ShaveUcation

If your son is already asking about shaving, it's time to think about how you'll prepare him for the milestone. Shaving is a big deal to many boys, and they look forward to it even if they have to wait a while for puberty to catch up with them. Most boys won't develop facial hair until they're well into puberty (generally around age 14 or so), while others may need to begin shaving in the later tween years. Either way, arm yourself with a few handy shaving tips to help your child learn to do it the right way, and so that he knows how to shave safely while practicing good hygiene.

Girls are starting to see hair in places where they've never seen it before too. Now that they're reaching puberty, they have an increase in hormones (androgens) that causes darker hair on their legs, under their arms, and around their pubic area to appear. In American culture, many girls start shaving hair on their legs and underarms at this time.

Mark Sproston, a man who teaches the art of shaving for a living and who’s known in the industry as "The Shave Doctor," is slightly more charitable to the hapless dads. “I think many men are reluctant to give shaving advice to their sons because they still suffer from things like shaving irritation themselves, so they probably don’t think they’re the best teachers!” he says. And where dads are failing hopelessly, he’s happy to offer assistance, providing shaving seminars in schools across the UK—a project aptly dubbed "ShaveUcation." “Not only do we teach the young lads the right shaving techniques for their skin and hair type, we also teach them how to look after their skin even before they start shaving, helping them to reduce teenage problems like spots and acne too.”

More useful and certainly more practical than many of the things taught at school these days, it’s a fantastic addition to the curriculum—but I can’t help but think it’s yet another sign of how much parents are absolving themselves of responsibility for their children’s education. Fundamentally, it’s just another example of outsourced parenting. And while there are scores of shaving tutorials on YouTube and plenty of articles about achieving the perfect shave online, Sproston believes, like me, that dads can—and should—play a part in passing on of this most basic of man skills to their offspring.

“Dads need to be patient and at least show their sons how to hold the razor correctly, how much shaving product to apply, and to show him the very basic shaving strokes,” he says.

And don’t just stop at teaching your son about shaving either. Make sure he’s up to speed about basic hygiene (yep, including downstairs hygiene) and a few skincare basics too.

The purpose of the workshops is to teach our next generation of shavers how to shave properly without the irritation that over 65% of males and females experience today.

Over 50% of teenage boys and young men will give up wet shaving within the first six weeks of trying it due to shaving irritation and the discomfort that comes with it, and we know that over 71% of females will not shave as often as they should because of shave related irritation on the legs, underarms and bikini areas.

Not only do we show the boys and girls how to shave properly, but we teach them basic hygiene also.

We show them how they can look after their skin more successfully, reducing teenage spots and targeting greasy, oily skin essential for self-esteem and self-confidence.

We have delivered workshops in a number of schools and proved to be extremely popular not only with the boys and teaching staff, but especially with the pupil's parents too.