The Enjoyment of the Daily Shave

A good daily shave has a meditation-like quality: mindfullness.

I find that the pleasure of the daily shave comes in three forms, but not every shave necessarily has all three. The bedrock of the shave ritual is this the quiet enjoyment of being fully present in the moment. This Zen-like quality comes from the distraction-free focus of devoting one's attention to the job at hand and only that. Buddhists know that this mindful focus is a way to turn mundane chores in life into a kind of meditation.

I find the second pleasurable aspect to my daily shave is the small challenge of trying to get the best possible shave, the ultimate shave, which is baby smooth and no defects or irritation. This fits hand in glove with the first pleasure of focus because the more I concentrate on the shave without distraction, the more likely I am to optimize the quality of the shave outcome.

The third pleasure, which conflicts a bit with my frugal nature, is the process of evaluating new products, new gear. I like comparing blades, soaps, after-shave products, adding some, subtracting some.

Tied with this is learning; I love learning. It's always fun to me to figure out some new aspect of the process, expand my knowledge and understanding as I have done with razor design and shared in previous articles.

The last aspect of testing and learning process is teaching or sharing. I get pleasure from reporting what I've learned in these mostly-daily articles.

This process goes on as I will continue to publish weekly summaries. During a given week, I will change only a variable or two and see what effect that has on my seven shaves. I will summarize any learnings as well as providing a brief report on each individual shave.

What do you like best about your shaving ritual?

Happy shaving!