The Little Things in Life -

A daily or almost daily chore that I go through is shaving my face in the morning. I learned that only 6% of all men in America are fully bearded, and I happen to be one of them. In Mexico, where many of the early leaders of the Mexican republic wore beards, today one hardly sees anyone with a full beard save for an occasional foreigner. One does see a lot of mustaches on the Mexican men. I don't know if it is true or not but I heard that Mexican males, perhaps subconsciously, wear a mustache to show that they are not a Mexican Indian, Indians generally lacking facial hair. Beard or no, I still need to shave my cheeks and my neck lest I look like the Wild man from Borneo. If you are not familiar with the Wild man of Borneo, check out this interesting site: http://www.irememberhamlet.com/borneo.html. Some years ago I read an article; I think it was in Esquire Magazine, that described in detail how to shave. The article mentioned that a survey had been conducted in which men were asked if they would use a cream that would permanently remove their facial hair so they would never have to shave again. Over half of the respondents said no, that they would prefer to shave. If they had asked women, maybe the answer would have been different. I have to regard shaving as definitely a chore and yet, I have come to enjoy in a small way this morning ritual.

I have looked up the history of shaving. According to Wikopedia, before the advent of razors, some humans removed hair using two sea shells to pull the hair out. (“Ouch", I say, "and how would they know that!”) Later, around 3,000 BC, when copper tools were developed, humans developed copper razors. Another factoid on this subject: A man’s whisker is as strong as a copper wire of the same gauge. A man's beard grows half a milimeter each day. According to my calculation, a male from let's say 15 to the age of 75 would grow a beard 35.92 feet long if he never shaved. I personally have a Gillette three blade razor that has a micro motor and AAA battery in the handle: the Gillette Company calls it a Mach 3 Turbo Power razor. That’s not the latest of their models but it's pretty high tech at that. The Gillette company was founded by a man named King Camp Gillette who was born in 1855 in the small town of Fond du Lac in central Wisconsin. His parents were innovators, who were always seeking to do things better.

I know I shouldn’t digress so much but I have a personal tale to tell you about Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Founded by early French explorers and given its name because it is at the foot of Lake Winnebago, which happens to be the second largest fresh water inland lake in America, Fond du Lac served as a stopping off place for stage coaches that traveled from Milwakee to Green Bay in yesteryear, as they used to say on The Lone Ranger. A post house which still exists today was a favorite place for travelers to eat and spend the night. Today it is the home of the Postilion Restaurant and Madame Kuony’s School of Culinary arts. Born in Belgium and trained in Switzerland, her Postilion Restaurant was written up in the The New Yorker Magazine for its outstanding food. My friend, Harlan Schwartz and I, were both bachelors in those days in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Harlan, who was an antique sports car buff, was killed two years ago in a racing car accident in Italy where he was racing his antique Alfa Romeo in the Mila Miglia. I have a feeling that if Harlan had to go at that time, that this was probably the way that he would have preferred, behind the wheel of his Alfa.

Returning to my story, I came across the article in The New Yorker that extolled the Postilion and I mentioned it to Harlan. We had to try it out, so Harlan made reservations. The people at the restaurant mentioned that they did not have a liquor license so we would be free to bring our own wine. Harlan had a well stocked wine seller and proceeded to select some wine for our meal. Not knowing what we would be ordering to eat, Harlan brought two bottles of fine French red wine and two bottles of a great white wine. When we arrived at the restaurant the two of us were seated and we hauled out the four bottles of wine. Madame Kuony and the waiters, with raised eyebrows, looked at us like: “what do you two gentlemen happen to have in mind?” The restaurant was very staid and elegant in an antique sort of way.

This was a time when Russia had launched one of their early Sputniks and there was a rumor that they had put a man in their space craft. The Russians denied this and said that they had put a duumy in the space ship and it was not intended that it return to Russia. Time Magazine had a cartoon that showed a Sputnik with little antennas sprouting out and radio waves eminating from the space ship. The tag line, which I mentioned to Harlan, was: "Dummy to base, dummy to base, what’s this I hear about my not returning?” We both thought this was pretty hilarious and started to laugh, but the restaurant was so elegant that we both tried to suppress our laughter which was impossible. All through our meal we kept bursting out in laughter all the while trying to suppress it. Needless to say, we never returned to this restaurant out of concern that they would remember the two goofballs from Manitowoc who ate at Le Postilion.

Back to the inventor of the saftey razor blade, King Camp Gillette. (Not too many people to my knowledge are so fortunate as to have the name King. When I was a small boy I complained to my parents that unlike my siblings, they had not given me a middle name. My mother said if I would like a middle name pick one out. That took me by surprise but after some thought I told them I would like to have the name, King. For some reason Charles King Montemayor never cought on.) One of King's early jobs was as a traveling saleman for The Crown Bottle Top Company of Fond du Lac that made bottle caps with a cork pad. The owner of that company advised King that if you want to have a successful invention, think of something that people will use and then throw away like a bottle cap. After a lot of work and partnering with a fellow named Nickerson, they developed the disposable razor blade. They decided that Nick Nickerson’s name should not appear on the razor blade so they named their product Gillette. Both of them became millionaires. But it was King Camp Gillette who innovated the idea of giving away razors that could only be used with his product. The makers of color printers for the computer, such as Hewlett Packard, with their almost giveaway printers and their $40 ink cartridges apparently have adopted this business model.

One interesting thing about Gillette is that he wrote an anti-capitalist book called "The Human Drift" in which he criticized business practices and the rich. In the book, he stated that competition was the root of all evil and proposed a form of utopian, socialistic society that was pollution free. He hoped to replace the sprawling cities that the industrial revolution had created with beehive type communities. He sought support from Henry Ford and Teddy Roosevelt but they wouldn’t have anything to do with him. Not too sharp an idea, eh!

In stead of using soap from an aerosol can, a gel, or a cream, I prefer shaving soap from a shaving mug also called a jug. A couple of years ago, Gus Garcia from Austin, Texas, newly retired as mayor of his city, brought me two cakes of glycerin type shaving soap made in Texas. With my badger hair shaving brush I have found this soap to be an excellent product. To me the most important ingredient for a wonderful shave is the brush. It should be made with pure badger bristles, not boar’s bristles. The badger bristle is soft and absorbs more water. A good one costs $50 or more for a fine English or Italian model. After washing my face and neck with warm water I soak the brush in hot water from the tap and swirl the brush in the mug so that I get a rich lather and then brush it on to my cheeks and neck. The lather feels so good on my neck that I apply it over and over. My Mach 3 Turbo Power razor with its three highly honed blades whisks first in the direction of the hair nap and then after a second application of soap, against the nap. I rinse with cold water and dry.

I have a few years on me and so over time I have tried a variety of shaving devices: electric razors and even a straight razor that I bought at a garage sale. It was a beautiful thing with a real ivory handle and trimmed with sterling silver. I even bought a strop to keep it honed properly but gave up on the straight razor, also called a throat cutter, because I was always short of time getting ready for work and the use of a straight razor is something that should not be rushed. Rod Dittmer of Paducah, Kentucky, gave me a French aviator's hand powered razor. It's a GYR 100 SUFAM, Fabrique en France. I have no idea where he got it, but this works like an electric razor except that one pulls a chord that sets in motion a fly wheel that powers the razor. Although I have only tried using it once I consider this as something very special and I am keeping it just in case the triple "A" battery in my Mach 3 dies out.

A few months ago I wa diagnosed with prostate cancer and one of the big joys in my life is that the good health professionals at University of Wisconsin Hospitals provided a treatment that is so good that Dr. Bruskewitz said, you will probably live a long time and die of something else. Hmmm! That's kind of good news, bad news, isn't it? At any rate the doctor said I will be able to eat what I want, drink what I want, and do what I want. But I would probably experience hot flashes; we call these mini vacations in the tropics. He also said that I probably wouldn’t lose any body hair, a common side effect of chemo-terapy or radiation treatment, but i am not getting those. This brings us back to the shaving subject. My beard is just as full as it has ever been but I have noticed that I don’t seem to have as much hair on my arms, my legs, my back, and my chest as I used to have. I don’t mind this at all, but it makes me wonder. What is happening to all the hair I seem to be losing? It is not in my bed, not in the shower drain. I finally figured it out. The hairs must be slowly receding back to the little black roots from whence they came.