Product Review : EDGE Shaving Gel

As a boy in the local barber shop, the process always ended with the barber doing a little something that made me feel more like a man and less like the 12-year-old boy I was. He got some hot white lather out of an Oster machine, applied it to the upper sides of my face, and, with a straight-edged razor, which he sharpened with a couple of quick swipes back and for the on the leather strop attached to the Theo A. Koch chair, he proceeded to trim my sideburns.

I don't know if they really needed any trimming or not - but I sure did like the way it felt. The splash of After Shave with a quick pat on the cheeks and a dab of Dixie Peach pomade on the front of my "Flat top" signaled the end of my 75-cent bi-weekly moment of manhood.

Some years later, when I began to develop the need to shave random hairs off of my face, I used what most boys go to first - What my father used. It was an aerosol can of either Barbasol or Colgate. I missed the heat of the lather Eli (my barber) used and found that my own efforts did not give me any of the pleasurable sensations of having it done to me.

The aerosol lather was cold and less lubricating. I blamed it for the many times I nicked myself with a basic 'safety razor.'

By the time I was 16, I had tried a bunch of electric shavers or many designs. Straight edge (Remington style) and circular bladed (Norelco types). None did the job for me. They just couldn't (and still, to this day) can't cut my whiskers satisfactorily.

I then tried EDGE after seeing an early TV commercial for it. Problem was, it felt like sissy stuff. What real man would use jelly on his face? The fact that it was a better lubricant than those white foam aerosols was completely lost in the muddled priorities and values running around in my adolescent pre-frontal lobes.

Ultimately, I solved the problem in my early 20's by growing a beard and using whatever was available to trim my cheeks and neck when the mood or special occasions struck. For a number of years (in the 1960's, of course) I used a n old fashioned shaving mug and brush. It actually made the aerosol cans feel pretty tacky by comparison, but it still wasn't quite the right thing for me and my face.