Hmnnnn  to be able to sit back, let someone take care of you,  feel the soft nice smelling cream on your skin, someone rubbing it all over .  Stop it!  I am talking about a close shave and not the kind when you almost get into a car accident on the road.  I am talking about the rare kind you get at the barber shop where the guy even gives you a warm towel and cleans you up when he is done shaving your face.  I only met one woman who does that for her man but she is special.

Only the finest hotels even have a shoe shine guy in the lobby.  That is nice too. There is a salon as they call barber shops these days who also can provide that very special close shave with the single edge razor balancing on his skillful hand aimed at your neck.  I am a courageous man so I take the chance and let a perfect stranger take a sharp blade to my neck and shave my stubble there in the morning.  It is a rare experience now that every man should be having on a daily basis.

Now most men have to drag themselves to the drug store and buy stiff rods boasting about the double or triple edge blade like I really want three blades slicing into my flesh because I did it to myself.  Who do I get to yell at when I slice my throat on something I bought for myself? There is a guy who at least is trying to make this experience a bit easier and is getting very rich as a result.

There is Mike Dubin from Dollar Shave Club.com who made a video commercial in his apartment  that went viral.  His now very successful company will send you new razor blades for a dollar a month. After 15 minutes of the video airing, his site crashed from all the guys wanting to sign up.  In 48 hours he had 12,000 orders. That is a lot since he had one employee himself in his apartment.  A year later he has 25 employees and over 200,000 members.

Mike attributes the success of his company just due to the fact that men don’t want to buy those razors that are so expensive now you have to wait for the store clerk to unlock those little blood scrapers from behind a metal cage.  I prefer the experience offered by the New York Shaving Company with it’s great music, oak walls and crystal lamp to look up at while a hot towel is preparing your course hard skin for a fabulous warm shave.

The owner John Scalla offers luxurious soft brushes and straight edge razors  that cost over $100 dollars sharpened on leather belts.  The average man should be able to have a shaving experience like this on a regular basis but they don’t. It is a throwback to a bygone era.  John believes that a single edge shaver is better for your skin and gives you more control and gradually reduces the beard.

Grooming experts agree.  When you have 2 to 5 blades as in the shavers they sell in drug stores, it pulls the hair out of the skin to cut and then the hair grows back under the skin and then you have ingrown hairs and a bumpy face.  Well, my woman wants a smooth face not a bumpy one. With a straight hand held blade, it might not be as close to your skin but it will be smooth and soft.  Besides, a little stubble is the style now and she loves to stroke her hand on your cheek  and feel the stubble before she goes in for the kiss.

Still the blade companies boast about their many blade razors to give you the closest shave.  Why not have a 10 blade razor to scrape against your skin to ensure that if the first blade doesn’t shave your skin off there are nine other blades in one stroke to ensure that all the layers of your skin will be gone?  

The ritual of shaving dates back to ancient Egypt where throughout the ages the act was associated with the upper class where only the wealthy could afford to keep clean shaven.  It all changed in 1904 with the invention of those hand held skin scrapers called of all things the safety razor.  But, it did make razors affordable to all men.  

As a kid you look up to your dad going through his ritual every day of him reaching for his stuff on his shelf in the bathroom where he has his interesting lotions and creams just for him and you can’t wait to grow something you can just shave off.  After waiting 13 years of your life to do that stuff there is a kind of celebrating associated with being able to shave your face as a teenager.  Now, let me find someone else to scrape my face, if he messes up, I at least have someone else to complain to and not to the man in the mirror covered in bloody specks of toilet paper stuck to his self inflicted torn up face. Ugh.