Weird Stuff I Found on YouTube
So, today, I was looking at videos for straight/safety razors. THis is a hobby of mine, as I have been using a straight razor almost exclusively for about two years now. The experience is very relaxing (until you cut yourself, and then you are scrambling for sulfa, a tournequette, or the styptic pen, depending on how bad you nicked yourself). And you only have to pay for stuff once. The last time I bought cartridges for my disposable razor, it was over $9. For like 3 of the friggin' things. I had two razors; one I bought in college at an antique store for around $35 with a colloid handle, and the other I inherited from my great-grandfather years before. A few years ago, I got a honing stone and strop from Jess for my birthday. Because I was stupid when I was 17, I punched a hole in the wall of my mom's kitchen and used Po-po's razor to cut a swath of wallpaper out of my closet, which I matched up to the paper in her kitchen and glued it all back in place. She found out what I had done about five years later. Unfortunately, it nicked the blade of my Comfort 100, and I really didn't consider it shaveworthy when I started using the razors. So it sat in my drawer, unused.
About six months ago, I got tired of the colloid handle blade getting dull and basically just pulling the hair out by the roots. No matter how much I honed it, it never seemed to be sharp enough. In a fit of determination, I went to town on Po-po's old Comfort 100, and other than the nick in the blade, I realized it was already, even in its pathetic condition, already sharper than that German steel blade. I've used it ever since with great success.
ANyway, I was looking a videos to "hone" my technique and saw in the side thingy this thumbnail called ASMR Shave and Haircut. I clicked on it. This is the weirdest thing. See, apparently there are a whole lot of videos out there where someone us just whispering, or pretending to do somewhat mundane things. According to what I've read on the subject, the whole thing is supposed to stimulate your sensory reactions and give you chills, relax you, or supposedly even give you a pseudo-sexual reflex. Honestly, I think there is something to this. Watching a few of these videos, I did get the chills all through my scalp and oddly enough, my face. I actually felt relaxed and happy. I don't know what that is all about, but it's frigging cool.
It is weird too, because it reminds me of the same feeling you get when you get your hair cut and you feel very relaxed, pampered, and all the attention is focused on you and your comfort. You don't even get that kind of reaction from therapy, at least I don't anyway, because all that is is an hour of complaining to someone about your life. It reminds me of quiet, intimate (not to be confused with sexy-timez) moments with someone, where you talked quietly, and you could almost feel their whispers in your chest. When I worked tech support back in my single days, I actually had a few instances where a woman with a nice voice had called in and by the end of the call, we had both dropped the volume and tone of our voices until it reached this level. It was hypnotic, almost competitive. And dare I say hot. Almost to the level of needing to go out and smoke a cigarette. But that was a little bit different.
But this shit is just crazy. I don't know if people are fetishizing it, or if it's just truly just relaxing. Stimulating A-waves and the like. I mean there's no sexy-talk, no skin, most of it is really mundane stuff like pretend hair-cutting, ear cleaning, or playing with a bowl of snow in comfy gloves. Is this the level our society has reached? Have we been so inundated with the raunchy, graphic stuff, that wholesome things are all we have left to stimulate our pleasure sensors? Have our libidos rubbed that part of our minds raw and now we need something like someone whispering about how nice your teeth are going to look after the flouride treatment makes us happy? It's not even sexual, yet it is sensual to a degree, in the truest sense of the word. Maybe it's just the tone, the lack of jarring ringtones or screaming toddlers or doors opening and closing, the harsh blast of the HVAC system, or the drone of people nattering away in endless meetings. Sounds that are calming, like warm water running out of a tap. Raindrops on the roof. The wind in the trees. The snip of scissors. The staccato of a young voice whispering to just you that takes you someplace else. Dare I say, almost like the days when you liked someone and you whispered on the phone for hours so your parents couldn't eavesdrop. Yet exciting and soothing all Like those mornings when you woke up at a relatives house and all the adults were talking in another room, telling stories, watching a show on TV. The clink of coffee spoons in mugs. The low sizzle of a pan of bacon. Footie jammies.
Or maybe it's just me. Some weird shit though. An hour of listening to someone just ramble on with a whisper about nothing in particular and I can just feel my brain go slack. Maybe a little drool before I black out. What witchery is this?
About six months ago, I got tired of the colloid handle blade getting dull and basically just pulling the hair out by the roots. No matter how much I honed it, it never seemed to be sharp enough. In a fit of determination, I went to town on Po-po's old Comfort 100, and other than the nick in the blade, I realized it was already, even in its pathetic condition, already sharper than that German steel blade. I've used it ever since with great success.
ANyway, I was looking a videos to "hone" my technique and saw in the side thingy this thumbnail called ASMR Shave and Haircut. I clicked on it. This is the weirdest thing. See, apparently there are a whole lot of videos out there where someone us just whispering, or pretending to do somewhat mundane things. According to what I've read on the subject, the whole thing is supposed to stimulate your sensory reactions and give you chills, relax you, or supposedly even give you a pseudo-sexual reflex. Honestly, I think there is something to this. Watching a few of these videos, I did get the chills all through my scalp and oddly enough, my face. I actually felt relaxed and happy. I don't know what that is all about, but it's frigging cool.
It is weird too, because it reminds me of the same feeling you get when you get your hair cut and you feel very relaxed, pampered, and all the attention is focused on you and your comfort. You don't even get that kind of reaction from therapy, at least I don't anyway, because all that is is an hour of complaining to someone about your life. It reminds me of quiet, intimate (not to be confused with sexy-timez) moments with someone, where you talked quietly, and you could almost feel their whispers in your chest. When I worked tech support back in my single days, I actually had a few instances where a woman with a nice voice had called in and by the end of the call, we had both dropped the volume and tone of our voices until it reached this level. It was hypnotic, almost competitive. And dare I say hot. Almost to the level of needing to go out and smoke a cigarette. But that was a little bit different.
But this shit is just crazy. I don't know if people are fetishizing it, or if it's just truly just relaxing. Stimulating A-waves and the like. I mean there's no sexy-talk, no skin, most of it is really mundane stuff like pretend hair-cutting, ear cleaning, or playing with a bowl of snow in comfy gloves. Is this the level our society has reached? Have we been so inundated with the raunchy, graphic stuff, that wholesome things are all we have left to stimulate our pleasure sensors? Have our libidos rubbed that part of our minds raw and now we need something like someone whispering about how nice your teeth are going to look after the flouride treatment makes us happy? It's not even sexual, yet it is sensual to a degree, in the truest sense of the word. Maybe it's just the tone, the lack of jarring ringtones or screaming toddlers or doors opening and closing, the harsh blast of the HVAC system, or the drone of people nattering away in endless meetings. Sounds that are calming, like warm water running out of a tap. Raindrops on the roof. The wind in the trees. The snip of scissors. The staccato of a young voice whispering to just you that takes you someplace else. Dare I say, almost like the days when you liked someone and you whispered on the phone for hours so your parents couldn't eavesdrop. Yet exciting and soothing all Like those mornings when you woke up at a relatives house and all the adults were talking in another room, telling stories, watching a show on TV. The clink of coffee spoons in mugs. The low sizzle of a pan of bacon. Footie jammies.
Or maybe it's just me. Some weird shit though. An hour of listening to someone just ramble on with a whisper about nothing in particular and I can just feel my brain go slack. Maybe a little drool before I black out. What witchery is this?