I visited Sandton City over December. One of the stores I went into was The Sharper Edge (although it’s named something else now). I was dismayed that all the men’s grooming products have disappeared, making way for items like paintball guns and electronic gadgets. Years ago, you could buy quality shaving razors from Germany — MERKUR Solingen — with excellent stainless steel blades. Shaving brushes from an old manufacturer in Italy, Omega, were made from real boar hair.
I also visited Rosebank Mall, and Wesley’s Tobacconist had some razors and shaving brushes from the UK. Everyone knows about the decline in British manufacturing. The razors and blades will rust, and the hairs in the brush will fall out.
The problem is twofold: quality products have become extremely expensive, and the family-owned businesses that sourced fine goods are changing hands as owners retire or die. Family members are now professionals and don’t want to take over the running of an antiquated business. You could source some of the specialised products online, but it’s going to cost plenty in any currency, let alone the yo-yo rand. These days one probably has to turn to the highly expensive Gillette-brand razors and blades, or go for an electric razor.
Why shave at all? Grow a beard. Well, not everyone wants a beard; it can be uncomfortable and doesn’t suit everyone. Some men shave to look more youthful. In an Edgar Wallace biography I’m reading at the moment, the colourful author shaved his moustache to look younger in the company of his new, young female secretary, whom he had taken a fancy to and eventually married.
You could also say: go to a barber. There are plenty of foreign nationals in the country running barbershops — in Johannesburg, mostly from Lebanon; in Cape Town, Pakistan. It would get very expensive to have a daily shave from a barber. Mind you, they could do your beard and moustache trimming.
There’s nothing quite like the good old shave with a quality razor and Colonel Conk’s shaving soap from the USA. Splash on aftershave to finish the job, and you feel like a new person. The things we took for granted only a decade ago are mostly gone. “This won’t always be there,” as one pundit put it this week, could apply to all facets of life. Enjoy whatever you love doing now, because it may not be there in time to come.
The need to shave will, of course, always be there — but it can take various forms. Anyone for cheap Chinese razor blades from Temu, or shaving brushes made with even cheaper plastic hair?
