State of Wetshaving

Oh, and "fine post" a I saw what you did - nice!

For me its wet shave or no shave, before I started traditional shaving(guess cartridge is also wet shaving) I probably shaved three times in ten years(so since I started growing beard) every time was the worse experience ever. I threw the stuff away and swearer never again. Instead I would trim my beard to a two day after shave look. Traditional shaving started rough and there were some bad times, even then no where near as bad as disposable and goo. Now I hardly ever have a terrible shave. I still get mild irritation in my neck, (that fine line between where my hair grows up then suddenly stops and grows down is impossible to find exactly) I'll soon stop buying soaps though. I almost have 30 in my rotation. I only hope my purchases helped companies. I've tried to get others into it but guess people in the northwest just prefer their disposables and goo.

Do you mean wetshaving as done by the everyman or the traditional wetshaving subculture manifested on the forums and some blogs? While the two were the same thing several years ago, the forum wetshaving subculture has digressed substantially from the mainstream. That offshoot appears to have peaked, and now consists mostly of a core group of niche hobbyists. That is not optimal for driving sales growth. Damn Fine Shave is different, though, and is more eclectic and remains a valuable and growing educational resource. The forum ecosystem is quite small, not even 250,000 members, and probably around 15,000-20,000 active members total. All the new vendors jumping into the wetshaving marketplace means it is becoming saturated, and attrition will be the result. But that's ok. Capitalism means survival of the fittest, and that is good for us.

Wetshaving in all its forms is still a very large percentage of the overall market. Thanks to some very overpriced cartridges, traditional wetshaving (i.e. with a safety or straight razor, brush and soap or cream) has a small but steadily increasing share of that market. Even if cartridge prices were slashed by half, they would still be quite overpriced.

What can be done to ensure the future viability of wetshaving? Having Corey Greeburg do another shaving segment on the Today show would not hurt. Articles like this one in Esquire also reach previously unaware market segments. A shaving how-to guide would be helpful. Something concise and a quick read, 75 pages or less and available on Amazon for $10 or less. Or perhaps just a 10-15 page booklet that could be sent out for a nominal charge. Ads in local papers and on radio might also work. As it stands today, the merchants are playing the leading role thanks to Google and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). There remain additional media channels and venues that could be utilized. The cartridge razor market is another market well worth exploring. Soaps, creams, brushes, aftershaves, etc. benefit cartridge users as much as safety and straight razor users. That cartridge systems receive little love in traditional wetshaving forums is irrelevant.

I'll never, and I mean never, return to cartridge razors and spray foam soap. My face, and head, are much happier with DE razors and a quality shaving soap, in a tub, applied with a brush.

To further the question, since this has been somewhat glazed over to this point (I'm curious lol):

What will grow traditional shaving? How will the market grow in competition with market-share giants, and why are so many individuals resistant to the idea? How would you convince them?

Shaving has been spun into a chore. And to deal with it as quickly and as painlessly as possible, one should expect some trade-offs. But that's ok, you're not meant to enjoy it.

Except, many are finding that it doesn't have to be that way.

Growing the market is going to take unraveling decades of marketing counter to the concept.

Traditional shaving will never be faster than a cartridge razor and a can of goo. But it was never meant to be. It's always been about taking some time for yourself.

For me, it's coming back around in two parts:

Advances in technology in other areas of our lives have created efficiencies that afford us more time for other activities. For example, Uber. It used to be that if you wanted a cab, you had to tab out at the bar and head outside to hail one. Now you can finish your drink and tab out at your leisure as the "cab" you hailed via your smartphone is on its way to you. And where you used to have to rush through a shave to get to work and make a call, you can now do it from your cell phone on the car ride there.

Connected to that point, but equally counter to it, I think people are starting to rebel against the optimization of their lives. So many of these advancements have been used (at least in part) to make us more efficient workers. But life isn't just about working. So you see people actively seeking to enrich their lives in other areas. Take the craft beer boom, the explosion of restaurants of all types, and the resurgence of vinyl albums as prime examples. Where before I had to compensate for the lack of advancements in other areas of my life by eating fast food and shaving with cartridge razors, it's no longer necessary. So why continue to optimize pieces of my life with readily available and enjoyable alternatives when I don't have to?

I think people's resistance to the idea comes from their perception. Our lives have been so geared toward the latest and greatest advancement that it's become hard for people to comprehend that something 100 years old can be a better alternative to years and years of R&D.

Market leaders have already begun to shift (AoS stores). Their marketing efforts will bring more attention to the rest of the space. It will continue to be a good thing until they leverage their EoS to price everyone else out of the market. Luckily it's being pitched as a luxury item for now.

Convincing a foodie or someone who enjoys craft beer is not that difficult. Convincing someone that hasn't reached some burnout level of optimization in their life is incredibly difficult. But everyone gets burnt out at some point...

j-mt, I like the way you think.

I don't think wet shaving will ever reach a level to where the major manufacturers and corporations will feel threatened. There is a large boom that has been occurring over the last few years and I hope that it continues, but I don't think the growth will continue and may have already plateaued. I would imagine that the actual percentage of American men that wet shave is less than 1%. I'm sure the major corporations are seeing much more damage from the huge facial hair and lumbersexual movement.

When it comes to an artisan's survival in this market it all boils down to quality and sustainability. Any new soaper will get a boom in business as soon as they publicly offer their products as there are many on the forums that want to be the first to try something new. If that soap doesn't offer something unique, be it value, quality, scent, or ingredients it probably won't have any repeat customers and repeat customers is what makes a business sustainable. I think we have seen the start of the market correcting itself and I expect more of the artisan soapers to either make some changes to try and stay relevant or face the consequences of an overpopulated market.

The next area of over-population looks to be safety razors. More new razors are popping up every day both from established vendors/manufacturers and several new players. I'm guessing that this too will eventually plateau and fade away as there are only so many $100-$300 (and up) razors one can justifiably purchase. I expect there to be several new razors to continue to come to market, but eventually the price will be the primary competitive means as I don't think any of the manufacturers are attempting or would be granted a patent on a 100 year old technology. In fact one of the more successful razor manufacturers is literally just reverse engineering popular antiques and redesigning them for modern tooling (quite brilliant actually).

For those that haven't seen it, Mark posted an Article by Joe Borelli with some really great insight.

http://sharpologist.com/2016/03/analyzin...arket.html

Thanks for the link and it is an interesting perspective.