An American Homestead

Chris here again…

I hate shaving, it takes too long, and it’s simply just a bother, but I dislike a scruffy face even more. So I have to shave, but I don’t do it often… only once or twice a week, unless something special comes up, or I get on a shaving kick, that all I bother with.

On the farm it’s even more of a bother, but actually I enjoy it more then shaving with a sink. With no running water, and an ill lighted bathroom I opt to shave outside.

The items needed to shave outside:

• A hand mirror (chances are your wife has one guys)
• A razor (Your wife has one of these as well, but use it at your own risk!)
• Shaving cream
• A bucket of water
• A pan or bowl (ask your wife if you can use one)

The HOW-TO should be pretty straight forward unless you’ve never shaved before so I’ll not go into too many details here, but pan some water out, wet your face (from the pan) lather & shave. Once the water gets all hairy just pour it out and get some fresh water from the bucket and repeat as necessary. See pretty straight forward.

Now to the actual point of this! A few weeks back one of those special things came up that I needed to shave for but when I got all my stuff together I realized I was out of shaving cream! I called my friend Don and he said that in a bind I could use hand soap (as in the bar, not the bottle). I thought about it for a while and realized that Cyndi shaves with just soap, so do the daughters… what could it hurt? I gave it a try.

I wet my face then lathered up the soap all over my scruff and proceeded to shave. It worked wonders! In fact, I’ve not bothered to buy more shaving cream (though I still have some at Amanda’s house for when I shave over there).

I find that the bar soap actually works better then shaving cream I generally buy and chances are I’ll not be switching back. Razor burn is to a minimum now, and the hairs take to the soap better then the cream.

Try it, and let me know how you like it…