# Men and Women: Let's talk shaving.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 29, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922 "2014-10-29T17:22:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/41 "2014-10-29T22:10:57Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> Does _anyone_ shave daily anymore, like I had to in the Army, or like non-hobo Grandpa was expected to in the 1950s?
The parts of my face that I do shave, I shave every day. If I had to use an actual razor and soap/foam/cream, though, I doubt I would.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/42 "2014-10-29T23:50:16Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#):
>
> Like a real man I do not shave because if Mother Nature wanted me baby smooth she would not have blessed me with my glorious beard.
+1
I haven’t shaved in very nearly 50 years (over Xmas vacation 1864-65).
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### Author:  [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/43 "2014-10-30T00:56:35Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> +1
>
> I haven’t shaved in very nearly 50 years (over Xmas vacation 1864-65).
What was Ulysses S. Grant really like? 😃
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### Author:  [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/44 "2014-10-30T02:14:54Z")
I don’t use soap in the shower, I use shower gel and that sucks to shave with. So I have a palmolive shave stick which is basically like a bar of soap. I just rub a bit of that on the face and trim up while in the shower, no mirror, just by touch.
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### Author:  [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/45 "2014-10-30T02:24:20Z")
> [@Jophiel](#):
>
> Can of Barbisol and some mid-range disposable razor. I own a safety razor with the switchable blades and all that, but…
>
> I really only shave once a week. My wife says she likes me better with some scruff so I go into work clean in the morning on Monday and am fashionably scruffy by Friday for the weekend. By Sunday I’m looking pretty hobo-ish so I’ll shave on Sunday night so I’m not fighting with it Monday morning when I’m running late. I pretty much ruin a disposable doing so but an eight pack still lasts me two months.
>
> I suppose if I grew facial hair faster it wouldn’t work so well but I’m happy with the set-up I’ve got.
I just get out of the shower and shave with a double blade thingie. No soap or after shave or nuthin’
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/46 "2014-10-30T02:42:16Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> Does _anyone_ shave daily anymore, like I had to in the Army, or like non-hobo Grandpa was expected to in the 1950s?
I do, although I may skip a day on the weekend. I got that from my 1950s era grandfathers and 1960s era father (who now sports a luxuriously huge beard).
I actually find it easier overall; it’s like the scorched-earth approach- all I have to do to look presentable is shave every day and not make my sideburns too uneven.
None of the trimming, shaping, etc… that comes with a beard. I used to have a goatee/van dyke and it drove me crazy.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/47 "2014-10-30T03:07:22Z")
> [@DrCube](#):
>
> Does _anyone_ shave daily anymore, like I had to in the Army, or like non-hobo Grandpa was expected to in the 1950s?
Not I! cried Senegoid The Slob. I’m in the profoundly blissful situation of neither caring, nor needing to care what anything thinks of me! Although to be sure, I do still shower once every three or four months whether I need it or not. Yes, there’s a reason I call myself Senegoid, and it’s not [this one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_syndrome) but it could certainly well be! 😃
Just plain hand soap lather on my face is all I use, and disposable razors that last me for a month (assuming I shave about once a week or so).
Time was, for much of my adult life, I used an electric shaver which was easy to do and didn’t require any kind of lube. All I knew about shaving was what I had always seen in men’s shaving cream commercials on TV, which invariably seemed to make shaving into a much more complicated ritual than I ever wanted to deal with.
But electric shavers just never did work very well, especially for long neck hairs, and that miserable abomination of a side-burn trimmer or whatever its called never did work very well at all. I went through several different models of electric shavers. And I learned that the neck hair trimmer, as badly as it worked, got steadily worse as the blade got older and that _you can’t replace this blade!_ – Despite the very helpful efforts of a clerk a Nordstrom’s who made numerous phone calls to vendors and manufacturers while I waited!
So, dashing my shaver to pieces on the floor, I said Fuck Electric Shavers! It’s time I learned to shave like a Real Man As Seen On TV! (I was about 55 at the time.) Having never learned as a youngster from my father (is that just another TV meme?), I called upon one of my few remaining friends at the time and asked him to be my surrogate father and teach me how to shave. He just told me to use plain old hand soap lather. So I tried that, and it works just find thank you and I’ve done it that way even unto this very day. Well, up until yesterday anyway. I didn’t shave today.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/48 "2014-10-30T03:14:22Z")
I shave my entire head (sans goat (really a Van Dyke, but nobody knows the difference)) every morning in the shower using a Fusion razor and whatever shave gel was on sale.
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/49 "2014-10-30T03:57:28Z")
Man here. I want through the same phases as the OP (used to use shaving cream at the sink, but about fifteen years ago switched to bar soap on the bath or shower) — the only difference being that I generally don’t use a mirror at all.
I have tough whiskers. The keys to a smooth shave, in order if importance, are 1. Letting face soak for at least two full minutes (longer if the water isn’t hot); 2. Hot water if possible, but warm is usually okay (unless the razor is dull); 3. Sharpness of razor blade.
Cecil covered all this years ago in an article about a man re-using his lady friend’s razor.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/50 "2014-10-30T04:11:46Z")
I’Canned shaving cream, if used right, is the best money per oz/unit/cm/whatever in the world.
I get a can of Barasol at the dollar store and it lasts 2 years!
Once, in my scruffy stage, I had a can nearly rust out before I finished it!
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### Author:  [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/51 "2014-10-30T04:54:06Z")
I use [Success Medicated Shaving Foam](http://www.kao.com/jp/success/scs_shavefoam_00.html) and a [Gillette More-Blades-Than-Sense](http://gillette.com/en-us/products/razor-blades/fusion-proglide-flexball-razors/fusion-proglide-power-razor-with-flexball) razor. Hot water, over the sink, before a shower. I prefer the sink because I like a nice big mirror and lots of light.
I have an electric trimmer and razor for trimming/shaving parts of me that aren’t my face. I do that in the shower though with lots of hot water and foam.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/52 "2014-10-30T06:30:27Z")
> [@doorhinge](#):
>
> What was Ulysses S. Grant really like? 😃
He is Ulysses S. Grant.
Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb? Nobody!
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### Author:  [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/53 "2014-10-30T17:16:40Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> He is Ulysses S. Grant.
> Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb? Nobody!
**Hari Seldon** is Ulysses S. Grant???
**Hari** quit shaving in 1865. He may have bumped into USG at a cigar store?
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/54 "2014-10-30T18:31:08Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#):
>
> **Kayaker** , I’m curious why salicylic acid? That’s usually a treatment for acne, is it not a little hard on your skin?
When I was shaving my head, I was in search of the closest (smoothest) shave possible. In a shaving forum I read about salicylic acid. It might be overly drying for face skin, but especially if you have an oily scalp, it works great for the head. I couldn’t get away with using it twice a day; some head shavers use it once a week at the most.
But exfoliating before a shave gives a really smooth result!
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/55 "2014-10-30T18:34:34Z")
Male here. Electric shaver, always.
When I started shaving as a teen, I had pretty bad acne, which would have made using a razor an adventure. I never transitioned away from the shaver, in part because I don’t have a heavy or dark beard, so it’s always worked well for me.
I’ve shaved with a razor (my wife’s razor that she uses for her underarms and legs :eek: ) two or three times over the years, when my electric shaver of the moment had suddenly given up the ghost. Ow ow ow.
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### Author:  [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/56 "2014-10-30T19:09:12Z")
In the past, I used commercial shaving cream in an aerosol can. October 11 was the last time. for the last 19 days I have been letting it grow back in. I missed my beard.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/57 "2014-10-30T19:13:03Z")
> [@doorhinge](#):
>
> **Hari Seldon** is Ulysses S. Grant???
>
> **Hari** quit shaving in 1865. He may have bumped into USG at a cigar store?
have you ever seen them together? Well, have you???
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### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/58 "2014-10-31T13:00:25Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> Cecil covered all this years ago in an article about a man re-using his lady friend’s razor.
Indeed, and Slug’s illustration was, as usual, completely hilarious. I cannot find it by linking through on my damn cell phone.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/59 "2014-10-31T13:07:21Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#):
>
> Indeed, and Slug’s illustration was, as usual, completely hilarious. I cannot find it by linking through on my damn cell phone.
[Found it for you](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/559/how-come-a-woman-shaving-her-legs-wears-out-a-mans-razor-so-fast).
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2014, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-and-women-lets-talk-shaving/702922/60 "2014-10-31T14:03:05Z")
Excuse me, **'Toons** , but it’s impossible to shave with any of the things in your poll. You need something with a _blade_. 😃
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