Fads

I don't think it's a fad. I know that it isn't with me.

But neither is bread making with me. Sure there are lots of folks who eat the crap in plastic, but there are also people who grind their own wheat and make their own bread as a way of life (not a fad). There is little in common between the real stuff and the supermarket bought version as you wrote. Yes, in the winter I make the majority of our bread, but not daily. I'll make a few loaves and freeze the excess. But when we want dinner rolls I make them fresh, the same with burger buns. Most of the rest of the world knows what real bread is even if they don't personally bake it.

There definitely are the lemmings who follow the fads. I assume you refer to them. BTW, those bread machines were the pits IMO. Yeah, it was fresh bread, but little better than store bought. Maybe that's why not many exist anymore. We were given one and I found it annoying. I gave it away years ago and started to make my own the traditional way. Same way I came to traditional shaving pretty much.

yes, I think you get it. Yes, the machine were the pits quickly put into a closet. They were a fad. Making bread (or pizza) from scratch taste NOTHING like the stuff from commercial bakeries, not even close. At this point I can make pizza better than the local chain store pizza places without a real pizza oven but not better than the wood stove ovens making real margehita pizza. I can't get the crust done in a couple of minutes because you need a 900 degree oven.

But yes, you get it and anyone who grinds their own flour - dude, you rock.

grim, I don't always grind flour. It's much more difficult to make bread with fresh ground whole grain and frankly the lure of King Arthur flour is hard to resist. But I work on perfecting home ground flour loaves. It's much easier to make what I know as a German Brot with home ground. (very dense; basically a grain delivery loaf)

But no local pizzeria can come close to my slow rise dough NY style pizza, or so my guests tell me when I make it. I have a cooker that can easily get to 900°F , but I won't heat stress it to that degree. So I don't make Naples style pizza either.

I still say that bread makers were in a majority of homes though.  I don't see a DE or shaving soaps/brushes in a majority homes.  A fad, to me, is something that is totally mainstream and almost everybody is into it.  I don't see that with traditional wet shaving as of right now.

Hula hoops and beanie babies were most definitely fads  yet they were not in every house. You don't have to have complete market penetration to be a fad.

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So grim , just out of curiosity, is this thread just for discussion of if wet shaving is or isn't a fad, or did you have some other point to make?  

Its only about the wetshavingtime post https://wetshavingtimes.wordpress.com/20...ust-a-fad/

He is discussing it as a fad and I thought about it and was countering his points. Obviously, his barber thought it a fad.  Quote

"I had an interesting discussion with my barber.  He told me that he thought that wet shaving was a fad and that it probably would die down in a few years ..."

So that was from someone in the profession who though it a fad. I "expect" those who think it a hobby to think it not a fad. That should be obvious but I also expect others to think about it in a bigger context as it applies to past fads, hence my bread making analogy.

Right, they might not have been in every home, but 9 out of 10 people could tell you what they were. Walk up to 10 men and ask them if they know what a safety razor and shaving brush is and 9 of them will have a puzzled look on their face.

I don't see it as a fad. The fact that a lot of artisans go out of business is not an indication of the popularity. Many of them had full time careers and got burned out and, thus, voluntarily closed shop. Some were simply not high quality and/or lacked interesting scents. I figure other artisans picked up their customers.

Fad or not, I'm a wet shaver for life. I dealt with irritation from shaving for far too long to ever go back to carts and gel.

I'm not sure if fad is exactly the right term, but there is definitely something going on with wet shaving that seems unsustainable.

I wouldn't be surprised to see wet shaving continue to become more popular in the mainstream, but the hobbyist element of it feels like it's growing at an unnatural pace.

The hype around new product releases and speed of sales for some brands reminds me a lot of the fashion industry. Not all fashion is about fads, but the specific things that are popular often come and go. If I were to point to fads, I could more easily point to specific wet shaving products.


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I'm not sure if fad is exactly the right term, but there is definitely something going on with wet shaving that seems unsustainable.

I wouldn't be surprised to see wet shaving continue to become more popular in the mainstream, but the hobbyist element of it feels like it's growing at an unnatural pace.

The hype around new product releases and speed of sales for some brands reminds me a lot of the fashion industry. Not all fashion is about fads, but the specific things that are popular often come and go. If I were to point to fads, I could more easily point to specific wet shaving products.


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Hi Watson , which specific products do you consider fads? I'm going to suggest pre-shave butter. There were none then every soaper had one, personally I don't see the benefit.

....If I were to point to fads, I could more easily point to specific wet shaving products.

Hi Watson , which specific products do you consider fads?  I'm going to suggest pre-shave butter.  There were none then every soaper had one, personally I don't see the benefit.

I can't speak for Watson but I understand his point and definitely see "microfads". Specific products are touted or pushed by fanatics, in certain parts of the virtual sphere, and then disappear from notice. examples

HMW or Manchurian is pushed as the end all of all brushes but suddenly synthetics are now the fad. I suspect its because they are cheap, but the traditionalists and hobbyists will not give up their HMW or Manchurians.

I read pockets of praise on different parts of the internet where one "artisan" is viewed as the king and then it fades away or ignored on another part. That might be fanaticism or fad. What artisan is hot and which is not? This is easy to figure it out. You know who they are.

In the limited time I read in other forums, some do yield influence over the newbies, until you try what they tout for yourself and decide different.

I think certain scents in soaps are a fad. Food comes to mind. Pumpkin pie soap sounds great. Coffee .... hmm. But can you use it daily?

I agree that there seems to be several fads within the hobby. Those fads tend to follow the same patterns as fads outside the wet shaving hobby, to my observations.

There are artisans capitalizing on the clown epidemic of late, the pumpkin spice trend, everyone seems to be trying to come up with the purest vetiver scented soap, and inserting increasingly rare ingredients into soap bases when "run-of-the-mill" ingredients would perform equally well, but with less fanfare, and using current events to try and sell a new release or seasonal offering or limited edition something-or-other...

There is a HUGE trend from several artisans to try and reflect fragrances of the past and invoke a sense of nostalgia into the hobby, which I use the word "trend" over "fad" purposefully, as I am trying to avoid the negative connotation of the word "fad" simply because I see this as a positive, not a negative.

And of course, everyone wants to feel special, like they have something that is desirable but unobtainable, so the trend of limited edition and custom...everything...again..."trend" is used as I see this as a positive in the hobby, not a negative, and trends ebb and flow the same as fads, just without the negative implications, to my mind...

There are a lot of trends and fads within the hobby that will very likely come and go with the latest fancy, but I don;t think the existence of these "micro-fads" will negatively impact the hobby of wet shaving to any degree... It seems incidental, rather than integral...

I don't feel synthetic brushes are a fad, they're the future(especially if you want wet shaving to go mainstream)
Synthetic will continue to get softer and better, animal hair will stay the same. Sure old timer shavers will want to keep their naturals they've always used change is bad and all that, but new people will care more about preformce , speed and price. Synthetic are cheaper, softer, build good lather fast, don't need soaked, and dry fast. There's a lot more color options too(people like to feel Unique) right now people starting might get a crappy boar or badger and be turned off from wet shaving, but a similar priced synthetic is way better. I think the way to getting into mainstream will be synthetic brushes and shave creams or sticks. Most people are into speed which is why they use canned goo and disposable(I don't get why since they do the sam two pass I do) I think shave creams and sticks are faster and easier then soap(though i prefer soap but I use creams on days I don't have much time) plus they are already use to shaving cream in cans or brushless, where they may see a shave soap on a shelf and think what's that.

Yeah, you guys have pretty much captured what I was referencing. Shave butters are a good example of fads within wet shaving, as are the scent types and brush knot types that are popular. Some element of that is fad, and another part of it is just product evolution. Synthetics weren't even a real option 6-8 years ago. I remember the nylon bristle Art of Shaving brush I had was really rough.