{"id":325,"date":"2006-06-13T15:31:01","date_gmt":"2006-06-13T23:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/songoose.com\/?p=181"},"modified":"2025-07-22T18:37:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T18:37:57","slug":"useful-but-forgotten-styptic-pencil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/?p=325","title":{"rendered":"Useful but Forgotten: Styptic Pencil"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years I had been tearing little bits of teepee off and pasting them to my face to plug self-inflicted shaving cuts. Then, I go to my moms for dinner with one of these little white paper scabs and she asks me “why don’t you use a styptic pencil<\/a>?” Styptic what? She explains that “in the old days, everyone used it for shaving cuts – I still use one for my legs.” So, I take a look at my local pharmacy and lo and behold, they still sell them! <\/p>\n

So I bought one and from that day onward I have never applied a tissue corner to my face. If I get a cut, I moisten the end of the styptic pencil with some water then apply it to the cut, which stops the bleeding almost immediately. Now, let there be no sugar-coating, the application of a styptic pencil to a cut is, shall we say, an ‘acquired taste’ sort of like how wasabi mustard and suicide wings are an acquired taste – it burns. But it only burns briefly and the closure of the cut is almost always permanent and invisible. I’ll take a quick burn over a fruity bit of tissue clinging to my face any day. Besides, if you’re shaving you ought to be tough enough to handle a little burn, girlie-man (&\/or manlie-girl)!<\/p>\n

Wikipedia has an explanation of the chemistry of the styptic pencil here<\/a>. Also, as far as I can tell, these things must last forever – nice when they cost about $1.50<\/a>. Not to be confused with the Vicks Inhaler<\/a>, an equally useful reliever of discomfort that no one except ravers seem to use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years I had been tearing little bits of teepee off and pasting them to my face to plug self-inflicted shaving cuts. Then, I go to my moms for dinner with one of these little white paper scabs and she asks me “why don’t you use a styptic pencil?” Styptic what? She explains that “in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ramblings","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions\/421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}