Plastic-Free Shaving Saga
Who knew it was so complicated? All my life, or at least from puberty onwards, I’ve grabbed my razor with conviction and confidence. One day I finally decide to take the plunge into the world of safety razors (aka those badass metal contraptions people were using long before plastic came around) and a) it takes me almost a week to work up the courage to take it out of the box, plus b) when I finally sit myself down to figure it out, it scares the crap or of me. The f*ck?!
My panic at all of a sudden being confronted with something kind of deadly sent my brain spinning. All of a sudden the relatively mundane act of shaving was not mundane at all. It required me to pay attention, like really pay attention. It made me realize, again, that we’ve made yet another thing “convenient.” There is almost no thought to it, we simply pick up our handle and zip zip, done.
With this safety razor, it’s basically the same process, but slower. Literally if you rush the process, you’ll severely injure yourself. Not to mention, the whole thing is physically heavier than a disposable razor and a bit slippery given that it’s entirely metal, so getting a grip while showering requires patience. Get a grip, Ryan! 😜
But as we learn when we de-clutter and cut back on the plastic crap, we have to slow down. Just as we can’t just throw around a bunch of jars in our cars on the way to the store or else they’ll shatter, we also can’t rush through shaving anymore. And ya know what? I kind of like that.
To add to that, I’ve found that once we eliminate wasteful plastic from our lives, things get prettier. This razor is gorgeous, which is not something I ever would have said about my plastic razors. My Preserve handle was funky and pretty dang cool, to be sure, but this thing…wow. You’d think I’d have been bouncing off the walls with glee to have this hunky hunk of metal in my own bathroom, and I was! That is, until I realized that I had to deal with it and it wasn’t going to be as brainless as a disposable blade.
It took me 10 minutes of gingerly manipulating my new tool to finally load the blade and ensure it was nice and snug. Then another 10 minutes of attempting to actually do the thing. I know, “oh brother” right? I’m laughing at myself because it’s a bit ridiculous to write a whole blog post about shaving for Pete’s sake, but hey, I’m kind of proud, because this little thing forced me to take a pause, observe, and appreciate.
That is what I love about eliminating the crap from my life. I learn something new every time and it makes my brain feel good. I feel less robotic and really, shouldn’t we all be doing things we’re a bit uncomfortable with anyway?
