What's in my pants?

So I stole this blog idea from Beverly. In her blog post, she talked about What’s In My Purse. Well, I don’t carry a purse around with me, and neither do any other guys I know (unless you’re Joey from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. or Alan from the Hangover).

Anyways, I thought I would do the dude’s version of What’s In My Purse. Since guys don’t have purses, I thought I would label this blog appropriately by calling it What’s In My Pants.

1) KEYS. Never leave home without em… no, literally… I wouldn’t go many places if I had to walk. They’re boring, but essential.

2) POCKET KNIFE. Old Timer brand is a sturdy well built knife that’s easy on the wallet. It’s not flimsy or light. Heavy duty and has a sharp blade. Good for opening envelopes, cutting fishing line, trimming finger nails, cutting open any bag that can’t otherwise be opened easily, or anything else a southern boy would need it for.

3) CARMEX. It’s not a big guy thing. Not a whole lotta guys like to wear chapstick or Carmex. But I have a habit of biting my lip. It helps my lips to heal from that and also sooths my windburn lips in case I’m outside too much. It also keeps my lips soft. And it's wife approved (ask the ladies. They don’t wanna be kissin up on yo stanky flaky lips)

4) WALLET. It’s a dude’s mini purse. It carries all the essentials like I.D.’s, License (driving and hunting/fishing), credit/debit cards, Cash, entertainment rental cards, Insurance cards, business cards, hole punch discount cards, etc… Besides. You ever get pulled over without it, you’re screwed!

5) iPhone. Yes, everyone’s got one or some sort of smart phone. It seems now-a-days, that it’s a necessity. While I do love mine and feel naked without it, I can certainly live without it (I know Adam is now having a heart attack while reading this). I love it because I can use it as my alarm, I can text, surf the internet, take pictures, play games, do bills, and update twitter or Facebook! Oh yeah, I can call people too. It’s a phone after all

6) ADDITIONAL ITEMS NOT PICTURED. Of course sometimes, we dude’s need other things as well. These things can range from lighters, to mini flashlights, sunglasses, condoms, gum or mints, to even equal packets! Yes, equal packets. If you live in the South but are trying to cut back on your sugar intake or prefer Equal to sugar, you better keep some in your pocket or wallet just in case! You may love that restaurant, but if the only option is sweet-n-low, you’re drinkin that iced tea unsweetened buddy. (Note - Splenda can sometimes be substituted for Equal)

Not sure if the above would make people think of, “You can tell a lot about a man by his ____.” If so, well then keep your thoughts to yourself! ....wait...no, comment on this post instead!

Either way, there you have it. What’s in my pants… The Dude’s essentials. Please, NO man purses!

Hippies Part 2 (without the shaggy beard)

In keeping with the theme of Part 1 of being more environmentally friendly, this part focuses on how i became interested in traditional wet shaving because of this.

I knew that Americans were wasteful, but check out this survey I found over at PBS:

If the rest of the world consumed at the rate Americans do, how many planets worth of resources would be needed to cover this consumption?

Five planets worth of resources would be needed to enable the rest of the world to consume at the rate Americans do. Source: ABC News:Diapers and Showers and Sodas, Oh My!

How many gallons of water does an American use over a lifetime?

1.8 millions gallons of water are used over a lifetime, enough to fill almost three Olympic size swimming pools. Source: National Geographic: Human Footprint

Less than 4 percent of the world's children are American. Whatpercent of the world's toys do American children consume?

American kids consume more than 40% of the world's toys. Source: The Morning News: Garbage Night

How many plastic bottles does the U.S. throw away every second?
America discards 694 plastic bottles every second or 60 million plastic bottles each day. Source: National Geographic: Human Footprint

How much garbage does the average American produce everyday?
The average American produces 4.6 pounds of waste per person per dayor 1,657pounds a year. Source: EPA: Municipal Solid Waste

In America, how many pounds of fooda year go to waste?

About 96 billion pounds of food go to waste each year in the United States. Source: EPA: Waste Not/Want Not WASTES

If just 5 percent of the food Americans waste was used, how many people could be fed daily?
Four million people could be fed each day if 5 percent of the food Americans wasted was used. Source: NY Times: One Country's Table Scraps, Another Country's Meal

With 5 percent of the world's population, America uses what percentage of the world's energy?

America uses 25% of the world's energy. Source: BostonGlobe: Alarm sounds on US population boom

America is responsible for what percentage of the world's automotivecarbon dioxide emissions?

The U.S. is responsible for 45% of the world's automotive carbon dioxideemissions. Source: EnvironmentNewsService

Kinda puts things into perspective huh? I've very proud to live in a countrywhere I'm free and have the luxuries that I do. I have so many things I take for granted. When reading that survey and looking at pictures of the waste impact of Americans I feel ashamed. I feel like I want to help. How can I start? How does this have anything to do with Traditional Wet Shaving?

Picture this... It's still dark outside when your alarm goes off in the morning. You drag yourself out of bed to hop in the shower. After your shower, you're feeling refreshed and clean. Now that you’re a little bit more awake it's time to shave. After finishing shaving you realize that you've been using that razor for about a week now. Now it's time get rid of it. Where does it go after it's dull and you no longer use it? That's right, the trash.

You've just thrown away something that could ultimately have been recycled andreused into something else! Instead it's going to go into the landfill to be piled up among the other things that American’s throw away. If you use a plastic disposable non cartridge razor, how long does it last? Maybe 4 or 5 shaves? Alright I’ll give you points that you saved a few bucks by using the plastic disposable razor. However, you can't just toss it you’re your recyclebin because of the metal blade inside of the plastic handle. Although, you can ultimately figure out a way to recycle it, but that requires the time to figure out how to crush or break the razor enough for you to dislodge the tiny piece of metal blade; and if that's the case then good luck not cutting up yourhands or anything else. If you do happen to separate the two, you can recycle it. That's a lot of work don’t yathink? I wonder how many people go through that? Too much hassle.

So it's added to the garbage like everything else.

You don't use a disposable razor? Then you must use a cartridge razor. Yes, that Mach 3 has been a good faithful razor the last few years. I agree, it's a good razor, and the new Gillette Proglide fusion is a better razor than the mach 3, but how is it made? Yep, more plastic. Now you can argue that cartridge razors are more environmentally friendly than disposable razors. Yeah, I'll buy that. Instead of throwing away the whole razor, you only throwing away that little cartridge head. Less waste. Good for you. Only... you can't recycle that either. You can't keep that from ending up in a land fill. A fusion or Mach three razor has LOTS of plastic, rubber strips, and metalblades. I dare you to try and take that apart after every shave to recycle it.

So it's added to the garbage like everything else.

What kind of shaving cream do you use? barbasol? Edge? Any type of "Goo in a can"? Yes, most people use that stuff. The problem is. When it's empty, what do you do? Do you take the time to pop off the plastic nozzle and spout? Do you take the time do make sure it's completely empty before throwing it away? do you throw it in your metal/aluminum recycle bin? no.

So it's added to the garbage like everything else.

Traditional wet shaving can be one of the more green and eco-friendly ways to shave. If you use a metal DE razor, they are constructed so well, that you can easily get a lifetime worth of shaves from it. They are constructed so well, that I even have a Gillette razor from the 1940's. You think that little flimsy Mach 3 handle will last 70 years? And I doubt those mach 3 cartridgeswill be around in 70 years.

Blades for the DE razor? Paper thin, all metal, no plastic, completely recyclable. I've got an aluminum blade "bank" that will hold several years worth of blades. When it's full, I place it in my aluminum recycle bin. Not waste!

Nothing added to the garbage.

Shave cream? Most creams today come in either plastic squeeze tubs (rinse after use and recycle), metal tubes (rinse and recycle) or plastic screw top tubes (keep and refill with same cream from a refill tub... which will happen to be plastic and can be recyclable) which can be rinsed and recycled as well.

Nothing added to the garbage.

Shave soap? Most shave soaps come in a cardboard or paper box both of which can be recycled. Some come in wooden bowls (it's wood. Naturally decaying matter. not artificial, so when you're done, you can either throw it in the trash and not worry because it will eventually be broken down over the years. Or, you could toss it on your next campfire or in your fireplace.) Also most buy a refill puck (paper box - recycled) to drop in the bowl. And I've seen some that come in either glass bowls or plastic bowls, both which can eventually be recycled when done.

Nothing added to the garbage...

Are you detecting a trend? You see, not only are DE blades a mere fraction the price of Cartridge replacement blades, but they take up way less space and are much easier to recycle.

My only disclaimer is to watch out for how much water you're using. If you're used to shaving in the shower (with the water running) then opt for shaving in the sink after your shower. If you shave at the sink, opt for filling up the sink with hot water and using the sink full of water to rinse your blade and face afterwards instead of leaving the faucet running while rinsing your razor and face.

As you can see, not only is traditional wet shaving a fun hobby, able to give you a better shave, and make you feel like a million bucks, but traditional wet shaving can help you in your efforts to be a better steward of the earth and want to be more green. Recycle, reduce, reuse.

For more information and tips on how to be more eco-friendly, I would suggest visiting this website (www.earth911.com). No, this isn't an endorsement or anything.

Happy Shaving!

Hippies Part 1

I decided to make this one of those fancy 2 part series blog. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. The blog will focus on how we started to become more environmentally aware. It's more just background info on us, but it leads to Part 2 which is about how to be more environmentally-friendly while shaving.

I wouldn't go so far as to lable my wife and I as tree hugging hippies, but we do like to be more green and eco-friendly. I mean, we aren’t going to the extreme like not showering, using indoor plumbing, and not living without electricity. However, we do try and make a conscientious effort to help by reducing our waste. However, in the beginning, I honestly wasn’t really all that on board with this whole “recycle” thing. I thought it was just a joke. I mean, who cares ya know?

We really started to think about our environmental impact about 2 years ago. We had moved into a new rent house. Our city has curbside trash pickup twice a week. However, the city sent us curbside recycle bins as well. You place your designated recycled products in the bin and they are collected once a week when the recycle truck comes along and takes it to the recycle center in town. There are three bins that are color coded for Plastic, paper, and aluminum/metal. We thought that we’d might as well give this a try. I mean, we've got the given to us, so might at well utilize them. So before we thought about throwing something in the trash, we decided if it could be recycled. If so, we rinsed if needed (soap/Landry detergent/shampoo bottles) then we put it in the recycle bins outside.

Now just a little background about our household, I am “responsible” for taking out the trash. In an average week, I would say I took out about 4-5 tall kitchen trash bags full of garbage to the trash can outside. Well, after about a month of this, I started to notice a difference. I was ASTOUNDED how I was only taking 1-2 trash bags a week to the trash can outside! What the heck?!

So now instead of thinking recycling was dumb, it turned into, hey it’s helping me not take out the trash so much! Ha-ha (Anything to help me stay in my "Man Chair" watching ESPN or DBZ)! Then our garbage production really started to make sense when I saw that by the end of the week our recycle bins were literally overflowing with items in them to be recycled. It was not very hard. Just making sure that all the little things like coke cans, coke bottles, boxes, paper, plastic (seems like EVERYTHING is made of plastic), milk jugs, cereal boxes, etc… were put into the bins. Not really that hard. Jennifer and I both agreed that we could see how just doing this simple thingas recycling can really help. I mean think about it. We cut our household trash production in half! And most of the stuff we were putting in the trash now is biodegradable. Mostly food scraps and paper towels. Our trash out by the curb turned from 4-5 bags piled up to about 1-2 with the recycle bins OVERFLOWING beside them. And that really made me realize that by justa little effort and thinking/common sense, we can cut our waste production in half AND help recycle and reuse.

Some other things that we try to do is not use the Plastic bags; yep…those bags from Wal-Mart. Most of those won’t ever biodegrade. They’ll be here on earth for a LONG time after we are. Most aren't biodegradable and If they are, then it’ll take a LONG time for them to break down. So another effort we have started is to use the reusable recycle grocery bags. Take em into the store with ya and have your grocer use those instead of the plastic sacks. I’m starting to see more and more people with them. Think about it... Personally, replacing those plastic bags with the recycled reusable bags, we’ve probably saved 20-30 bags per grocery shopping trip every 2 weeks. That could possibly be up to 700+ bags a year! We do keep some of the bags on-hand, but most of them are taken to the recycle center or BACK to walmart where they have a recycle box to put them in.

Try growing a garden! Not only have we had fun watching our plants grow during the summer, but it gets us outside, working in the yard, burning calories, but helps us eat healthier too! Less processed foods and more natural and healthy foods like fruits and vegetables will make you feel better! And those food and vegetable scraps from the garden can be made into a compost pile! Even less that goes into your trash bag!

Shop your local farmers market! And take your recycled bags with you! Not only are you helping out your community by giving back and purchasing from local farmers and growers, but you’re not pumping money into that powerhouse monster called Wal-Mart! Besides, dairy, eggs, meats, vegetables, and fruits from the farmers market taste SO much better thanthe mega market. Trust me on this one...I know good food.

Eat less fast food and eat more home cooked meals. You’ll enjoy the time with your family; spend less money on overpriced and poisoned fast food (yes poison. It’s killing America!). And you don’t have those plastic cups, paper bags, ketchup packets, and napkins that you have to throw in the garbage!

Use less hot water when washing clothes, taking a shower, or washing dishes. Just turn down the knob on your water heater. Using less hot water means the hot water heater uses less energy to heat the water.

Turn off lights when you leave the room (I personally struggle with this one). Conserve what you have and be sparing with it.

Some people, like me, are visual people. So when i see or learn about something visual, i really can pick up and learn and understand it better. So here are some movie choices for your weekend.

MOVIE SUGGESTIONS:These movies have really changed the way we look at food and how we view and consume food. Be ready for it to change your life. It did for us!

Super Size me (documentary by Morgan Spurlock)

Food Inc. (documentary by Robert Kenner)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Present day… we’re still recycling from 2 years ago when we started! It’s become second nature now. We both know what to recycle and it has become second nature. I’m now realizing that almost everything can be recycled. I know there is LOTS more than can be done, and we aren’t perfect and are probably missing a lot of key concepts, but at least our little bit is making a difference. I know it would be a hopeless situation if we went all out hippie living on the land, but that doesn’t fit into our lifestyle. It’s about making the biggest impact with single everyday things. Not changing the world.

Now…those of you who have stayed awake long enough to read this, you might be wondering how any of this fits into my new hobby of traditional wet shaving?

Stay tuned for part 2!

Dominica Bay Rum

After shaving, your face is in serious need of conditioning. Not only have you removed most all of the hair on your face, you've also removed some of the top layer of skin along with the hair, which means that your face is very vulnerable.

Most people, me included, suggest using an After Shave balm. The balms usually give back moisture to your skin and leaves it feeling soft and healthy. Usually, balms also include things like aloe and vitamin E and other essential oils for your skin, and most do not include alcohol which can dry out you skin.

However, some people who don't like balms for the "oily sheen" they give off, opt for an after shave splash.

Personally, I like to us both! I like the cooling sensation and moisturizing effects of the balm on my face. It gives my skin back the moisture it needs. However, I love the smell and "stinging" sensation I get with an after shave splash. I usually put balm on my freshly shaven face, and splash some of the after shave splash in my hands. I then pat the splash on my lower neck, back of my neck on my arms, chest, and then rub whatever is left in my hair.

Dominica Bay Rum after shave is your typical splash. It's very heavy in alcohol, so it tones and tightens your skin while the alcohol gives it an antiseptic sting. Yes, it will sting, but only for a few seconds. The scent of Dominica Bay Rum is the classic bay rum smell you get when you walk into the barbershop.

Dominica Bay Rum is actually distilled using alcohol and Bay leaves. The scent is very nice and strong. However, the scent doesn't linger very long like a cologne would. The light scented bay rum is a light, fresh, crisp smell, leaving you feeling clean. It's free of artificial dyes, fragrances, and any synthetic enhancers of any kind.

I have to be honest, I wan't a big fan of it when I first got it. In fact, I didn't like it at all. But I figured I would keep it and give it a little more time. Boy, I am glad I did! The scent is one of my favorite after shaves there is! The strong cedar/cinnamon/CLOVE smell is very nice and refreshing. It doesn't' smell fake or like a deodorant. The natural Caribbean scent reminds me of sipping beverages on the beach listening to Jimmy Buffet singing Margaritaville. (Jennifer wasn't so impressed with it at first either. Now if she smells even a faint hint of it, she likes to snuggle right up to my neck. :) That's always a plus! ha ha)

If you are a fan of alcohol based antiseptic after shave splashes, I recommend you pick up a bottle today! I got mine from www.westcoastshaving.com Below are some pictures of my bottle.

Happy Shaving!

Hole in the wall

My barber told me a story recently that I found fascinating.

I was telling her about my new hobby of Traditional Wet Shaving. She thought that it was very interesting and congratulated me. She then proceeded to tell me that her father still uses his old DE razor to this day and still drops his razors in the medicine cabinet.

...excuse me? drops them in the medicine cabinet? She said yes, the medicine cabinet. She then told me that in older houses, the medicine cabinets in the bathrooms were built partially into the wall. These medicine cabinets usually have a little slit about 1-2 inches wide in the back of the medicine cabinet. When your razor blade gets dull and you're ready to throw it away, just push it in the hole in the medicine cabinet. The blade falls between the walls. it eventually rusts and corrodes over time. No throwing away, no cutting through trash bags, no one getting hurt. Yeah...it just falls between the walls! How crazy is that!

We live in an older house ourselves. So when I got home, I headed straight to the bathroom. I knew what awaited me. I had always seen it there but had never paid attention. I never used it, and never really wondered why it was there, but lo and behold...as soon as I opened up my medicine cabinet, guess what I saw. Yep, the hole in my medicine cabinet! Crazy! So I immediately grabbed an old razor and I had to test it out. We made sure that it was very quiet when we pushed it through...

...crickets....silence...

... clink, clunk, tink, rattle....

"THAT WAS AWESOME!", Jennifer said. ha ha. After doing a quick search online, I read how a lot of construction workers and guys who build houses for a living say how they have come across houses and bathroom construction with just hundreds of corroded and rusty razor blades.

Anyways, kinda dumb, but I thought it was a pretty interesting piece of information. Kinda makes you wanna go check out your medicine cabinet now huh?

Happy shaving!

P.S. - Oh yeah, and my friend Adam is a traitor. His blog talks about how he went over to the "dark side." He abandoned Wet Shaving and got a new Electric Razor to go along with his other one... He said that he might have started a shaving war...

May we meet on the battlefield, friend.

A welcomed suprise

John, and the good people at www.westcoastshaving.com, were gracious enough to provide me with some samples to try before i purchased some more products from them. I was sent the following:

Geo F Trumper Shave Cream - Rose scent

Taylor of Old Bond Street Shave Cream - Mr. Taylor's scent

D.R. Harris Shave Cream - Arlington scent

It was a very welcomed surprise in the mail today.

Happy shaving!