By My Own Hand

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A Roman shaving experiment

I have actually found a chunk of the bubbly sort of pumice sold for foot-smoothing, but it *was* unusual. Most are the more solid-looking stone. Anyhow, I tried it for an experiment in shaving my legs, since I had read about this being used for that purpose. It seemed inffective- I ended up just scraping the heck out of my shins- until I tried doing a 'roman bath'.

I revised my technique by soaking for a long period of time in hot water and oiling my skin, then scraping with a 'strigil' made from a convenient coolwhip lid. THEN I tried the holey pumice, and some hair did come off, with less scraping of my tender skin. I think that freshly steamed and oiled skin is necessary to make this work at all. It was interesting, but very time-consuming, and mostly seems to work by wearing off the hair, so that when it grows it is still tapered. Not something I would do every week for the sake of vanity.