The Journal of Joe The Peacock. Yay.

11.12.2006:

5:17 PM

Is it stupid to be excited over new products for daily hygene and such?

I just bought a new razor and a new brand of deodorant, and I'm actually genuinely excited to use them. I've always been this way, actually... Ever since my dad bought me my first razor. I pestered him for WEEKS when I was 14 to let me start shaving.

"Why on earth do you want to do that?" He asked.

"Because, I need to," I answered.

He took a good look at my face - I mean a REALLY good look... Like he was trying to prove a point. "You mean this fuzz here on your lip?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Bah," he said, "You don't need a razor... All you need is a kitten and a little fresh cream. It'll lick that right off."

I didn't really find that very funny, but he did have a point. I really didn't NEED to shave... I just wanted to. So, after a little more talking, he took me to Revco and walked me down the self care asile, where he bought me a bag of Bic razors and some shaving soap.

Yep, shave soap. He won't use shaving cream in a can or the fancy gel's they have now - he only uses saving soap, applied with an old-fashioned lather brush. He also only uses a straight razor - like the old style whet-block-sharpened fold-out straight razors. But neither he nor I believed I could handle one of those without lopping off my nose - and stupid and noseless is no way to go through life. So Bic razors it was.

It didn't take long to shave my face completely clean, seeing as how I had all of seven dark hairs scattered around in various places on my face. But I did it anyway. And then I did it again the next day, and the next day... I felt like a man. It was exciting. And it continued to be exciting for almost a whole week.

On Friday morning, I forgot to shave - as I did Saturday, Sunday, and the following 156 weeks until I was about 17 or so. And when I went to go shave again, I couldn't find the shaving soap and Bic razors my dad bought two years prior. By that time, I was buying my own groceries and such (mostly because my family was going through rough times, but also because - at that early age - i'd already become a picky pain in the ass when it came to what I ate and the things I wanted). And at that point, cool things like "Shave Gel" and "Ultra Dual Action Blade" razors were out.

To a kid heavily affected by how technologically advanced simple things could get, this was a godsend.

These days, there's so much Advanced Action going into simple products like soap and toothpaste that every trip down the cosmetics asile is an adventure. I just got back from the store where I bought a new, six-bladed razor that has a battery in it so it can vibrate and stimulate your face or something. I have a stick of deodorant with a colored stripe down the center. I have shampoo that tingles. I have soap that starts as a liquid and quickly turns to foam.

I actively love using these products. I genuinely, passioniately enjoy the process of being hygenic. It's COOL.

It may also be stupid. And I'm not sure about that part. But it definitely is cool.

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