(image: The Bayside Brush Co.)

While we’re on the subject of affordable luxuries, consider the pocket comb. I’ve never been one for using a brush, my hair just doesn’t respond well to them. (Although I would love a pair of military brushes, but I will have to wait for the day when I go more grey and grow my neatly clipped moustache.)

A good comb, on the other hand, is just the ticket. But why use any old black plastic, sharp toothed pocket comb? It may be unbreakable, that’s true. And unless you lose it, you will spend an eternity reading the thing. “Ace” you will read, time and time again. “Ace.”

No, the Ace comb is not for me. My combs were bought in El Corte Inglés. One is made of horn, the other is faux tortoiseshell. Both are beautiful and both have teeth that are rounded and non-damaging to wet hair. They may cost exponentially more than the drugstore variety, but even if you think only in purely aesthetic terms, they are worth every dollar.

If you can’t make it to Spain, and with the exchange rate for the Euro being what it is, there are online sources that offer French handmade combs, English cellulose tortoiseshell look combs by Kent and handmade Swiss numbers by Speert, suppliers of pocket combs to the Little Coriscan.

While you’re at it, pick up a Mason Pearson brush or rake for your significant other. After all, shouldn’t everyone start the day just a little more elegantly?

(The Number 41 Slivertip Badger Brush from Progress Vulfix)

Gentlemen, even if you choose to ignore all of the other suggestions that I have made over the last year, please consider changing your shaving routine for the better.

I hate to badger you about it but, please, if you wet shave, use a shaving brush.

Last week, in an effort to economize in packing, I neglected to pack my shaving brush, DE razor and soap, electing to lug along a high-tech multi-bladed vibrating plastic razor and can of equally high-tech and similarly branded gel.

I spent the week looking like an accident victim. First cut to ribbons, then stubbly, then cut to ribbons again. I shaved twice. It was all I could do to bear the experience.

Upon my return I was happily reunited with my brush, mug, bowl and Merkur razor. My mug is smilingly smooth once again.

Shaving brushes are available from many sources, The Art of Shaving, Truefitt and Hill, Geo. F. Trumper, Amazon and Progress Vulfix to name a few. Classic Shaving has all the products (and product knowledge) you could wish for and the service, while slow, is steady.

Ignoring the handle design and material, it is the business end of the brush with which you should be most concerned. As with most things I recommend, you would do best buying the most expensive you can afford (it will last forever.) That means staying away from the synthetic bristle options. Wet shaving is supposed to be just that — wet. Synthetics simply can not hold the requisite amount of water you need to get a close and comfortable shave.

For the budget conscious, boar bristles are softer, hold more water than synthetics and are not that much more expensive.

But what really does the trick, is badger bristle. Like most things these days, badger bristle comes from China, so don’t let that concern you. There are three grades of badger bristle that increase in price depending on how much of the badger they formerly covered.

Pure Badger Bristle is what covers most of the badger. As such, it is a little more coarse and stiff.

Best Badger is somewhat more expensive as it covers less of the animal and is longer in length, making it more supple.

Silvertip (or Super Badger) is hair taken from the chest and neck area and is the most expensive. Think of it as cashmere. It is tan with a darker bands around the shaft. The silvertip bristles flare more than the others and are more thermally insulating for the animal. That flare lets them hold more water, which in turn produces more lather and a very soft and luxurious lather up.

I have all three sorts and while the difference between pure and best is noticeable, it isn’t earth shattering. My silvertip brush (with Waterford crystal handle — never do that again, soap and water are slippery some mornings, and crystal chips) is decadent.

Why not inject a little luxury into your mornings and get a closer, more comfortable shave to boot? The badger bristle shaving brush is the easy and elegant solution.

Do you think it’s the heat or that gasoline is hovering around UDS$4.00 a gallon? Or maybe it’s the angry music that most drivers like to blare from custom speakers?

Drivers these days seem more and more on edge and less and less forgiving. That we even have the term “road rage” is unsettling at best. That Walt Disney and company identified the disease in the 1940’s is upsetting. Remember the short with Goofy turning into a horned demon whenever he got behind the wheel?

Now I like to drive my little sports sedan with the best of them. And, in a pinch, I’ve been known to use the torque and the sixth gear to merge into heavy traffic. I’m working on my downshifting even now. But I like the idea of “motoring.” Whatever happened to the idea of motoring?

Or better yet, where is Fairchild when I need him? Ah yes, driving Linus Larrabee in the screen capture above from “Sabrina.”

I’ve said it before, I’ll know that I’ve made it when I have a car and driver at my disposal. That’s living, er….Big time.

But until that august day, I’ll try and remember a few of the rules of the road.

Things like “right of way” and “yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks,” especially in 100ºF weather or downpours; and even more so since I am in an air-conditioned-leather-and-surround-sound-appointed vehicle. I don’t tailgate or cut people off; I am rarely in a rush.

How much more elegant would you feel leaving a little earlier or later (schedule permitting) to avoid the last minute rushhour? Imagine arriving at your destination unflushed, unflustered, relaxed and in plenty of time. It is easy to be enraged, but far less elegant than maintaining your composure when all those around you are losing theirs. Strolling, or its automotive equivalent, through life allows you to enjoy it that much more. When at all possible, I like to leave the driving, and parking — my bête noir — to someone else. If not, well that’s me in the right lane you’re passing, humming along to a little Vivaldi or Guaraldi, waving a thank you for letting me merge.

But in my Walter Mitty moments I’m still here:
“Topocata-pocata-pocata went the ancient Bentley’s engine…”