Learning something new

So the other day I learned something that was rather revolutionary to me. And seeing as I'm not a complete idiot I'm pretty sure that there are a few of you out there who would have been surprised as well. It turns out that I really didn't know much about shaving. Now once again, I want to remind you all that I'm not a complete idiot, I know enough about shaving not to go against the grain and the other common sense rules. What I didn't know though was what kind of a difference a brush could make.

I started using a Body Shop shaving cream a while back. I thought it was ok, but nothing terribly great and I didn't find that I was getting as close a shave as I could with the ubiquitous Gillette can of cream. So I reserved the Body Shop stuff for shaving my legs, it lasted better when wet in the shower compared to the Gillette stuff. I've been happy with this but I always kind of wondered why it never performed as well on my face as I thought it could. Then the other day, since I was running out of the Body Shop shave cream, I went out to pick up some more. This time though I opted out for the larger tub of cream instead of the smaller tube. It was just more economical this way. But I also decided to pick up a brush as well, it was on sale so why not give it a try.

Of course when I got home I was excited to see if using the brush to lather up the shaving cream would prove to be some kind of miraculous improvement in my shaving experience...it wasn't. But then again, how the hell are you supposed to use a shaving brush? I think the only person I've ever seen use one was Bugs Bunny, and that was usually as part of an elaborate disguise, so somehow I don't think he counts as an authority. So I resorted to the trusty, all knowing, yet often wrong, internet for guidance. In doing so I came upon a rather detailed web page dedicated to exploring shaving, where I learned what would appear to be the proper way to use a shaving brush and shaving cream.

And as it turns out, the brush makes a HUGE difference! I've never had a shave this good before. So if you have to shave regularly I seriously suggest ditching the can of fluorescent green or blue shit that is way over priced for the quality (using a brush you need almost no shaving cream, the tub will last me over a year). And if you don't want to resort to buying stuff from the body shop (or want a proper badger hair brush) here's a web page with everything you could ever dream of.

My next step will be to ditch the Gillette cartridge razor for an old-school safety razor. It seems that shaving technology really isn't something that has improved with age, the new conveniences really don't make things better.