How does Kirk Douglas shave his chin dimple?

Dear Cecil: We were watching Spartacus the other day and the age-old question came up again. How does someone with a real deep chin dimple shave it? Does he just shave straight over it, leaving the beard in the dimple? Is there a special type razor? Or what? Ted O., Arlington, Virginia

Cecil replies:

Kirk and I aren’t speaking these days, so I called up my brother John, who has a hole in his chin so deep you can hear an echo. John avers that shaving a chin dimple is no problem at all — it just flattens out under the pressure of the razor. (He uses an electric, but says it worked the same way when he used blades.) He attributes the malleability of the dimple to the fact that it isn’t underlaid by bone or cartilage but simply subcutaneous fat. (Actually, John did not say “subcutaneous”; I’m the intellectual in the family.) He sternly advises not smiling while shaving; this tautens up the skin and makes the dimple harder to get into. “No special curved tools are required,” says John. “We people with handicaps, we just want to be treated like everybody else.”

Cecil Adams

Send questions to Cecil via cecil@straightdope.com.