Consuming Interest
Whisking Whiskers Away
By LESLIE ADRIAN NOBODY has yet succeeded in making an electric razor to suit all kinds of beard and skin. Some people, therefore, who might find them very effective shy away from them. The report on electric razors in the current issue of Which? is not encouraging, either. It compares safety and electric razors thus: 'Safety razors need no power and are (obviously) electrically safe, noiseless, practically unbreakable, do not interfere with television or radio, normally need no repairs or servicing, can be used wherever there is soap and water. On the other hand you cannot cut yourself with an electric razor; it does away with the mess and nuisance of lathering; you are not con- tinuously buying new blades and having to dis- pose of the old ones; and you can shave luxuriously in bed, leaving the bathroom to the rest of the family.' But when Which? tried to find out whether the safety or the electric razor gives the closer shave it found that, in every case, of four men tested the hair shaved off by the safety razor weighed more, the difference ranging from 1 per cent. to 70 per cent.
The weakness of W hichrs test is that there is no straight comparison in the report between a wet shave with a safety razor and a dry shave with the electric razor that is best suited to the user's beard and skin. In fact, after. a further test with electric razors by a panel of twenty-one men, Which? reports that it was interesting that each tester gave overall preference to a brand different from his own.' In other words, every one of them was originally using the wrong model. The report does recommend that an electric razor should only be bought on trial, that people should be allowed to try one make after another for at least a fortnight and that a credit note should be given to anyone who decides against all electric razors. This will seem to most people an unnecessarily complicated way of buying some- thing as simple as a razor, and I'm pleased to report that someone has thought of a way round it.
Mr. Edgar Herrmann runs the Dry Shave Centre at 111 High Holborn, London, WCI. He guarantees to find an electric razor to suit your beard and skin or refund your money (not merely give you a credit note) and there is nothing extravagant about his claims: 'I estimate that one-third of the people who buy electric shavers from me obtain better results than they achieved with a blade, one-third get a shave as good and one-third a shave less good. Those who find them less good may still find them preferable because they won't cut the skin and are more convenient to use.'
The centre stocks forty-five men's models (fifteen makes) and five women's. (It can service 120 models, including many no longer being sold but still in use.) Rather than take a chance by buying over the counter with the odds heavily against you and rather than go to the tedious bother of trying one model after another on approval, Mr. Herrmann invites you to come to the centre with a normal twenty-four-hour growth of beard. An assistant will take you into a cubicle and inspect your beard with a calibrated hand- microscope. You will be offered three or four suitable models to try out on small areas of your beard; these are then reduced to two and you make your choice. Of the two models one is likely to be in the low- or medium-price range and one in the high range. Both will be suitable for your beard, one will obviously be better. You buy your razor on fourteen days' approval and then keep it, or try another, or have your money refunded.
Annual servicing—mainly the removal of accumulated hair-dust, lubrication and adjust- ment—is advisable for electric razors. The centre's first overhaul is free and thereafter you get an annual reminder in the post. Repairs can usually be done in four hours and are guaranteed for six months. Razors sent for repair by post are usually dealt with and returned on the same day.
Talking about timber diseases and their treat- ment in houses and churches, in the House of Commons on December 17, Mr. Arthur Skefling- ton suggested that a number of so-called consultants were too ready to recommend treat- ments which were not only expensive but often unnecessary. He said that in one case 'three firms, widely known, recommended immediate chemical treatment' costing £80, but that the treatment would have been valueless. A consultant can sometimes be mistaken, but there seems to be an inference to be drawn that there are unscrupulous firms which trade on the general ignorance of timber infestation.
I am glad that both Mr. Skeffington and Mr. John Rodgers (Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade) confirmed my recent recom- mendation of the Timber Development Associa- tion as a reliable, independent body to which to refer, Timber preservation is a controversial sub- ject, as some of my recent correspondence has shown. I have been taken to task for.saying that modern building may be responsible for some dry-rot infestation (houses in the old days being too draughty for the fungus to establish itself) and for saying that winter-time was the season for counter-attack. But the one statement was based on a learned paper read to the Wood Preserva- tion Association, and the other on the fact (since confirmed) that the death-watch beetle emerges from March onwards and must therefore be in the pupal stage just previously. I am grateful to correspondents for their good (if conflicting) comments, and would recommend readers who are anxious about their woodwork to get hold of copies of the excellent and impartial Stationery Office pamphlets, published by the Ministry of Works at 4d. each, Care in the Use of Timber, Woodworm and Dry Rot. There are also longer official booklets on the same and related subjects at 3s. and 4s., as well as a publication put out jointly by the TDA and the British Wood Preservation Association, Timber Preservation, at 2s. 1 regret that there was not enough space to list these in my first article, and I must add that when in doubt one should consult a specialist, and an impartial one if possible.
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