The act (or art if you prefer) of shaving is something that a majority of men perform at least a few times a week. When you look back at pictures of men in the long ago you might be inclined to think that shaving is a modern phenomenon. Not so, dear readers; men have been shaving hair off their faces for thousands of years.
From an early age we are fascinated by shaving. One of my oldest memories is that of my father shaving from a basin of water over near the kitchen window – for light! My brother Willie and I would be imitating the ‘cor’ he had on his face as it twisted this way and that to get the most out of his ‘Mack’s Smile’ blade.
Most often the blade would be relied upon to perform a shave too many – and it was always our mother’s fault for forgetting to buy blades! By now there would be spots of blood all over Daddy’s face, caused by the blunt blade.
Little pieces of newspaper would be stuck to various facial locations to stem the flow of fresh blood! He looked so funny to us kids – but a laugh was out of the question!
When I was about 10 years old, a young woman, a friend of the family, presented Daddy with a new shaving set; leather case, shaving stick, shiny razor and a little bottle of some sort of water that wasn’t holy. The girl had purchased this as a present for her boyfriend, but sadly the romance had broken up before the hand-over was completed and she couldn’t bear to have the shaving gear in the house!
Daddy was above all that fancy stuff and after some time Mammy gave it to me and told me to mind it until I started shaving – which I did.
I was 15 and working in Merlehan’s Pub in Delvin: A baby-faced boy with very little growth appearing on the face – apart from a shadow of down north of my upper lip. Fay’s house was where I had a decent lunch every day.
One day Tom ‘Star’ Fay was shaving with an electric razor (the first time I had ever seen one and I was naturally fascinated by such a machine)and to make a long story short, he shaved me into the bargain. His wife, May, admonished Tom with the words; ‘would you ever leave the young lad alone’, but I was delighted because I believed this might encourage growth!
You had to be totally clean shaven going to the dances back then. Girl friends had an awful aversion to ‘beard rash’. Is there such a rash nowadays … or was that just one more ruse used to keep me at arm’s length?
Another bloody shaving story was when my son Ian got hold of my razor and I suppose just as I did with my father, he set about imitating the procedure and managed to take a V-shaped chunk out of his lip. Mrs Youcantbeserious and his granny headed off with the child to the doctors and I was left to mop up the blood and hide the razor. The incident never prevented him giving ‘lip’.
My Uncle Paddy stuck loyally with his old ‘safety razor’ and blades and shaved himself on Saturday night or during the week if there was a funeral or a mass to go to. Then in his 80s, with health issues and a shake in his hand; his rugged face began to resemble a miniature scrubland.
I bought him an electric razor but he wouldn’t chance doing the job himself. ‘You may shave me’, he said to me. Paddy couldn’t believe the result. He sat there; mirror in one hand and stroking his chin with the other.
Now there was a problem because my uncle wouldn’t allow anybody else near his face nor razor. At that time I was in Spain a lot and if I wasn’t home for three weeks; Paddy had three week’s beard ready for me to remove!
I was never a beard man, although long locks and longish black hair mocks me from old photo albums. I sported one beard only and that was during Covid lockdown. Three months in the making it was something to behold in all its glory. I may have used the photo here before, but you can’t have too much of a good thing and so we’ll ask the editor to run it again.
This week we have focused solely on men’s shaving. Join us next week when we shall deal in depth with how the Gorls go about their shaving habits. (Only joking Ed …!)
Don’t Forget
How come that people are always telling the Gorls how pretty their hair looks, but the only time they comment about the Lads hair is when he no longer has any?
