Shaving evangelism

Throughout the past five years, I have convinced 15 of my male friends, colleagues and aquaintances and one female friend to convert to, at least, a brush and soap, but most to DEs.
I don't put in as much effort, any longer, unless the opportunity presents itself.

5 years in and my count is at 4 recruits - my brother, brother-in-law, a neighbor and a co-worker. They all enjoy the shaves, but none dedicate quite as much time to the hobby as we all do

How could I forget? oops... I also got my wife to switch over to a DE. At first, I got her a tub of B&M Night Music soap and a RazoRock Monster Plissoft brush for Valentine's Day last year. At the time she was still using carts. Then, I happened to win a Maggard V3 razor at the meet up last year so I gifted that to her. She told me the biggest benefit has been the lack of irritation after shaving.

I got eight of my Cambodia expat friends to switch my last trip . Brought over freebie soap I made and a pile of razors.

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I think I've posted this before but what the heck, I discovered wet shaving 4 or 5 years ago now while walking through a local Farmers Market. I noticed a booth that had some eShave travel kits for sale, a small badger brush, some cream and aftershave balm. Cool, I bought it and started using it while still shaving with the mach 3. I went to the eShave website and bought a little more stuff but, being in Canada I found that with shipping, FX, duty, extortion etc. it was very expensive - the kicker was when I was denied my "welcome gift" because I was Canadian. I felt unwelcome. A colleague at work (lets call him the enabler) told me about a Canadian site that he used called Fendrihan. No FX, free shipping - but then he warned me, "be careful, its a deep, dark hole" he said. I remember thinking, "what a curious thing to say?" So, I found an abundance of wetshaving stuff I'd never known existed and I decided to try a safety razor, I read customer feedback and ended up buying a merkur (can't recall which one) that many customers said was a good novice razor. Nope, it was awful, I persevered for a couple of weeks then went back to the mach 3. Well, my son had been paying attention and he asked if he could give it a go with the razor so I said sure and off he went. He was shaving regularly with the thing and seemed to be enjoying it. He was basically shaming me, so I did more research and decided to go with the EJ DE-89. Much better experience and I've not looked back. So indirectly I guess I got my son going with wet shaving. I then set about convincing my brother. He was a tough sell because he already knows everything. He was using the Williams mug soap and cheap Omega boar with a cartridge razor. I gave him the Ogalalla Bonanza pack of soap and aftershave samples which he quite liked. The game changer however was when I gave him a tub of Barrister and Mann Bay Rum soap. Now he was getting it. He has brought his three sons over to the wet shaving world and now owns close to a dozen razors and more than a few soaps. I've occasionally thought back to that cryptic warning - beware, its a deep dark hole - but I'm so far down that dark hole that I've forgotten that there even is light, and I'm happy and besides, I think I see the other side just a little bit further .

Really nice post.

Some years back I tried with family and friends. The problem I encountered is if they were actually enjoying their shaves and could afford the cartridges there wasn't much convincing I could accomplish.

That's a problem? It sounds like they were happy with their shaves.

My take is that it is not about people getting great shaves with traditional gear, but simply about getting great shaves. I don't mention safety razors, brushes, soaps, etc. unless someone mentions that he is dissatisfied with his shaves. Not sure if any of them actually took up traditional wetshaving or any of its elements.

Really nice post.

Some years back I tried with family and friends. The problem I encountered is if they were actually enjoying their shaves and could afford the cartridges there wasn't much convincing I could accomplish.

That's a problem?  It sounds like they were happy with their shaves.

My take is that it is not about people getting great shaves with traditional gear, but simply about getting great shaves.  I don't mention safety razors, brushes, soaps, etc. unless someone mentions that he is dissatisfied with his shaves.  Not sure if any of them actually took up traditional wetshaving or any of its elements.

Right you are, its been my experience that guys will seldom discuss their personal grooming thats why youtube is such a great resource. You can get pretty much any question answered without the discomfort of having to ask anyone. If I can recall, in my experience the closest anybody has come to talking about their shaving practice might have been in a smelly hockey dressing room after a game having a beer and a guy might have said he doesn't like to shave the day of a game because with all the sweat and heat it irritates the @*%^# out of him.

Evangelism and proselytizing have caused far to much harm to the world. I avoid the pre civilization/nation state religion for a mystical shaman approach. People see this look of satisfaction on my face, pit bulls wagging their tails and women in my inner circle and want that. I charge $1000 to sit naked on the desert pavement all night and in the morning
survivors are given a basic shave set.

I charge $1000 to sit naked on the desert pavement all night and in the morning survivors are given a basic shave set.

So, my questions are: 1) What is included in the basic shave set? 2) Do I have to memorize any chants?

Edwin Jaeger, pack of Polsilvers, Pre de Provence and a synthetic. I hold no hidden mysteries, nor claim guruship. By repudiating this claim in Kaleeforneea I assure people I am indeed one. THE chant, repeat after me is AUMMM---whaaaaaaaaaaaaa----taaaaaaaaaaaa-goooooooooo-------- Siammmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.