(Anecdote warning: this might be entertaining at the very best but probably you should just skip reading.)

It's interesting to read these threads. It once again reveals how I've somehow managed to entirely skip something that's an essential part of man's daily life for most guys.

I tried razors when I was a young teenager but didn't like the all-or-nothing notion of shaving. You had to get everything clean for the skin to look good because uneven spots stand out, or not shave at all. Same with electric razors, basically. So once I didn't have anything else and I grabbed a hair trimmer and cut all my facial hair down to stubbles. I settled with that very soon after and been using the method for 25 years now.

It does help that I like a bit of beard instead of a plain skin, but not too much so as to have the beard start tickling me and prevent my face from cooling. So I always enjoyed the stubbly time after shaving but before the beard got too long. By trimming it down to stubble each time keeps me in the sweet spot. But it's not just personal preference per se as I've found a number of other benefits as well:

- It never hurts: leaving that 1.0 mm of hair or so means I can't remember the last time I've cut my skin;

- I don't use nor need to use aftershave or other lotions because my skin won't be irritated by shaving;

- These things last a long time, the current trimmer I have is my third in my entire life;

- Not that it matters at that rate of replacement but hair trimmers are much cheaper than stubble trimmers. I think I paid something on the order of 15€ for a simple Philips hair trimmer maybe five years ago. Looking for a replacement after mid 20's, probably;

- It doesn't matter much how carefully I trim because any small irregularities smooth out thanks to stubbly beard all over. So I can just whirr around for 30 seconds and I'll still look much the same as if I had worked on my beard for minutes;

- If you wear stubbly beard there's a long period of when it still look about the same. So I can actually skip doing my beard often, down to only few times a week or even less;

- Back in the 90's, after a few years of trimming my beard, I realized I can use the same thing to trim my hair as well. I've ever since trimmed my skull near bald (1 mm) because it's easy, not having hair keeps my head cool, and I don't really miss having wet, sweaty strings of hair glueing into my head whenever it's hot or I'm exercising, nor do I miss washing hair, or maintaining a particular hair cut across months;

- Now, if your beard is stubbly and your scalp is as close to bald, do you need shampoo? I think I last bought shampoo when I was 20 or something. As a by-product of this showering becomes very easy too...

Counting from the start of late teens / adult life, I've probably spent on the order of worth 50€ in both shaving and hair-cutting in my entire life. I'm not necessarily a thrift but while I mostly like the simplicity of my choices I sort of do enjoy the fact that I could've spent 100x that money or more by now - and that's just for my head alone!

Yet the best part is that I don't have to bother with nearly any of the mundane routines grooming myself and I still don't look like a homeless tramp. The bang-for-the-buck is astounding.