Why Should the Average Man Join Us?

grim Well articulated and some fine points. I see no point in adding my two cents most of what I would say would be redundant as they have already been stated here.

I'm not sure why in this "hobby" we are so obsessed with "converting" people. Who cares how people shave?
I do this for Nostalgia because I inherited my grandfathers safety razors when he passed as well as his fountain pens which, led me into that little hobby as well. It just happened I really enjoyed using them both.

I remember after I used his razors for about a week I was professing how great the shaves were at work. BIG MISTAKE. People in the office looked at me like I was off my meds or something. Frankly, looking back now, mainstream America would think talking about and discussing a mundane task such as shaving to be odd and on par with the discussion of what type of paper one uses and what direction they wipe after really bad Chinese food and bud light mixes into an unholy concoction of BUDMUD. Both are task that a majority of people "have" to do and treating either as a hobby is REALLY STRANGE TO ALOT OF PEOPLE. Glad, I only treat the shaving and not the wiping as a hobby at this point, padded room avoided for now.

I think that was a brilliant post grim. But you don't account for traditional style DE's like the Bevel and MicroTouch returning to Target and Walmart after decades of nothing. You don't account for Art of Shaving expanding into every other mall in America... With in store reports to rerelease the Gillette Tech. You don't account for near a dozen up coming new SE's being released from the past couple years through the year ahead, while for decades there has been zero new SE's sold at all.

And I actually agree with your stance on technology for the most part. Isn't the OneBlade a great example of that. Perhaps the Zafirro razor using sapphire blades will be the next breakthrough... Or even laser razors if they can ever figure out how to do it right. New shaving technology will have to perfect three things to succeed: closeness, safety, and convenience (price gets better after the new technology is normalized and production improves). And clearly there is room for improvement here...  Which is why new tech is being created, and old tech is experiencing a revival.

Yes, there is more stuff being sold. The other day for the first time in maybe 30 years I saw "one" type of DE razor blade sold in megamart.  But these are just trickles ... tiny little efforts by the stores to make money. They will distribute anything that sells. As soon as they don't sell, they will disappear. They are not leaders, they are followers.

AOS is, of course, P&G. Actually, we better hope AOS doesn't take over the world because that just reinforces what I wrote. The big boys will come in and decimate the small guys. I find AOS stores fancy and glitzy. But if they went mainstream -they will be in every mall. At the moment, their haircuts are ridiculously overpriced and I find their products far overpriced and packaged/marketed as glitz.

Now if they make laser razors, I will say that again - game over. If that start up actually succeeded in selling a safe and cheap laser razor that worked, IMO it will just about kill all the other markets - new tech. Safe, Cheap, no shaving cream? CYA.

I agree with your three points!

grim  Well articulated and some fine points.  I see no point in adding my two cents most of what I would say would be redundant as they have already been stated here.  

I'm not sure why in this "hobby" we are so obsessed with "converting" people.  Who cares how people shave?
I do this for Nostalgia because I inherited my grandfathers safety razors when he passed as well as his fountain pens which, led me into that little hobby as well.  It just happened I really enjoyed using them both.  

I remember after I used his razors for about a week I was professing how great the shaves were at work.  BIG MISTAKE.  People in the office looked at me like I was off my meds or something.  Frankly, looking back now, mainstream America would think talking about and discussing a mundane task such as shaving to be odd and on par with the discussion of what type of paper one uses and what direction they wipe after really bad Chinese food and bud light mixes into an unholy concoction of BUDMUD.  Both are task that a majority of people "have" to do and treating either as a hobby is REALLY STRANGE TO ALOT OF PEOPLE.  Glad, I only treat the shaving and not the wiping as a hobby at this point, padded room avoided for now.

EXACTLY.  I don't get the "lets convert the world" thing either.

Does anyone here really and truly think our grandfathers and greatgrandfathers sat around discussing which soap to use? Really?

Is just a conversation. Some of you are making so much out of this. Ok, lets go back and talk about who takes the best SOTD pictures. Please!

I don't get the "lets convert the world" thing either.

Does anyone here really and truly think our grandfathers and greatgrandfathers sat around discussing which soap to use? Really?

I have discussed the pros and cons of soaps and razors with my father and grandfathers... YFMV...

About the converting thing, I would like to see more people take an interest in wet shaving for selfish reasons. The more people use better quality gear means there's a bigger market for it in the long run... which means entrepreneurs put more money into more higher tech and more options... which then means I will get better quality, more innovative products in the future.

Not to mention, you are doing your listener a favor by enlightening him to a better shave. One in which could potentially be safer, closer, more enjoyable, etc.

(As a side note... AoS will not "take over" the market if wet shaving becomes mainstream. All the artisans and small companies supported currently are not going to be abandoned. Everyone here with their favorite soaps and brushes, will not suddenly ditch what they love for AoS. On the contrary, while something like AoS might be the biggest player in the room, a certain percentage of new converts will research forums like this one and go the artisan route, thus making all the small guys, bigger guys, and expanding artisan options even more.)

Glad, I only treat the shaving and not the wiping as a hobby at this point, padded room avoided for now.

[Image: laughing-1.gif]

Some main driving forces, from my perspective:

1.) Profit - the biggest names in shaving push their (expensive) disposable plastic carts - which have to replaced for a premium.
2.) A good segment of the population actually would prefer the safety of the cart, where they could get a quick shave, with their eyes closed - results be damned! There are also those that - despite multiple DE razor attempts - actually prefer the performance/results of carts (yes, they are out there).

Btw, though I mainly use DE razors, in my (personal) view, shaving with a cart (using water) is still wet shaving. I think one could argue it's also traditional wet shaving, since Gillette introduced the Atra in 1971.

Some main driving forces, from my perspective:

1.) Profit - the biggest names in shaving push their (expensive) disposable plastic carts - which have to replaced for a premium.
2.) A good segment of the population actually would prefer the safety of the cart, where they could get a quick shave, with their eyes closed - results be damned! There are also those that - despite multiple DE razor attempts - actually prefer the performance/results of carts (yes, they are out there).

Btw, though I mainly use DE razors, in my (personal) view, shaving with a cart (using water) is still wet shaving. I think one could argue it's also traditional wet shaving, since Gillette introduced the Atra in 1971.

ask4Edge there's no doubt that there are plenty of shavers out there (men and women) using carts but using brush and soap and other post shave products and their shaves are immensely better than those of the cart and canned foam users. I think there is room for everyone. Sometimes its just part of an evolutionary process to migrate first to the brush and bowl then maybe later to the DE, SE or even the straight.

Is just a conversation.  Some of you are making so much out of this.  Ok, lets go back and talk about who takes the best SOTD pictures.  Please!

hrfdez , you're definitely in that conversation - your SOTD pictures are awesome

ask4Edge there's no doubt that there are plenty of shavers out there (men and women) using carts but using brush and soap and other post shave products and their shaves are immensely better than those of the cart and canned foam users.  I think there is room for everyone.  Sometimes its just part of an evolutionary process to migrate first to the brush and bowl then maybe later to the DE, SE or even the straight.

I agree, Marko, especially in regard to brush and soap. Speaking for myself, I've been at this hobby for ~15 years, and though I've noticed that more DE types/brands have cropped up, I think they have only barely dented the cart-dominated market. To be honest - and not to be negative - personally, I wouldn't wager on seeing DE shaving being a threat to cart shaving in the foreseeable future.

Is just a conversation.  Some of you are making so much out of this.  Ok, lets go back and talk about who takes the best SOTD pictures.  Please!

hrfdez , you're definitely in that conversation - your SOTD pictures are awesome

Hehehe. Average at best. Celestino is the king of SOTD photography.