I went to the Patel Brothers store here in Louisville today looking for Indian Old Spice or some of that Indian shaving cream I've heard about. They don't carry any of it at all, sadly. Looks like I'll have to stick with eBay for my Indian Old Spice. At least there, I won't have a rude employee make a comment to me at checkout when he mutters something under his breath at me, and when asked what he said, snaps "I was not talking to *you*." Even if they had it, I wouldn't go back because of that alone.
The last time I looked for "anything shaving" in Louisville I tried World Market and they had zip, nada, zero. The story I heard is there are 2 Indian brothers; one owns WM and the other, Pier One.
If I understand things correctly, Patel Brothers is a chain of Indian stores that carry goods from India.
I really wish there were more places here that carried shaving supplies...
Thanks for the info, I know several Indians with the last name Patel so I know for sure that is an Indian surname.
Other than your Art of Shaving, the only place in Louisville of which I'm aware is Heimerdinger Cutlery Co. at 4207 Shelbyville Road. The GF and I paid him a visit and he stocks more kitchen cutlery than anything. But, he had some Colonel Conk, Taylor of Old Bond Street, locally made shaving soaps, and at least one Dovo straight razor. I don't remember seeing any safety razors but we compared notes and both use the same style of Merkur (23C) so he probably has some DEs.
My Indian-made bottle of Old Spice arrived today from West Coast Shaving. I bet I haven't officially smelled Old Spice up close for 15 or 20 years, but upon smelling the stopper, I was presented with precisely the scent I wanted it to be from my memory of it as a child.
I wanted to try the knock-off "Vi-Jon" I've seen mentioned that's supposedly a little better. Just where can I find this stuff though?
Rumor has it that if you mix the P&G OS and Vi-Jon Spice together 50/50, you get something very similar to the original Old Spice.
Having grown up with OS and being around for the P+G makeover, I have to say that the current version of Old Spice "Classic" smells like the best parts of the pre and post P+G formulations combined. Initially when it came out around 2008 in the aerosol spray can, it was very sweet and powdery. An obvious effort to "modernize" the scent had been made. Now it seems to have been tuned more to the original scent. Just received the Indian version from WCS, and I'm sorry, but despite the fact that it smells really good, it maybe shares 25% of it's makeup with what Americans know as Old Spice. Anybody who says otherwise has a faulty scent memory.