MAN SHAV S TWENTY MILES IN A LIFETIME.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10858, 29 December 1906, Page 8 (Supplement)

MAN SHAY S TWENTY MILES IN A LIFETIME.

JAKK MEN, WITH LENGTHY JAWS COMPEL RAZOR TO COVER MORE GROUND.

It sounds absurd to say that a smoothfaced man shaves a distance of twenty miles m an average life-time, yet some genius has gone into the case very thoroughly and has succeeded m proving that this is the usual distance which a razor must travel, if the niau m question is well-groomed. The distance varies with the individual, because the measurement of faces is never the same, and, also, because the texture of the skin and the strength of the growth of beard are different. The number of times a man passes a razor over his face depends on the thickness of his beard. Then there is the difference between, light and dark complexions, the dark man usually being obliged to use the razor nearly a year sooner than the light-haired person. Taking a number of examples, the average measurement around the chin from ear to ear is found to be twelve and one-half inches. From where the beard starts on the throat to the chin and thence to the edge of the under-lip is four and one-half inches. It is reckoned that two strokes of the razor are required to each inch or fraction of an inch, m order to cover all the surface-, and each section of the face is to V.-c gone over twice, m order to secure a "clean shave."

So, multiplying the number of strokes by the number of times the razor is passed over the entire face, you get the figure four, and four times the two above mentioned measurements gives you the figures of fifty and eighteen respectively, which added together produce sixtyeight. Therefore, the average man, whether dark or fair, shaves sixty-eight inches once every twenty- four hours. With these figures we arrive at the result that every man wearing only a moustache shaves two thousand and sixtyeight feet four inches per year. Taking then, the average life at seventy years, and that the fair man begins shaving at eighteen and the. dark man a year earlier, or at seventeen, we have the following result : That a fair man, if he lives till he is seventy, will shave m the course of his life twenty miles, six hundred and fifty-one yards and four inches. The dark man, if he lives till he is seventy, will shave m the course of his life twenty miles, one thousand three hundred and forty yards, one foot and eight inches.