For $20,000, what peak-aware dad wouldn’t want solar panels installed on the roof? Or, if you can pony up $500, and your man has got a more outdoorsy-survivalist bent, a shotgun would make surely him smile.
But for less than $20 you can help Dad build resilience in his daily life by giving him an old-fashioned razor that he can use no matter what the future brings.
Forget about Sweeney Todd
Along with barber shops, old-timey razors are making a comeback among the urban hipster crowd. And they’re just as safe as modern razors, if used properly (always have to get that part in there, doncha?).
My wife got me a straight-edge razor (I think in Britain they’re called “cut-throat” razors, a wonderfully ominous name) at an antique store. It’s made from Sheffield steel and must be about a century old, so it’s gotten a bit dull. I tried it a couple times, but it clearly needs to be sharpened more than you can do at home with a whetstone made for kitchen knives. So, next time I go to the barber (regular haircut: $11) I’ll ask them to hone it. I’ll report back on how it goes.
Meantime, I’ve been using another old-timey shaver that I got at the same antique place, a 1940s safety razor. With a usable shaving brush and a pack of ten blades in their original box, it was $14.
Of course, a safety razor is not as peak-oil-ready as a straight-edge, because you do have to buy blades and replace them every week or ten days. But as an intermediate step from an electric or multi-blade cartridge razor, a safety razor is a good transition tool. Here’s why:
- Conservation and cutting waste: First, it’s non-electric. Second, the disposable part is only a single thin steel blade rather than a plastic cartridge with two, three or even five (!) blades. Since they’re not entombed in plastic, single metal blades can even be recycled.
- Cost: Electric razors can cost $100 or more to buy and they add to your electric bill (probably negligibly now, but in the future, who knows?). Cartridges for modern hand razors can also add up to $100 a year or more. But you can get a year’s supply of single blades, which are available at many hardware, drug and grocery stores, for under $20.
- Resilience: If you wanted to prepare for the peak-ocalypse, you could add a stash of single-blade razors to your food supply in the basement, and be assured that Dad could shave for many years into the future with his safety razor, as long as he could find hot water and some kind of soap.
But what about the shave?
The first couple times I used my safety razor, I did get a few nicks. But after I learned a few tricks from a 10-minute video, “How to Shave with a Safety Razor” — preheat the razor and brush by soaking in hot water for a few minutes, be sure to properly hydrate your beard with soap, don’t pull the blade across your face but lightly grasp the handle and let gravity do the work as you guide the handle through short strokes — it was great.
Then, after a couple weeks experience, the safety razor gave me my best shaves ever: Smoother and closer than an electric and fewer nicks than a cartridge. Best of all, the safety razor has mostly cleared up the shaving bumps that I’d resigned myself to suffering since I began shaving as a teenager.
For the cheapest and most eco-friendly safety razor, try antique or junk shops. Even razors from the 1940s or 1950s should take today’s single blades and a well made handle will last for decades. Or, if you want something new and are willing to spend a bit more, check out the well regarded Merkur Model 180 Long Handled Safety Razor from Germany for $32.
While any facial soap in a mug will do, it’s very nice to use special shaving soap — my wife gave me some luxurious concentrated shave cream from J. Peterman. But don’t forget the brush. Shaving cream from a can just doesn’t say “resilience.” Once he gets used to it, creaming up with a brush is more fun. For me, the brush made scraping my face with a blade into a satisfying ritual.
Again, go for a used one at the antique store (about $5) or go online for a new one. You can get kit with a brush, shaving soap and a bowl from Van Der Hagen for $12. A nicer brush will set you back a bit more: Parker sells a 100% badger bristle brush for $33.47.
I used to think of shaving as a chore. Now, I look forward to it. I’m sure your husband or father will, too.
Cross posted from Transition Voice.
— Erik Curren for Lindsay’s List
Straight razors are super great. Armed with one of those, a simple whetstone, and a leather strap, it’s really all one needs to keep the face smooth indefinitely in the coming whatever. There are other methods that will work in a pinch.
I have another tip for those who use disposables and suddenly find themselves in just such a “whatever pinch.” You can keep them sharp well beyond their intended life. I have been doing this now for approximately 2 years and I can happily report great success with this method, shaving at least every other day.
It is essentially the “Jeans Method” posted here: http://www.ehow.com/how_5709307_sharpen-disposable-razor.html
Most disposables cannot be “turned around” as mentioned in step 7, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Another important point, which is not mentioned in the Jeans Method steps, is that the blade must be dried (and the Jeans Method reapplied) after every use.
If the razor has a “glide strip,” it will be rendered useless, or worn off completely, within a couple weeks. But they aren’t critical for a shave at all.
On my first attempt with a single cheap disposable razor, religiously using the Jeans Method and drying the blade after every use, I was able to get away with using it for well over 5 months. I could have continued that for much longer, I reckon. Again, that’s me shaving every other day if not more often. Since that time I’ve grown a bit lazy and I break out a new razor about every 8-12 weeks, usually because I forgot to dry the razor after use and it corroded somewhat.
Still, with a couple of 10-packs in a bug-out bag, a guy could easily keep himself clean and neat (at least in the face!) for several years if he sticks to this routine. And it does make you feel “resourceful,” which is helpful for one’s esteem during the….whatever is coming.
-S