Shaving is the Worst

Each year brings on more responsibilities and legitimate reasons to be stressed daily. It’s difficult to find a balance of time to work on the things you can in this life, process the things you can’t change and justify the leisurely time spend in-between to keep our heads cool. This is the baseline for many of my thoughts these days, and the foundation of why a daily task for many people has become one of the most difficult rituals for myself:

Shaving

Shaving has become absolutely one of the hardest things for me to do lately. If it was just one or two reasons getting in the way it may be at least more manageable. However, as much as I like the use of the number four, there are six reasons stacked against shaving that make it so difficult for me:

My bed is very comfortable.

This doesn't necessarily have to do strictly with shaving, but every morning we have to decide if we want more time in bed, or more time preparing for the day before work. It takes a whole lot of willpower to sacrifice the warmth and comfort of blankets for just more prep time. More time in bed almost always wins, even if it’s not the logical choice.

The hair gets everywhere.

If it was just a quick fix like brushing my teeth, it would be different, but there is always so many little hairs to keep track of! I have found myself definitely in the market for one of those ridiculous aprons that attaches to the mirror so you can catch all the hair. Since I’m usually the first up in the morning, it seems cruel to leave the mess for someone else if I can’t find all of my leavings.

I don’t have to look at it.

Sometimes I feel a little itchy on my neck, but for the most part, I don’t even think about it. I don’t have that constant reminder of how scruffy I am until I get home and my wife is saying “Why are you so scruffy?”

Doesn't necessarily look terrible.

I’m fortunate enough to have a pretty straightforward beard when I grow it. A little bit more neck hair than I would like, but even when I’ve intentionally grown a beard, I haven’t needed to shape it much.

Skin problems.

While my dreaded puberty is a faint nightmare now, I do get the random zit or blemish that my beard covers quite nicely. Makes it much easier than dealing with skin issues that I keep going back and forth with deciding whether or not I care about or not.

My job doesn’t care at all how I look.

My job does not involve me meeting any of the people I manage face to face. While that can be a little odd, since there are many people I have good professional relationships that I have not once seen in person, it does give me the luxury of looking however I want at work. I have anywhere between 1-2 coworkers on any given day, and I communicate with my boss via text messages because she is in another state 99% of the time. No incentive to shave there.

As a happily married man, I am privileged with not having to worry about how I look daily. For me to shave and just be scruffy a couple days later never seems like it is a big deal. It’s definitely a small thing that barely affects my day. It’s a small thing, but I guess it’s the small things that end up mattering the most in the long run. My wife prefers me shaved, but doesn’t bug me about it. If I take a little extra time now and then to do a little thing for her will it make a difference? No way of really knowing, but I should probably take out the razor tonight...and probably a little more often.