A brush with success

[plonq]

When I was helping to frantically clean the house in preparation for amarafox's whirlwind visit a couple of weeks back, I happened upon a personal relic that I hadn't used in some years; a shaving cup and brush. It had gathered a fair layer of dust from sitting unused for many years, but after rinsing away the layers of grime, it looked like it was still serviceable.

There are a number of reasons why I got out of the habit of brush shaving (I'll save my straight-razor story for another day), but ultimately it became one of speed and convenience. Curiously enough, I have become a little more self-disciplined as I've grown older, and I'm usually up early enough in the morning to indulge myself in the luxury of shaving with a brush.

It's hard to describe why I prefer a brush shave to a shaving gel. Part of it is the comforting ritual of whipping the soap into a lather with the brush, and then working it into every nook and corner of my face (well, the nooks and corners that need shaving anyway). With the gel you just slap it onto your face and reach for the razor. The brush takes a few minutes, first to get the right consistency of lather, and then to apply it with the right thickness across the surfaces to be shaved. The extra time gives the whiskers a chance to soften up a bit, and allows one a few extra minutes of Zen to contemplate on the day ahead.

I also get a better shave when I use a brush, so it's win-win as far as I'm concerned.



Why do they insist on staffing our user support desk with morons?

Key phrases for my day today: "How is this even remotely my concern?", "How could they not understand that? Is it even possible dumb this down any more?"

Comments

[cozycabbage.livejournal.com]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6886845/
Turns out modern shaving is terrible -- just like pretty much everything modern. Except computers.
If we could take today's computers and go back to 1950 or something, we'd be all set!

I've always shaved with hot water. Apparently, keeping your face hot and wet is the best thing you can do to get a good shave. Everyone always wondered why I did it, and I had no clue, myself, except that it worked. And because I was lazy.
You should take a minute or two to wash your face with hot water before shaving.

Is your brush badger-hair?

[plonq.livejournal.com]

Using a brush is sort of a compromise between slapping on shaving cream, and a proper wet shave.

I usually wet my face down with hot water before I brush on the lather, and I reapply hot water and lather again for the second pass. I have found that a third pass is seldom necessary aside from one or two stubborn spots.