As our world changes around us, I have begun to question whether what is new and cutting edge is even worth using. My parents generation and my grandparents generation are not used to technology changing so quickly. For instance, when I tried to convince my parents to get Google mail as opposed to Hotmail or Yahoo, my parents asked, "Why? What makes Google so special?" After a very long and complicated answer stating that Google was the future of communication and productivity, my parents just gave me a blank stare and still, to this day, use Hotmail.
Of course, this was very frustrating to me. Then I realized that my parents lived through so many changes in technology. Black and white to color televisions, record players to the mobile mp3 player, encyclopedias and type writers to the internet and notebook PCs. Even more astounding are the changes my grandparents have seen!
These revelations got me thinking about objects in everyday life that are supposed to make our existence easier. My observations led me to be critical at one point of every process that I conduct in my day. For the most part, technology and progress won. The only outlier/anomaly came to me as a great surprise. This activity has been the bane of every man from the beginning of civilization: Shaving.
My then current razor was of the five + one blade on the back variety and I thought it was the best shave I was ever going to get. Then I stumbled upon a website called www.kinowear.com, a men's lifestyle blog (go ahead, call me vain) that I frequent in between the busy moments of my life. On the website, they claimed that the absolute closest and best shave a man could get did not involve multiple blades. Boy, was I shocked by that statement. The best shave a man could get was in fact a method that my grandfathers and their fathers had used for about fifty years in a time when cars were still made out of metal and you still had to use a card catalog at the library. I'm talking about double edged, safety razors. So, here is one process that I go through in my day that is actually a throwback to older, more gentle days.
I no longer despise my morning shave, but instead, I revel in it. With my brush, a heated soup mug, scented shaving cream and a steady hand, I have this twenty minute moment of Nirvana in the morning. I no longer rush through my shave, but instead steep in the glory of what it means to be a man, taking pride in every stroke of my razor and looking upon a clean shaven face that smells of fresh lime. I have even found communities online that partake in this practice of leaving the new way and returning to our roots of the shaving practice.
I am quite proud of myself for learning a new skill in which I thought there was no other way to master. To me, this is on a path of personal and social refinement that we all seek at some point in our lives. For someone that enjoys the finer things in life and the experiences they grant, shaving is a small commodity that I used to take for granted.
I will end this article by urging my male and yes, even my female readers to give double edge shaving a try. It may look scary and yes, you may even cut yourself a few times before you see results, but a wise man once said, anything that is difficult to attain is probably worth having and never easy to attain. Upon seeing me shave for the first time with this new but tried and tested razor, brush and cream my grandfather marveled at my old multi bladed monstrosity. He smiled, shrugged his shoulders and simply stated, "Old is gold."
