Slice of Life Story Challenge Day 28 -We're Losing Our Hair Over This!

Today, I ducked into a supermarket to buy some razor blades. I have to say the price of these tiny seemingly essential items appalled me. Given that I live in a country renowned for its abundant iron ore resources, the price of razor blades appears inexplicable.  Two of the world’s biggest steel manufacturers BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are based here and yet we pay up to $17 AUD for a set of four blades of questionable longevity!

How can this be? Well, it partly has to do with our obsession to rid the body of hair. Hair has become a blight on our bodies. We appear to have declare war on body hair. To quote Shakespeare, we refer to hair as if we are saying, ‘Out damned spot!’ The blades are in are favour in the modern era. It’s a far cry from the heady and hairy days of the sixties and seventies and the strains of ‘Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair…’

Advertisers now encourage us to adopt a scorched earth policy in relation to hair. It is plucked, scraped, cut, torn, shaved, razored, ripped and waxed. We weed-whack, whipper-snip and brush-cut hair from our bodies! I never knew the word Brazilian had multiples meanings until a few years ago. We can even employ laser technology to permanently remove the offending fuzz. An increasing number of men are seeking laser solutions to eradicate body hair.  Embarrassing ‘Comb-overs’ have been consigned to history with young men adopting an all or nothing approach to baldness. Shaved heads bob up like apples in a barrel. Male and female alike, say hair be gone!

Clearly this demand for hair removal is driving up the cost of blades. It’s our collective obsession with removing hair; the demand for hair free landscapes is putting pressure on the price of steel.  This need to create bodies smoother than a baby’s bottom is at the root of the problem. Smooth is the state people increasingly want to be.
Will the trend swing back to the hirsute days of my youth? I doubt it. I remember a time when hair was big and hair was everywhere, -men with sideburns, long shaggy locks, beards, and moustaches of questionable quality were everywhere. At the same time women sported gravity defying high hair perms and styling. Back then men were more closely related to gorillas, and women didn’t care too much, or couldn’t tell the difference.  Maybe we will never again hear the ancient cry, ‘My brother is an hairy man!’ such is the obsession with returning to our prepubescent state. I guess the cost of razor blades is not about to fall any time soon. I’ll just have to wear it, or return to my formerly hairy incarnation of a fox looking out of a berry bush.



Comments

  1. Wanda Brown28 March 2012 at 21:10

    Fun post...Alan. I ,too, am appalled at the price of razor blades. I never really thought about why they are expensive...now you have me thinking:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. drferreriblogspot.com28 March 2012 at 21:15

    Agreed - I suspect the demand for hairlessness may be driving up the price! It would be a good business for someone who has the desire to invent and cheaper but effective blade. Thanks for making me think about this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. maria.selke28 March 2012 at 22:01

    So very funny! I was actually just this morning bemoaning the cost of razor blades as I looked at my diminishing stack in my bathroom and realized that I'd need to buy more soon.

    What an amusing topic!

    ReplyDelete
  4. elsie28 March 2012 at 22:54

    You always take the most mundane topic and create an engaging piece of wit that has me chuckling along with you. I loved, really loved the sentences with the multiple verbs for removing hair. I think I shall be using whipper-snip in my conversation. Fun words!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anne and Riss @thelitladies28 March 2012 at 22:59

    A very amusing post Alan.
    The part about comb overs made me remember a funny thing I saw in Melbourne just a few weeks ago...
    I was walking along the main street into an oncoming bustle of boys- all with the classic Justin Beiber comb over look. (It made me wonder where individuality had gone as they all looked the same!). Not 4 steps behind them I was amused to see an old man sporting a classic comb over. This left me wondering- when does a comb over stop being Beiber cool and start being old and grandpa like?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Deb Day29 March 2012 at 00:30

    This made me laugh out loud. Fun post with lots of wonderful words and phrases...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mandy29 March 2012 at 18:31

    Hilarious! I loved the reference to the song, "HAIR." You have a talent for observing every day life events and reflecting on them with wit and humor. I have to say that my husband is fairly hairy (he will not like that I am stating this publicly), and I love it! He's very conscientious about it, but I think body hair is manly!!! :)

    Thanks for the laugh and the truth about ridiculous pricing!
    Mandy @ The Chockboard

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous31 March 2012 at 15:39

    Ah Al
    Razor wit again!
    As an hirsute person I well do I remember the pseudo-sermon by Dudely More regarding "My brother Esau is an hairy man. But I am an smooth man"
    I AM an smooth man and the only issue that creates for moi is that, when soaped, I slip out of my own grasp.
    C in A

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular With Other Visitors

Writing Opposite Poems

Image
 O pp o s ite  P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not every thing has a
Read more

Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

Image
UPDATED February 2022 Writing in response to literature can be a great way for students to organize their thoughts, explore what they think, and generate ideas. One of the strengths of writing in journals is that it allows students to capture all of those great ideas that generally float off into the air during the discussion.  Journal writing can also become drudgery if students are asked to write too often, given little choice or inspiration in what to write, or if they simply don't have anything to say. While some students eagerly share their impressions about selections they have read in class discussions, others are less comfortable and keep their thoughts to themselves. In an effort to encourage all students to think more about what they read and confidently share their observations and opinions, some teachers are turning to the reading reflection journal and are gaining insights they never anticipated.  The Value of Reflection Journals   Journals assist teachers to gain i
Read more

Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

Image
It is important for young writers to understand that not all parts of a story are equal. There are parts through which a writer moves quickly, and important parts where the writer slows down and lingers a while. This is where the writer might intensify the action or reveal the character’s reactions in greater detail. Young writers need to know that this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the author. The author consciously zooms in. The writer uses a magnifying glass to view a part of the story more closely; to focus on a moment and to slow down time. When an important part of the story is enlarged upon, it   is a signal to the reader, that this part of the story is important. The strategy of ‘zooming in’ goes by many names: ‘exploding a moment’ ‘magnifying a moment’, ‘hotspot’ ‘snapshot’, ‘adding detail’ or ‘slowing the action.’  What ever the name, the idea is the same. The author writes in a way that expands a significant part of the story with the intention of drawing t
Read more

Answering Questions Posed by Young POETS

Image
UPDATED, May 2020 As a frequent visitor to schools I have the great pleasure of working with groups of young, enthusiastic poets and their teachers. When I arrive in a classroom, young poets are often pre-loaded with questions, and most keen to have them answered.  I try to answer as many as I can, but we frequently run out of time, and the poetry caravan moves on to the next classroom. So I am here to answer some of those questions -right here, right now. So here goes: When you were little did you love writing? The short answer is yes. I have always enjoyed words and language. I can't recall a time when I wasn't doing some kind of writing. When did you write your first poetry book? I have had poems published over the years, but it wasn't until 2014 that I had an entire book of poems (an anthology) published. When I looked back through all my notebooks I realized I had hundreds of poems from which to choose. So, 'Searching For Hen's Teeth-Poetry From The
Read more

Slice Of Life Story-The Trials Of A Left Handed Writer

Image
Amazingly I learnt to write using my left hand. An achievement against the prevailing beliefs of the day. My very first teacher saw it as her mission in life to ‘fix’ the poor, wretched little boy suffering from what she clearly diagnosed as left handed disease. She must have thought, 'This child must be re formatted! If he remains left handed he will be forever condemned to writing in a scrawl that no one will be able to read. Ugly hand, ugly hand.' ...They tried to say it couldn't be done, it mustn't be done. They took the pencil out of my left hand and placed it in my right hand. It felt unnatural. It felt weird. It was not right. More to the point it was not left. I was not about to conform. At least they didn't try tying my hand behind my back. Watch me I said. I may be an oddball, left handed scribbler but I am a determined oddball. I mean how boring would the world be if everyone wrote with their right hand? So I dug my toes in –and my hands to
Read more