Shaving: 5 Things You Didn't Know

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4- Beard hair is as tough as copper wire

Ah, so maybe this is why so many dates, girlfriends and wives suffer from pogonophobia: the fear of beards (or at least the fear of a man's stubble and the fear of developing whisker burn).

According to many sources, dry beard hair and copper wire are indeed of equal strength (when of similar diameter). Trying to imagine drawing a razor over a face of copper wire is just awful. For this reason, sort of, shaving experts recommend using hot water prior to shaving. This has a twofold benefit: First, facial hair absorbs water, and it absorbs hot water significantly faster than cold water; and second, that water weakens the hair by as much as a third, making shaving so much easier, and the results, substantially better.



5- In his lifetime, a man will spend almost six months shaving

The last thing you didn't know about shaving is how much of your time you'll spend doing it. Assuming a guy begins shaving at around age 15 and he lives to the age of about 75, it's (loosely) estimated that he will spend an aggregate of six months of his time here on earth facing the mirror with a razor in hand. Given six months, we guys can learn how to do anything in the world. Knowing we'll spend five or six months shaving — and assuming many of us aren't even halfway through that time yet — ought to offer incentive enough to make an effort to improve our shaving skills.