may not ever go beyond that one. If you do (and yes, it is worthwhile), then any of the above books will get the job done.
And those were his very last words. On this day in 1895, El Paso lawman John Selman (who I'm sure thought some laws were all right. I guess) entered the Acme Saloon on Utah Street and shot notorious gunman John Wesley Hardin.
Hardin was thought to have killed thirty men, including one for snoring. It was said of his murder that if Selman shot Hardin in the front, it demonstrated good marksmanship, and if he shot him in the back, it demonstrated good judgment.
Kim at Kim's Play Place has begun hosting a carnival of the Objectivists, called Objectivist Round Up. First one should go up tomorrow.
Pejman Yousefzadeh got it from Daniel Drezner. "It" is the "Moral Sense Test," hosted at Harvard. As Drezner writes, "It's an eight question test in which an action is described and then you are asked to award damages."
And it's fairly ridiculous. That, of course, depends on how generous you're feeling as you read the test: even the Catholicism of my upbringing had a more coherent vision of what morality is. But I wasn't reminded of the teachings of Holy Mother Church so much as I was of the opening statements in Ayn Rand's "The Ethics of Emergencies:"
The psychological results of altruism may be observed in the fact that a great many people approach the subject of ethics by asking such questions as : "Should one risk one's life to help a man who is: a) drowning, b) trapped in a fire, c) stepping in front of a speeding truck, d) hanging by his fingernails over an abyss?"
"Consider," Rand goes on, "the implications of that approach. If a man accepts the ethics of altruism, he suffers the following consequences (in proportion to the degree of his acceptance)," and I was particularly struck by the aptness of these two points:
3. A nightmare view of existence -- since he believes that men are trapped in a "malevolent universe" where disasters are the constant and primary concern of their lives.
4. And, in fact, a lethargic indifference to ethics, a hopelessly cynical amorality -- since his questions involve situations which he is not likely ever to encounter, which bear no relation to the actual problems of his own life and thus leave him to live without any moral principles whatever. (italics mine)
Apparently the average test taker awarded $72,000 across all questions. Drezner says that he awarded an average of $129, while Pejman says that he awarded a "mere" $238. I hereby declare a contest: to win, you must guess what I awarded.
First prize will be a free one-year subscription to The Platinum Edition of The Anger of Compassion.
(NOTE: "The Ethics of Emergencies" is available here and here.)
Your holiday/weekend treat: Dickey Betts, Vassar Clements, and Bonnie Bramlett spending a whopping forty-one minutes on "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," at the Winterland, San Francisco.
The definitive version is, of course, this one, which invited comparisons to country and Coltraen. But this 1974 take is worth a listen itself.
Yeah, it's that Vassar Clements. What are you waiting for, another link?
Fuhgeddaboudit. Listen now.
Here's an excellent tutorial on how to create a good lather using shaving soap.
I've been wetshaving for over a year now, and it's definitely the way to go. There's nothing like it available from a cartridge or electric razor. A well-made safety razor or straight razor, a sharp blade, a badger brush: those are a man's tools, for a man's shave. Using traditional soaps or creams...now that's luxury. The result is a glass-smooth face and neck, with no irritation anywhere.
There's a bit of a learning curve, though, and part of that lies with lathering. If you live in an area which has hard water, then you'll have to put in a bit more effort with the brush. No way around that. But I live in El Paso, which has very hard water, and I can testify that it's doable.
Creating a great lather is also easier with creams than with soaps, and one of the reasons I love my Taylor of Old Bond Street Lavender is the easily created, extravagant lather I get with it. But I also love my Proraso and Pre de Provence hard soaps, so I've had to learn a bit of patience and technique in order to get the most out of them.
It's learnable, and the tutorial is excellent. Take a look.
I heard the news while driving this morning: Beverly Sills died of lung cancer last night.
The first opera records I ever purchased were old highlights collections of Toscanini conducting Wagner, and a Beverly Sills album.
I've never been to one of her live performances, and to this day I don't have much more of her recordings in my collection. But I still get the feeling that a light has gone out.