Experiment: Glamour

For my second experiment I want to look at eliciting a feeling of glamour while shaving. I feel that shaving is sometimes quite a glamourous process, the act of perfecting your own image, the care and time you take in doing it, the feel of smooth legs and the act of shaving with the soap and the warm water is quite sexy and glamourous. When I was little I viewed shaving as a grown up thing that ladies did, which is how shaving makes me feel. Like a lady. I wanted to expand on this already pre-existing thought by changing the sound of shaving to be more glamourous. During my ethnography on shaving I noticed that shaving didn't really have a sound except for the gross scratchy noise and the sound of water from the shower. Because the scratchy noise is quite spiny tingly and icky I wanted to make the shaver concentrate on a different more dominant sound.

I am going to play a combination of smooth jazz and classical music while I shave to elicit feelings of glamour. The idea behind jazz and classical music is that when thinking about glamour generally it is associated with the 1940s and 50s particularly with Hollywood. The idea of going out to a jazz bar or going to watch an orchestra play is quite glamourous. The ladies in Mad Men look glamourous when they are all dolled up and the primary soundtrack for the show is Jazz or Classical music. As Jazz and classical music is not really played during our everyday, it has a mystic and allure. One of the ways glamour is seen as ideal is that it is not experienced in the everyday, which is why Jazz and Classical music is great for making the shaver feel glamourous while shaving.

How It felt:
It was interesting having music playing while I took a shower, it is unusual for me to have any music while I do this. I found that I was more relaxed because of the music, I could hum along to the music and dance to it when it was catchy. When I was shaving I took more time and was more careful than I would usually. I felt classy and elegant when I was shaving, feelings one could link to being glamourous. I primarily played Jazz and it was Jazz that was playing when I was shaving. I think it was more appropriate than classical music and I felt more at ease with Jazz.