A Close Shave

For Hubby, shaving has gone from being a daily boring chore to a daily 20 minutes of fun in front of the mirror. You see, he finds it so entertaining that he takes his time about it – humming and singing a little. It obviously provides a good start to his day.

As lots of other men, Hubby used to use an electric shaver. In fact, he had never used anything else. But a few years ago, on a trip to Helsinki, he managed to leave his electric shaver at home and Husfruen was sent out to buy a can of shaving foam and a packet of disposable razors. That was it. He never looked back.

I had no idea that you could actually get hooked on shaving but that is exactly what happened. Hubby very quickly advanced from the cheap razors to the best Gillette can offer. However, it turned out that this was, in his opinion, by no means the best a man can get. What is more, the cost of blades, which didn’t last very long, annoyed him.

An intense period of trial and error followed. Finally though, he decided that old-fashioned safety razors were the thing. Fitted with blades from Personna, they gave him the closest and best shave.

He is very happy with the fact that he pays less than one krone (ten pennies) per blade. Once, when a poor telemarketer from Proctor and Gamble called to offer some so-called cheap blades, Hubby kept him on the line for more than half an hour, finally convincing him that he had to try the old-fashioned blades, as they are so much better and more economical.

But he doesn’t count the thousands he has spent on the rest of the gear. You see, once he got going with this new hobby, he started buying everything you can possibly think of and then some more. Husfruen just shook her head in silence, while his mom exclaimed laconically: “Oh dear, he has really gone to town with that one, hasn’t he?”
There are only a few manufacturers left of the old-fashioned safety razors, so Hubby had to spend quite a few happy hours online to find the best, but a razor from the German precision firm of Merkur soon found its way into the bathroom and helped to increase both the standard of his shave as well as the length of time spent shaving.

Well, that was just the first of several. He now has razors for all occasions. For everyday use there is the “slant”, for long hair he has a “comb” and he even has a little one specially designed for the mustaches. For travelling a so-called “HD” has replaced a take-down travel razor. This one obviously needed a leather-case, so he had a shoemaker make one specially.

Then there are the brushes. Of course he has several. A badger hair brush from Shavemac (another German company) is used to apply the soap every morning. Then he has another, silver encased one for travelling.

Obviously, his favourite brush and razor need a proper stand, so that they are kept correctly and are easily at hand. I have to admit it all looks rather stylish.

Of course we have not touched upon the subject of soaps yet. There has been a long period of trial and error there too. Perhaps we’ll come back to that another time. All I will say for now is that a beautiful soap dish certainly looks better in the bathroom than a can of shaving foam, so this is one of his habits I can easily tolerate. I sure am glad though, that we have two bathrooms so that I don’t have to wait in line in the morning.