A Closer Shave - Man's Daily Search for Perfection

Artisan, 1999. Dustjacket spine may be faded.

Not every man in the world begins his day by removing the night's stubble from his jaw, but 93 percent of the male population thinks taming the monster is the first order of business every morning. Since man invented metal--shortly after he started walking upright--he has sought to scrape stubble from his face without skinning himself alive.

In A Closer Shave, Wallace Pinfold takes the reader on a multicultural, multicentury, and multifaceted tour of the human face as seen from the stainless steel railway of the razor. Through more than 200 photographs and illustrations, cartoons and wood blocks, paintings and advertisements, the story of the shave unfolds, from how to trim a moustache, use a brush, and banish foggy mirrors to famous beards and bald guys in history, to the obsession with shaved heads in professional sports.

This witty little book takes a fast, furious, and funny look at the history of getting a closer, smoother, easier shave--and proves in the process that the male capacity for preening and self-absorption should never be underestimated.