Ablutions

Although the fellow at the center of our interest appears to be contemplating

 a swim, the rest of the group looks like they are doing their ablutions.

 

Guest Series via Dee Exx - Men Grooming Each Other

Mutual grooming is considered valuable for social bonding in almost all primate species.  Frequent commentator and contributor Dee Exx sent me today's series which shows human males, mostly military, doing exactly that.  We start with two U.S. Marines photographed by Carl Mydans.  The man at right is using a styptic pencil on a shaving cut.  Thanks a million Dee!

 

Royal Australian Navy I

This is the first of three photos of Australian Navy men, and it's a personal

 favorite that I have probably posted some time or the other.

 

Beard Trim

Myron Davis took this photo of a man getting a shipboard beard trim in 1944.

They were offshore just before the landings a Saidor, New Guinea.

 

Tent city

I can't tell what that dark streak is on the guy at right's face, but those tents were a hallmark

 of World War II U.S. military encampments.  The leggings indicate that it was fairly early

 in the war because those were rarely used in action after 1942.

 

Ruin

This one looks like a shave going on in a ruin.

 

Tankers

Efficiency seems to be in order for these two tankers mutually shaving.

 

Tulane ROTC

These men were part of a Tulane University ROTC unit on maneuvers in the 1950s.

They seem to have an interested audience in the background.

 

Royal Australian Navy III

The third and final photo in today's set of Australian sailors is another trim and not a shave.

 

Close friends

Our last shaving photo shows two guys who must have been very close friends.

Thanks again to Dee Exx for today's guest series!

 

1957 I

A young man with a bit of a Buddy Holly look is shaving next to a hand pump in the 1957 FKK photo.  I do wonder if the water would have been salty, but perhaps this was an inland dune area.

 

More close quarters

Despite the implied, rather than explicit, nudity, I find this crowded locker room shaving 

scene to be quite sexy.  The team is the Washington Redskins in the mid-1950s, 

and the man in the left side of the mirror is quarterback Eddie LeBaron.

 

Ralph

Ralph Shaffer was the house manager at the Pat Rocco sponsored several LA group residences for young gay men called Liberation Houses.  The news releases and magazine articles for the houses all pointed out that there were rules and that it was not a flop house.  Men had to pay $1.50 per day after the first five days which were free.  Those rules did not forbid nudity or sexual activity.

 

Amateur Ablutions

Our Saturday theme is amateur shots of men doing their ablutions, and you will soon see 

some photo quality that shrieks "amateur."  We start with a World War II German 

soldier using a railway rotary track switch as a shaving stand.

 

Group of five

Here we have guys washing clothes, shaving, bathing, and bending over.

Did the bender drop the soap?  And why does the shaver have his pants around his knees?

 

Washing and doing his washing

This guy looks like he's washing himself in the sink after 

having washed and hung up some socks and underwear.

 

Washout

The washed out nature of this photo attests to the 

likelihood of amateur origin and also fits the theme.

Disclosure:  I had to work on this to make it viewable at all.

 

Blurry group

Although the image is blurry, we can see one guy shaving, one guy scrubbing his crotch,

one shaving, and on standing there washing his chest.  And all in a creek.

 

Filling a glass?

Finishing up with a beefy fellow who appears to be filling a glass 

somewhere in a rather large tiled bathroom or locker room.

Maybe he had been brushing his teeth.

 

AMG 1958

Bob Mizer of AMG captured this image of an unknown lanky model in what I suspect was a stage set bathroom, not a real one.  Am I the only one whose home had those space heaters as a kid?