Magic Shave

I saw a guy shaving in the locker room at the Y last week. Nothing unusual about that, lots of guys shave there. In fact, the bathroom area in the locker room is equipped with 3 sinks, a wall to wall mirror and even a built in hair dryer, all supporting male grooming. But, this guy was shaving with a paring knife.

He was a young black man, maybe in his twenties. He was stocky and shorter than me, maybe 5'9", looked like he could have played nose guard on his high school football team, but was now a bit softer and rounder. And he was definitely using a paring knife. I know because I glanced over at him twice, since I couldn't believe what my eyes registered the first time. The knife had a brown handle, and a rounded tip. My mind wanted to make it into a straight razor, as that would have been unusual but within my realm of experience, but my confirming glance ruled that out.

He was using shave cream, but there was something funny about that, too. The puddles that lay in the sink weren't white, but shades of gray, almost running to blue, with dark flecks in them. The dark flecks I understood to be the remnants of his beard, but the other colors I didn't understand at all - the cream appeared white on his face.

He returned my second glance, and I didn't look over again, not even obliquely, or in the mirror. Three things darted through my mind.

"That knife must be really sharp!"

"Maybe he can't afford a razor"

And I'm not proud of this but "I hope he's not pissed that I looked over, because I'm a little afraid of a big black guy with a knife."

I left the Y with a story about a strange guy to tell to my friends and family, and some material for a blog entry. Thankfully, I did not get around to writing right away, as there was more to the story.

Saturday I went on a "man date" with my friend Rich, over to the Prime Outlets in Lee, MA. I wanted to go to the Rockport outlet store to take advantage of their "buy-two, get one free" deal on shoes. In addition having good prices (and no sales tax in MA on clothes), the Rockport stores also have a good selection of wide shoes for my stubby little feet. I hate shopping, but I was convinced that the worn down heels on my shoes had contributed to the stress fracture of my left foot, and I wanted to replace them.

On the way back home from our successful shopping, Rich and I got talking about the high cost of everything, including razor blades, especially the Gillette Platinum Plus blades - over $10 for 4 blades, and that's at the new Super Walmart in Albany, with a $2 off coupon. This lead me to my tale of the strange guy shaving in the locker room with a paring knife, causing Rich to blurt out, "Magic Shave!"

Earlier in his career, Rich had worked in an institution, and one of his responsibilities had been to help the residents with their grooming needs. One day, one of the residents sidled up and asked, "You down with Magic Shave?"

Rich was puzzled, until the guy, a black man, explained that he, like many black men had easily irritated, sensitive skin, and that traditional shaving frequently caused bumps on his face. Instead of using a razor and shave cream, he, like they, used Magic Shave a depilatory. Kind of like Nair for the face, I guess, but milder. The product is applied to the face and beard like a traditional shave cream. But, after it's been on the face for a while, the hairs dissolve, and the residue is gently scraped off with a dull instrument - like a paring knife. One of the more popular types of cream is blue, which could certainly look gray if it were mixed with stubble and sitting in the bottom of a sink.

Thus, at 59, I learn that I am not as cosmopolitan as I would like to think, and that I am not free of bigotry as I would like to imagine. A little humiliating, for sure, but at least I got a blog entry out of it.

See you out there.