Clean Shaven

I am not the most masculine of men, and this admission should shock absolutely no one who has met me. Yet my feminine aspects do not detract from my appreciation of male grooming rituals and today I want to discuss my razor. As a teenager with little in the way of facial hair I used an old safety razor, which led to cuts and disappointment. My failings were due to a lack of teaching on proper shaving techniques, but my father has never been one for easing his children’s passage into adulthood with patient tutoring. From sharp steel I moved on to an electric razor, which served me well past college. At some point in graduate school I decided to try a modern multi-bladed razor, which worked tolerably but left my neck red and was costly when one added up the expense of the blades over time. Then, just over a year ago, my wife gave me the incredibly cool and functional Feather Stainless Steel Razor.

Admittedly, there is a steep learning curve with this razor, but once one gets the routine down and is patient with the shaving process the results are lovely. This razor only accepts Feather’s own blades, which are very sharp and hold an edge for about two shaves if the person has a beard like mine and only shaves every second day. This week I let my beard grow for three days and I was looking scruffy. Fifteen minutes with the Feather and I feel clean and smooth. This razor has brought some joy back to the ritual of shaving and makes me feel like a proper gentleman, which is a high compliment to any device in these days of cheap materials, emphasis on a reduction in manufacturing costs, and a move away from time-intensive grooming regimens. I, for one, am a fan of this sort of older design coupled with high quality production (and cost). My fondness for this object is also based on the requirement that one master the technique of shaving, meaning that materialism is wed to a skilled practice and consumption becomes more than simple commodity fetish.