Consuming Interest
Demon Barbers
By LESLIE ADRIAN
THE battle for men's beards is on again. The wets (cut-throat and safety razor and blade manufacturers) are gird- ing themselves to fight off the drys (electric shavers). Gillette has introduced a safety razor blade, the edges of which are treated by a new pro- cess which, it is claimed, has taken five years to develop. On the other side, Schick, the makers of one of the best-known American electric shavers (and of the first electric shaver in 1928), arc introducing to Britain for the first time since the war a range of shavers among which is one which has a built-in three-speed gearbox (with triple voltage, it costs £11 10s., with single voltage 10 5s.).
The fight is likely to be a fierce one. About one in two American men use electric shavers; in Britain it is about one in four. Someone who goes in for this kind of research has estimated that the average man aged sixty has spent six months of his life removing 250 million hairs from two square miles of face.
I've been doing some. I think, slightly more useful research myself. I gave a new Schick ' three-speed to a friend who is a confirmed wet shaver and asked him tt, use it—and it only—for two weeks and then report results. He insisted that it wouldn't give him half the satisfaction he gets from a wet shave but agreed to try.
'First day. Hell. Can't stand the noise. When shaving area above upper lip can feel the vibra- tion in bridge of nose Tickles, dammit. Feel am not getting anywhere near roots of hairs. Look like it, too.
'Second day. Presume you need patience and practice and suppose you get used to it. Haven't done so yet but discover different pressures needed on different parts of face: light under chin, don't stick chin out, hard on chin. Still feel badly shaven. Wilt try pre-shave lotion to- morrow. Hairs arc supposed to stand up and beg.
'Third day. Pre-shave lotion helps though I gather it's not necessary for everybody. Also helps if you use tongu.. to push skin out around mouth. Gives shaver better grip. Today's results begin to approximate to results of wet shave but still takes twice as long 'Fourth day Have been trying variations on the three-speed thing and three settings of shav- ing head. Low speed and high setting better for soft parts, vice versa for hard. This is what Grand Prix commentators call "real motoring." Am now lapping in more reasonable time.'
The diary, predictably. petered out after the fourth day. A verbal report indicates that things got better day by day but,' in this case, not to the point where my guinea-pig became a convert. He still prefers what he insists is the greater satisfaction he gets from a wet shave, but thinks that, with patience and the right kind of shaver (or of variations within one shaver in the case of Schick), most men could be happy with an elec- tric shaver. He does go so far as to say that he is willing to keep the one I gave him for a quick dry, second shave before dinner.
One of the embarrassing things that some- times happens to me is that I recommend a firm on the basis of personal experience—and then readers find that the firm does not come up to scratch. I mentioned, for example, the Kent Bookbinding firm (Market Street, Maidstone, Kent) who put a permanent plastic cover on Penguin books for 3s.; a reader wrote after months of silence on their part to inquire if they 'Shocking way to diva!' were still in business. They are; but pretty easily they seem to be taking it, if her experience is anything to go by. Again, a month or two ago I recommended Noble Furs of Regent Street as a good cleaner of suede jackets: they had certainly done an excellent job on mine. A colleague, however, who had had soup spilled over her jacket in a Harrogate hotel came back with a' very different story—the jacket hard, crinkly, -and exceedingly patchy in colour. In response to her protests they tried again, and managed to soften up the texture a good deal, though the colour is still not what it should be. It may have been, of course, that the jacket was a poor quality in the first place; but I would be in- terested to know how other readers have fared.
Every housewife, however careful, is faced from time to time with the problem of what to do about minor burns; and first-aid manuals have not been much help because the profession has changed its mind about treatment so often in the past twenty years that their advice has often been out of date before it has reached the bookstalls. I am surprised, therefore, that a recent article on the subject in the British Medical Journal has not received more attention; for the remedy it suggests has the advantage of being simple, cheap, and usually available in every kitchen.
The remedy is to plunge the affected part into milk, immediately after the burn has occurred, and before a blister has had time to form; the immersion to continue until the pain has sub- sided (where there is not enough milk for com- plete immersion, a cold compress can be used, but the results are less reliable). The doctorsecom- mending it, Dr. F. L. Willington, of Yelverton in Devon, says he has used it most successfully in his general practice for the past eleven years. It is only valuable, he admits, for what the profession calls 'first and second degree'—casual--burns; not for deep burns, or those from electricity or chemicals. But if his belief in it is justified Dr. Willington deserves the gratitude of all house- wives—and mothers, for one of milk's advan- tages, apparently, is that it gives prompt relief of pain; useful' psychologically as well as physically where children are concerned.
At the risk of trespassing on the province of Cyril Ray, I would like to report that as well as shavers we can expect to see American wines in England before long. A sales and distribution agency is to be opened here shortly by one of the Californian producers and there will be others later in Scandinavia, Western Germany and even in France (to com- pete with Coca Cola?). The producers claim that many Californian wines are as good as or better than European wines, but whether this is true or not, I wonder how they think they will be able to keep their prices down so as to compete with wines that reach this country after much shorter journeys involving much lower freight charges?
American wines can be good within their range especially if, as in the case of Californian wines, they are made from European grape varieties in a very equable climate. I shall hope to report developments.
Previous page
