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

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