Grand Old Grooming Habits
Do you ever think about the origins of your morning routine, gentlemen? As you splash water from the sink on your face, reach for that ultra-soft shaving lotion, and that ready-when-you-are blade, do you think about the linear track that got us all here? To this age of heightened grooming.
Let’s face it, 50 is the new 40 out there. And, in your own bathroom, you’ve likely got an arsenal of preferred products.
Manscaping, as some might call it, has come a long way over the centuries. We thought it would be fun to look back at the creators of our nation’s most sacred document and their particular (and occasionally peculiar) grooming habits.
Hamilton was famed for rising early. Never past 7 a.m., and he was known for sitting at a desk for up to 8 hours per day. Were he around today, he’d no doubt be addicted to his laptop. As for shaving, he was a fair-weather fan. On one occasion, he described a barber’s work as having: a “hand so heavy that he had almost flayed my chin and head. In the morning, my barber came to shave me and almost made me sick with his Irish brogue and stinking breath.” Yikes.
Our favorite for a fondness of beer and a calculated, but tempered mind, Ben Franklin felt that shaving was indicative of a life well-lived, when executed regularly and properly.
“If you teach a poor young man to shave himself,” he once wrote, “and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. The money may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors. He shaves when most convenient to him, and enjoys daily the pleasure of its being done with a good instrument.”
A wealthy gentleman’s wig was elaborate in the late 1700s. It took powder and care. It was an investment. Fun Fact: George Washington’s coif was all his own. What he sports eternally on the $1 bill was attached to his head. This means, he likely had a little work in the morning and according to documents, he was famous for traveling with a case of razors. No time to pop into a barber with all that white pomp afoot. Visit Mount Vernon and you can see his straight razor on display.
This little history lesson leads us now to consider, “what’s on display in your own home?”
If your sink is barren and your face is unkempt, it’s time to tip the scales to something more dapper.
We suggest looking to Hommage––a men’s skincare company revered for more than a decade. They are consistently improving their formulas to meet evolving consumer demands. They test and re-test their products with in-house cosmetic dermatologists. This past June, they relaunched updated formulas throughout their entire range, and they also offer a line of razors with specific goals in mind, be it travel or custom appearance. Up that grooming game, gentlemen. You owe it to all those who came before you.
