James Joyce

Another post from The Shaving Room:

I found this in a weekend magazine. It's from James Joyce's Ulysees ..

"What advantages attended shaving by night?

A softer beard: a softer brush if intentionally allowed to remain from

shave to shave in its agglutinated lather: a softer skin if unexpectedly

encountering female acquaintances in remote places at incustomary hours:

quiet reflections upon the course of the day: a cleaner sensation when

awaking after a fresher sleep since matutinal noises, premonitions and

perturbations, a clattered milkcan, a postman's double knock, a paper

read, reread while lathering, relathering the same spot, a shock, a

shoot, with thought of aught he sought though fraught with nought might

cause a faster rate of shaving and a nick on which incision plaster with

precision cut and humected and applied adhered: which was to be done."

You may have to read it a couple of times to understand it (I did!), but I really like it. What is really interesting too is that he recommends NOT rinsing your brush between shaves (presumably just squeezing out the excess lather and opening up the bristles a bit to dry). I am going to try this. I have noticed that my brush builds a lather much quicker when I have to pick up soap from the puck mid shave, so I imagine this would work just as well for the first lather.

Anyone else care to try ...

In any case, it's a lovely emotive piece of writing.

PS I would like to shave more at night but I think my wife may find it a tad anti-social!