Fusion frenzy

	If you watch allot of tv you must have seen all the gillette fusion commercials. so i had to try it. If you shave everyday the Gillette Fusion is the razor for you. I used it for the first time the other day and it was great. I used it the next day and I liked it even more. However I am going back to the mach 3 today because the hair gets stuck in the fusion after going without a shave in a few days.

Waxing Potential

by Christopher Reardon

So a couple weeks ago I walk into Salon Lola, my normal style haunt which is owned and operated by Sasha Putney, a good friend of NORMAL and the stylist for many of its contributors. Sasha's the only person I let do my hair, and she does a fantastic job every time.

On this particular occasion, while working near the front of my head, Sasha looks at me and frowns (never a good sign when you're getting your hair cut). Nervous, I ask her what's up and she tells me I should let her wax my eyebrows.

I don't know whether to be relieved or even more anxious. I mean, my hair's fine (I knew I had nothing to worry about there anyway), but apparently below my hairline I'm a furry caveman and she wants to rip it all off with hot wax and strips of cloth. Is there really anything wrong with having unkempt brows? I mean, waxing is for girls, right?

I've never been one to fret too long about personal gender issues, so I let her do it. And it gets me thinking about other men who get waxed, and the ones who should but won't. I figure Sasha, who's been ripping people's eyebrows off for ten of her twenty-seven years, would be an excellent authority on the subject. And as it turns out, I'm right. "About twenty or twenty-five percent of my clients are men," she tells me (with some bookkeeping help from her assistant Cody), "and almost all of those get waxed."

So apparently I'm not alone. But isn't getting waxed for the girlies? "Waxing is not a feminine activity. It's not necessarily metro, you just want to look presentable." She brings up a good point. Ever since the advent of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," the idea of guys looking good has been brought to the mainstream. You don't have to be a rich snot to be fashionable and well groomed. I myself am neither rich nor a snot (well, I'm certainly not rich at least), but if Sasha tells me I should get my eyebrows waxed then dammit that's what I'm gonna do.

But I definitely don't want to end up looking like Joey Lawrence with the pencil thin lines atop my brow. As I learn, there's something of an art to waxing eyebrows correctly. "You want a natural look. A good waxer knows how to do this." I'm convinced at this point that Sasha's a good waxer, but what about all those guys who are afraid of looking too sculpted? "At the very least they should do the middle to get rid of the uni," she says. I can't agree more. I can't even bring myself to look into the eyes of someone with a uni-brow, never mind take him (or her) seriously.

And the pain? The anticipation is the most painful part, like when you're getting a shot. And after she's done tearing my face up, she rubs this stuff on there that makes it all better. "It's after wax cooling gel. It has cucumber and aloe in it, and it's essential. This will cool your eyebrows down and get rid of redness." I'm really glad there's such a thing. Not only do I not have to spend the rest of the day in burning pain, but I also don't have to leave the place looking like some kind of perfectly groomed raccoon.

So I actually feel good about the waxing. Sasha soothes my masculine insecurities and the gel soothes my freshly waxed (and rather stunning, might I add) eyebrows. But still, won't people think it's weird that I get waxed? "People who do it don't think it's weird," Sasha says. And there it is. I get my eyebrows waxed, and I don't think it's weird. In fact, I text a friend of mine (a fellow waxer) about my adventure and she actually texts me back "Yay!" Apparently I really needed to get my eyebrows waxed.

Check out Salon Lola on Myspace and then go check it out for real. You won't be sorry.

Thinking About Life While Touching Myself

by Christopher Reardon

Ah, a man's special place. Somewhere he can be alone and take care of all his most private, ahem, functions in peace and serenity. Where touching oneself becomes not only acceptable, but absolutely necessary. No, I'm not talking about that jerk-off dungeon you've got hidden in the crawlspace. I'm talking, of course, about the bathroom.

Perpetuated by manly men like Al Bundy and Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor, the bathroom (and specifically, the toilet) is meant to be the heart of a man's kingdom. After all, men are not to be ashamed of the various fluids that come out of their bodies, while a real lady would never discuss such things. The toilet is a man's throne, but it's not exactly the best place to get any real thinking done.

And why is that? These days the toilet has become an extension of the living room. Look within arm's reach of most American toilets and you are sure to find a stack of magazines or other reading material. Some people even have television sets in their bathrooms. I myself reach for my cell phone when doing the deed (you can ask my friends, I'm not ashamed of dropping a deuce while chatting).

The shower, on the other hand, is one place where books and phones simply can't go. If you're looking for entertainment while in the shower, your best bet is a radio. I'll admit I do listen to some tunes in the shower now and then, but most of the time I prefer to go au natural. That is, only the sound of the water and my own thoughts.

That's why I get most of my best thinking done in the shower. My cleaning routine has become so automatic over the years that it requires zero thought process, so I need something to keep my mind occupied. Half the stories I write for NORMAL were conceived in the shower. When I was in college I could write an entire five page paper while I was in the shower. In fact, if ever I was having a bit of writer's block I would throw on my robe and high tail it to the bathrooms to see what I could work out. Most of the time it worked wonders.

The shower is a great environment for getting some hard core thinking done. Not only is it mostly free of outside stimuli, but I find the warm flowing water very relaxing for the body (which frees me of the physical worries most of us face on a day to day basis) but also stimulating in its own way for the mind. You might have a pile of bills, an angry wife, or a shitty job but none of that can be changed while you are bathing yourself. The shower becomes an escape from all that is stressing me out, so I can focus on what I really care about.

You shouldn't take such a zen place for granted. Your shower loves you, so you should love it back! Keep it clean for God's sake, and tone down on all those bottles and cloths all over it. If your shower is clean and tidy, you'll find it a much more conducive environment for putting all those crazy pieces of ideas in your head into complete thoughts. You'll be surprised what you can come up with!