h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...need an instruction like "start at the edges to give the harder bristles at the front time to be become soft", because you can't just say "leave foam for 5 minutes" .... we'd get bored and start wondering what we'd look like with a big stripe down the middle of our hair and the rest of our head bald .

(This actaully happened - answer: stupid!)

Somehow, I'm not all that surprised. I have to tell my boyfriend to shave, or he wouldn't any more often than once a week or so.

Cool name... Long live the spearcarriers!

Hmmm... No one has to tel me to shave... but I do start forgeting about midweek unless there's someone I want to impress...

~Irving

I only shave at the weekends for the same reason, if I'm going out to impress I sahve, else I get down to play my bowls and drink with the lads afterwards. It's having to be neat all week at work that does it.

I only bother about once a week.
I don't see the point. If I shave, I am me. If I don't shave, I am me.
Either way, I am me - if you have a problem with something as insignificant as hair - it's your problem.

Depends how you feel, I guess - a good shave can set me up for the day, so I feel crisp, clean and ready to tackle whatever comes my way...

However, it has to be said that I don't feel quite so perky on the days when I've cut my face to ribbons

By this logic, you could say, whether you shower or groom yourself at all, you are still you. While that is true, You will be a lot more pleasant to be around if you take a interest in basic body maintenance. Your choice.

There are limits to it, but I don't see why people make such a big deal out of something so trivial. There are people dying in Africa, so on the cosmic scale of things, what does it matter if I'm hairy or not? There are more important issues, I don't want to bother with trivia.
But you have good points

Never having been able to grow a complete beard I still have one embarressing patch, my beards have always been well maitained goatees, which take a great deal more work every morning that shaving completely, after all you don't want it to be all lopsided now do you. And I can't stand having too long a moustache, I becomes annoying, so they are always well trimmed as well, once or twice a week. i'm currently clean shaven and have been since making my breakthrough in bowls whilst bearded, now the name is known not the look.

Fair enough, and honestly my intrest in minding my looks are entirely self centered and pleasure driven.

I would like to comment, that, although it may not be generally true, that although many guys don't care about whether or not THEY shave, quite a few posses vehement oppoinions on whether on not women should shave their legs, armpits, etc. No one seems to think we really should have any say in it.

'No-one thinks we should have any say in it'

What, no-one at all? I must have been out when all the other guys decided that one. In fact, come to think of it, I don't recall ever being asked for my opinion on *any* of the 'All men think that...' issues.

I honestly think there are many more women around who say things like 'Men want/don't want us to do X' (where X is appearance/fashion related) than there are men who really care either way.

Even if everyone *did* think you shouldn't have any say in it, you're still entirely free to ignore them, (well, at least you are in most democratic countries)

On the beard front, personally I think that anything that Walt Disney and Margaret Thatcher really hated must have *something* going for it.

Ross Perots hates beards too.

I don't like short bigotted yoda lookalikes.

We didn't meet when I was bearded and employed by him...which is probably for the best

I agree that most guys do have a very strong opinion on the issue about women, but I think that it does go both ways. Every single woman I have ever dated had very strong opinions of how I shaved my face and, uh, other areas. Right now I wear a goatee because my girlfriend likes the way it looks on me and the way it feels. If she would ask me to wear it a way I found unacceptable, then there would be an issue to discuss, just as if your potential partner wanted you to groom yourself in a way you found unacceptable. I guess what I mean is, if you want to go with hairy legs and pits, feel free. Just expect to attract guys who like that look (there are plenty of them out there).

Yes, I realize that, although not in any great numbers in my area. But I avoid dating people I'd see everyday if we broke up, so that's not too big of an issue.
Personally, I would shave even if I didn't have someone with an oppinion about it, even though cuts are unfortunate and painful. My only real concern is getting my boyfriend to shave before kissing him becomes extremely painful.

Also, a note to Potholer: On the day that I posted that message, a few hours earlier, I had had a discussion with three of my guy friends who were all expression violent oppinions about the grooming habbits of women in general. I am drawing on that experience, as well as several other discussions with other guys, when I make a comment like that. I don't mean to judge you, and I'm sorry you weren't asked about it, but I'm just drawing from my personal experience, that's all. I don't claim that it's always right, or even mostly right. I'm glad that not every guy will stick to taht statement. It's good to hear a new oppinion.

That's fine, penguin queen - I was feeling a little downtrodden myself yesterday, and reacted a bit to much to a general statement.
It's just that whenever I hear someone (of either gender) say 'Men think that...', I often (usually?) find myself disagreeing with whatever point they're making.
Though in the interests of balance, I should say that whenever I hear someone saying 'Women think that...', I often find myself thinking that they're not likely to be any more accurate (particularly when I think about female friends and family.)

I agree - most generalisations are just generalisations.
I don't think that you can say that "men think" or "women think", but what you CAN say is that society is trying to brainwash men & women into acting in certain ways, and not all individuals respond to that.

But shouldn't that be 'some parts of society...'

Who *is* society anyway - how many people have to disagree with it in order for it to change its mind, how many people have to ignore it before it becomes irrelevant.

I think we'd all get very confused without our generalizations, however stupid they may be. However, for me at least, they are observations that I have no proof against and have seen proven in many instances. I probably should've said "a lot of guys I know" instead.

You should have. Are you saying that every guy in the world, in all the different cultures including British, European, American, Russian, Communist China, tribes in South America, Africa and New Guinea - and also every guy that ever lived in diiferent time periods including Victorian, Elizabethan, Roman, Ancient Greek etc all thought as you say? I think not.