Barbershops are scarce in my neck of the woods; very scarce. The closest that I have come to a straight razor shave at a barbershop was a lady that used to shave my neck with a straight razor. Since then, however, I have fallen into the whole "21st century young man" thing and started going to a Unisex salon for my haircuts.
As a fair compromise, I've decided to give myself a straight razor shave. Even before I discovered AoM, I had been interested in the idea of shaving with a straight razor - if it worked for my grandfathers, it can work for me. Sadly, I struggled to find a decent straight razor and I ended up buying a cheap one at the Oriental Plaza (you can find almost anything there, lots of cheap imports). I learned the hard way that shaving with a straight razor ain't easy - to me, it was a bit like playing Russian Roulette with 5 bullets in a six-shooter. I didn't last very long before I went back to my Gillette Mach 3. After discovering AoM, I got myself a safety razor with disposable blades, which I now use.
For today's challenge, I broke out the straight razor again. The blade is dull, and I don't know where to find a replacement (the place where I bought the razor didn't sell extra blades). I didn't cut my face off, but I think that I'll stick to my safety razor until I get a decent straight razor.
P.S. While wandering through a shopping mall over the weekend, I came across a straight razor imported from Germany. The price tag, however, was on the hefty side - a full R1500. That can buy you groceries for a month, a car payment, 15 rounds on the spectacular Brits golf course, or eleven and a half copies of the AoM book.
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