There would be a brush with bristles determined to hurt and scratch you. A circular soap box in which, after dipping the bristled brush into water, you rub it on the soap and apply it to your face. And cover your face with what may appear to be an accidentally overdone make-up. Then, with the ‘safety’ razor, shave. Mostly downward strokes in the beginning. Elders will warn you that if you make opposite strokes, the hair may grow faster. The soap will come off easily, of course. The hair may relent eventually. Then you regally dip it in the plastic cup with water and rinse. And shave thus the entire face. Sometimes with the same brush with all those tiny hairs sticking here and there, some used to rub it on the soap again to re-lather their face. God bless. Then carefully drain the cup’s expensive contents, rinse the cup, and wash it. Ready for the next use.

Somehow this process of reapplying your own hair with soap did not jell with me. At last, I got a wash basin when I had my first house constructed. And cleanliness in shaving seemed to have improved a zillion times. Still possible, sometimes in my over-enthusiasm in lathering my face really well, I may lather the mirror too. After all, you move the brush with the hurting bristles up and down so ferociously, chances are plenty to casually spray lather on the mirror and maybe outside too.

In the initial stages, maybe once a week or twice. It was very manageable.

Then came fancier razors. When you screw the handle the opposite way, the top would open out into two halves, put the blade inside and screw it the normal way. What a great improvement. A fashion statement. Better even when the 7 O’ Clocks and Gillettes started flooding the market. Shaving became so easier, better, and smoother. Or so it appears. When you are bombarded day in and day out with advertisements about how exotic these blades are, you start believing and then start feeling that it really shaves very smoothly. The power of mind.

Even better when these soaps in round containers were replaced by tubes and

 pastes. Ah! What an innovation? All the while, you were unconsciously spending more and more on this dreaded and unheralded routine. The economy has to grow, right?

Then we heard about electric razors. Wow! How nice it would be to own one. All whispers about how easy they are to use, how clean and comfortable. Some would warn that electric shavers may lead to discoloration of the skin. But I got to use it only in 2014.

My younger son had been gifted one, and he was a ‘goatee’ person and could not use it. I happily took it from him, and that is when I started using electric shavers.

Continued in 294. Designs Above and Below the Speaker - Part 3