today, while riding on the mrt train, i saw this elderly man (who am i calling another man, elderly?) plucking his facial hair with two coins. i assumed they were ten-cent coins. it reminded me of my dad who never owned a shaver his entire life. i think the only times he had a clean shave was when he visited the barber, which would have been about once a month.
those days, the barber used a shaving blade which he sharpened by sliding it up and down a piece of black leather. the old shaving blade was one with a handle and the knife could be folded up when not in use. the barber would apply lots of cool lather on your chin, above your upper lip and the side-burns before he started removing the hair.
at home, whenever my dad was idle, he would use two coins, usually the ten-cent one, to pull at his sparse facial hair and stubbly chin hair. it was a practice not uncommon among men in the past but a rarity nowadays. when i was older and i had strands of rough hair on my chin, i tried to do it my dad's way but i gave up because i could not make much progress. i suppose to be deft at it comes with lots of practice. it is not unlike using a pair of tweezers to do the job.
however, not all who have to resort to using coins to do the removal job do not own a shaver. for some, it was something to do to pass their time, like while waiting for a friend to show up or like the taxi driver waiting to pick up his passenger/s.
where did they keep these 'tools'? some kept them in the normal place - the pocket of their trousers. there were others who carried the two coins in a very handy place - tucked in their ear, usually one ear only.
will this practice make a comeback like eyebrow threading for women?
2 comments:
I find it inappropriate for men to groom themselves that way in public - not that they care. And coins are dirty.
a friend of mine just told me that he had seen some men using the coins to pull at their arm-pit hair.
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