More Travel Shaves

The Trip

On Friday I returned from a five-day whirl-wind tour of colleges on the northeast coast (of the United States) with and for the youngest child in our family. It was a rather last-minute trip, having only about a week of planning. Because last-minute air fares are rather expensive, we chose to one-way rent a car, drive from the metro-Detroit area to the various colleges, and then fly home from Boston.

Because I am a one-bag carry-on-luggage-only passenger, I had to pack not only light but also with air-travel regulations in mind -- meaning no double-edge razor blades. Also, light packing tends to encourage light-weight packing, meaning bringing a disposable plastic razor rather than anything made of metal.

My Travel Shaving Kit

So my shaving kit included only the following items:

• One Gillette twin-bladed, pivoting-head disposable cartridge razor
• A small stick of my home-made shave soap in a plastic pill bottle from the pharmacy

These are shown in the photo:

Things I Left Behind

What I DID NOT BRING were the following items:

• Shaving brush
• Other pre-shave products
• After-shave balms or lotions
• Styptic pencil
• Alum block

My Travel Shaving Routine

My daily shaves all looked like this:

1. Splash cool water onto beard and rub. Repeat two more times.
2. Rub shave-soap stick on wet beard.
3. With wet hands, rub beard to make a thin, creamy lather on beard.
4. Use a regional and anti-raking shave pattern to shave close, adding water as necessary to the existing lather.
5. Add more water as necessary and do final touch ups after my entire face was shaved.
6. Rinse with cool water.
7. Dry with towel.
8. To freshly-shaved face, apply some hand lotion provided by the hotel.

Shave Outcomes

I have to admit that my travel shaves were uniformly top drawer. Absolute minimal insult to skin, yet very close. I had no regrets about the shaving accessories that I chose to bring, and I also had no regrets about the gear I left behind.

This minimalist gear of disposable razor and small shave-soap stick is going to remain my standard air-travel shaving kit for the foreseeable future.

Now does that mean that I'm going to abandon my double-edge shaving gear? Absolutely not. When I'm at home, I'm a committed DE shaver because it's the ecologically-responsible thing to do. It's also the cost-effective method to use. Over the long haul, shaving like Grandad is the right thing to do for my bank account and the world.

Happy shaving!

Give Your Face a Rest

I have days where I have a bit of a rough shave.

It may be that I've chosen too aggressive of a razor or razor setting. Other times I may have paired a razor-and-blade combination that just isn't quite right for my face. Sometimes I've just had a lapse in concentration and given myself the rare cut, or more commonly, I've just created a few weepers.

These are times for giving my mug a bit of a respite, a break from that close shave that I like so much.

Now in these days of the fashionable scruffy look, many men are only shaving every few days or so -- or less. These gents have a natural break in their grooming routine, and generally don't ever need an additional rest for abused facial skin.

Not this kind of rest!

However, I'm pretty old school in that I always smile and shake my head a bit when I see some young man on TV -- often a political pundit -- displaying a multi-day growth of beard and a studiously un-combed coiffure that give the impression that he rolled out of bed mid hunting trip, threw on a shirt and tie, and dashed to the TV studio sans shower, shave and other normal daily grooming. I sometimes facetiously wonder if they use deodorant.

It's the fashion, I know; it's considered well groomed to appear as though one sleeps outdoors in a cardboard box with all the accompanying amenities (none), most obviously appearing to lack a comb and razor.

In my opinion, this doesn't look good on many young men, but it doesn't look good on any older men with gray in their beards or even with faces that show the experience and wear of a few miles. On us, this look generally makes us look like a bum -- and I've yet to see an exception.

So when one's face has had one too many close shaves and may be just irritated, or worse, having a cut or scrape or two, it's time for a rest. But for us more experienced gentlemen, who show some obvious signs of that experience such as gray in the beard or a few lines on the face, taking a day off from shaving isn't a great idea.

Instead, I recommend a light shave; that is, a single-pass with-grain shave. This light shave won't get anywhere close to the smoothness that I prefer when rubbing hand on face, but it will knock down the beard so that -- especially early in the day -- there will be no obvious visible beard showing. You look well groomed but have avoided any abuse of a close shave on pre-irritated skin.

So my approach is to use a moderately aggressive razor-and-blade combination when I need a facial rest. This may mean a one-pass shave with my slant razor, the Merkur 37C, or perhaps my Gillette Slim adjustable set at middling number such as five out of nine. Or I might just use my Rimei RM2003 razor.

In any case, my facial-rest approach is not to go without my daily shave. My approach is to simply lighten up and accept a shave of mediocre closeness for a day or two until my skin is reinvigorated and ready for a more rewarding shave.

Happy shaving!