beauty

Would you shave your legs with peanut butter? Because people are doing that now.

Image: Hayley G Hoover (Youtube)

Any peanut butter enthusiast knows there are many great ways to use the delicious nutty spread.

You can put it on a sandwich, with a lashing of jam if you’re feeling adventurous. You can use it to make satay sauces and cookies. You can also eat it straight from the jar, or stir spoonfuls of it into ice cream.

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However, it seems humankind has been severely lacking imagination and innovation where peanut butter is concerned. Apparently, your trusty Kraft condiment can also serve as… an alternative to shaving cream. It sounds like a weird Masterchef challenge, but there are actual non-reality TV people — women and men alike — who have been attempting this trick.

Yep, guys are doing it too. Image: Instagram (@RinelliRadio)

 

The Mail Online's Annabel Cole and Bustle's Maxine Builder are two such brave souls, and both writers came to the same conclusion: the process is messy, cumbersome and kind of gross.

"Shaving was a nightmare. The blades became clogged with the thick peanut butter after one sweep of the razor. Washing them clean took several minutes and covered the bath with yellow clumps of peanut butter," wrote Cole. Admittedly, she used crunchy peanut butter, which probably isn't very compatible with a razor.

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"Application was, in a word, disgusting. It was so thick and difficult to spread that it would’ve taken the whole jar to coat just one of my legs ... I washed the razor thoroughly and tried again, only to be totally grossed out with how tacky the peanut butter was on my leg," Builder said.

If you need the visuals, Youtube personality Hayley Hoover filmed her PB shave attempt, which you can watch below. "I feel like I'm taking a bath in a sandwich," she says at one point, which tells you everything you need to know. (Post continues after video.)

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However, shaving with peanut butter does apparently have some positive effects. Both Cole and Builder were surprised by how wondrously soft their skin was — for Builder, it produced more softness than other shaving cream alternatives like honey and body lotion.

According to dermatologist Dr Susan Mayou, who advised Cole during her experiment, this moisturising affect is attributable to peanut butter's oily goodness. However, Mayou also warned the spread could have an allergenic effect, even when applied to the body externally.

Imagine trying to shave your armpits with peanut butter... (Post continues after gallery.)

While the PB shave seems to have exploded onto the internet out of nowhere, its online existence dates back as far as 2007, at least.

Now, I'm a big fan of shaving cream alternatives — I've been subbing in conditioner or body wash since my uni days, and on desperate occasions I've just used water and hoped for the best (NB: probably not advisable).

RELATED: Apparently we should all be shaving our faces now.

Yet I've never looked at my favourite toast topping and mused, 'Gee, perhaps I should slather this all over my legs in the shower tomorrow morning and then drag a razor through it'. To be honest, I don't think I'll be trying it any time soon, because a) peanut butter isn't that cheap, b) I'd rather just eat it, and c) even the idea of clogging up my razor with sticky brown goop tickles my gag reflex.

However, shaving cream is apparently just the beginning of peanut butter's 'lifestyle' uses, as I learned during this particularly enlightening Google search:

Yeah. We're not in Kansas any more, Toto.

Have you used peanut butter as shaving cream? If so, what was it like? If not, are you tempted?