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Why all the problems with SWMBO?

GoneRetroInOH

GoneRetroInOH

Every now and then there is a thread from someone whose shaving hobby (or obsession) has caused contention with SWMBO. I cannot help but be curious, how could any woman NOT approve of a habit that causes men to...

  • Mind their grooming instead of being careless slobs.
  • Scrub the sink and countertop.
  • Wipe the mirror clean.
  • Regularly mop the shaveden (bathroom) floor.
  • Come to a new and liberated understanding about what women get from hours and dollars spent on beauty products.
  • Organize the bathroom.
  • Spend reasonable money on a self-indulgent habit that produces positive outcome and not expended drug paraphernalia or empty booze bottles.

Is there some intolerably negative aspect that I am missing? Or sometimes is SWMBO impossible to please no matter what the gentleman does?
 
TexLaw

TexLaw

Fussy Evil Genius
Because we like to act like our lives are not friggin' glorious.

Maybe it's some friggin' work ethic, or I don't know. Why did my great-uncle gripe about his knee being worthless . . . right before taking my silly butt to town on the tennis court? Why does my grandmother-in-law like to talk about her mind going . . . right before whooping my butt in cards?

We're taught to be humble. Maybe this is how.

All I know is that I married better than my wife did. I'll take that to the grave.
 
tejolot3

tejolot3

Because getting into personal grooming is perceived as being effeminate. We would likely encounter a similar reaction to getting into clothes fashion, jewelry, etc.
 
Orville

Orville

Whenever SWMBO gets on my case, I give her my best loving gaze . . . and remind her that I married her, but she married ME.
 
Executive Contour

Executive Contour

Depends on the relationship. To some women it can perhaps seem narcissistic or self-indulgent. Women generally don't care for a guy who spends a lot of time looking in the mirror.... Although it has to be said that the guys they seem to like most spend a lot of time looking in the mirror. To others it can seem like a waste of money. For others it's about fear: just who is he suddenly grooming himself for? And for others it's just about control: anytime a guy seems to be enjoying himself too much they need to take him down a notch.

My solution when confronted with any of the above is simply to stop shaving altogether.
 
P

PMT

Executive Contour said:
Depends on the relationship. To some women it can perhaps seem narcissistic or self-indulgent. Women generally don't care for a guy who spends a lot of time looking in the mirror.... Although it has to be said that the guys they seem to like most spend a lot of time looking in the mirror. To others it can seem like a waste of money. For others it's about fear: just who is he suddenly grooming himself for? And for others it's just about control: anytime a guy seems to be enjoying himself too much they need to take him down a notch.

My solution when confronted with any of the above is simply to stop shaving altogether.
Click to expand...
+1! Luckily or not, I was divorced when I discovered wet shaving, now best of both worlds, nice GF who loves my habit and stays out of my business as I do hers!
 
DonMac

DonMac

tejolot3 said:
Because getting into personal grooming is perceived as being effeminate. We would likely encounter a similar reaction to getting into clothes fashion, jewelry, etc.
Click to expand...

Hardly! Trying saying that at a business office full of well-groomed professionals. Regardless of what some may say, people categorize you by the way you look. If you look unkempt, and sloppy, that's their initial impression of you. First impressions are lasting impressions. That's why we dress professionally for job interviews. May not be socially correct, but it's a reality of life.
"If you look like a duck, walk like a duck, and quack like a duck, chances are you're a duck"
 
S

Screech8710

I can't speak for others and their marriages, but I have had no problems with The Wife. She knows I enjoy the improvement gained and enjoy the nostalgia of it all. As long as I'm being responsible with what I spend, she makes no complaints. Heck, she has even encouraged me to buy some things I was on the fence about. Plus, she likes the scents of my aftershaves. Her current favorite is Sterling barbershop and I am happy to oblige her by using it often.
 
AbbyW2

AbbyW2

My wife is very enthusiastic about the whole shaving madness I'm into. She loves to smell my neck each morning.
 
BobbyB

BobbyB

My SWMBO--put up with me for all but one year we have been married--has no problems with me DE shaving conversion. She leaves for work at 0515 in the morning. I shower and shave after I get home from the gym, so there is no conflict of the bathroom. During the one year absence, I was in norther Iraq.
 
BSAGuy

BSAGuy

OP - Great observation. I think the problem arises when we try to take more shelf space and/or when she asks why we need 28 razors and 5 creams when we can only use one at a time.
 
C

Chumango

She has told me she approves of this obsession. She does not like stubble or facial hair. She even pretends to be interested (and sometimes actually is interested) when I ask her to smell a new soap. But most of all she likes my face after I shave.
 
tclobaugh

tclobaugh

I think the amount of time we spend in the bathroom can be a factor. That seems to be the source of the comments I get. It would help if I had my own or at least a double vanity.
 
tejolot3

tejolot3

DonMac said:
Hardly! Trying saying that at a business office full of well-groomed professionals. Regardless of what some may say, people categorize you by the way you look. If you look unkempt, and sloppy, that's their initial impression of you. First impressions are lasting impressions. That's why we dress professionally for job interviews. May not be socially correct, but it's a reality of life.
"If you look like a duck, walk like a duck, and quack like a duck, chances are you're a duck"
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with you. An office-full of well-groomed business professionals wouldn't have any issues with our shaving habits. Coworkers, male friends: never do these roll their eyes. The question, though, is why our significant others so often do. The relationship dynamics are different and, to many a wife, a tough and rugged man is more appealing than one who fusses and preens.

Am ex-girlfriend of mine once described the ideal man as being like a hard-shell taco: tough and crunchy on the outside, warn and soft on the inside.
 
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