Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

instead of shaving foam or any other commercial concoction in a can I slice off a bit of aloe plant and use that. Unexcitingly low-tech and by itself will not quite halve global warming, but I like it because it does the job well and avoids the environmental downsides of a can of chemicals.

how to:
slice off a bit of aloe leaf. Trim off the tip and the edges, then slice down the middle of the remaining piece so that you have two thin 'squares' which are slimy on one side and leaf-exterior on the other. smear the slimy side on your stubble, shave as normal.

it can smell a bit funny and when you shave you tend to get great long strings of stubbly slime glooping down into the sink. that may sound a bit gross, but you get used to it.

interesting Dazed, you could get that metrosexual moisturised face look while you're at it. Aloe is great at moisturising, especially sunburns

I love aloe (have a huge amount growing.) Do make sure you are not allergic to it before shaving with it or smearing it all over a sun burn.

I had a friend who got terribly sun burned and we all told him to use aloe (even his mom said it would be good and she was a nurse) so he went and got a bottle of aloe sun burn gel and put it all over his burn. Sadly he turned out to be one of the rare people allergic to the stuff. Ack! He survived, lesson learned.

I still think it is great stuff. Thanks for the tip, I'll see if the other half wants to try it for shaving though he usually just uses soap.

Hmm, I wonder if that might work on legs? Shave and moisturize at the same time. They do sell a ladies shaving gel with aloe in it but I like this idea better.

Would kinda need a lot of aloe leaves though!

TCLynx are they sure it was the aloe, those gels and spray don't normally have much aloe in them % wise...but they do have other stuff and yes I shave with it too!
Since using aloe for very long time I have never come across anyone allergic to it.

Grrenest way to shave is not to shave at all!

ah yes, the feral option

I think the doctors finally decided it was the aloe that he was allergic to. That was my first thought too, that it was something else in the gel. Anyway, if ya got the knack for growing aloe, it could be pretty easy to grow enough. I got a whole colony of it out under the citrus trees. I've run out of clay pots for it all so some are even thriving in plastic containers or in the ground.

I personally like the feral option, saves time in the shower.

I stopped shaving about 7 months ago, have had one complete beard removal since then. Good for sun protection too

SG, I should warn you that the consistency has been described as like snot, so enough for legs might be like an elephant sneeze.

...and if you stay feral enough for long enough, you can go down to 1/2" stubble and get comments about how well you scrub up

i like the feral option too. have had a few years when shaves were every 3 to six months. that has changed since moving to a house with lots of aloe.

is there a feral shaggy hippy smilie? why to i get the message "hacking attempt" when i try to insert smilies? don't think my security settings are too high.

I think you only get that if you try and insert a smiley from the quick reply box. If you use the full reply you don't get it and if you type in the smiley code then you don't get it.

I'm on my 30th hour without sleep so couldn't come up with a witty reply

also if you 'preview' you will get extra options.
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