I find it odd that
shaving is a wonderful experience, even though I agree that it is. I am wondering where our positive
associations with the act of shaving came from, especially since the
hair on our bodies is essentially "part of our bodies". If our hair is so natural, it is surprising that we take such pleasure in removing it. We can imagine that all of this pleasure is rooted in what we have been handed by society in terms of
body image standards, but I think there must be something more to it than that.
Shaving is, in a way, an attempt to
restore youth. Boys do not have beards. Girls do not have hair on their legs or under their arms (or on their genitals, which obviously is at the root of modern trends in
genital hair removal).
Byzantine mentions "the soul" being exposed. This implies that the soul is intimately connected with our youthful selves, that the soul somehow becomes more hidden with age. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that our
body images were formed when we were young, and when we are young, we are mostly hairless (ignoring our heads and the
peach fuzz covering the rest of our bodies).