In honor my of 2,000[SUP]th[/SUP] post, I thought Id better make it a good one! So here goes!
The study is officially over! In case you missed it, I recently set up a thread to collect information on lathering preference combined with shaving experience. Now that we have received a large number of responses, I am now very excited to share the results with all of you! Results are here:
# Years Wet Shaving:
| 2 or less | 49% |
| 2-10 | 25% |
| 10-25 | 11% |
| 25+ | 15% |
Not surprising. Clearly the number of wet shavers is growing rapidly I think we all have felt this in many ways over recent years.
Lathering Method:
Our study shows that nearly 2/3 of B&B members prefer to face lather, while only 1/3 prefer to bowl lather (see % above bars). Its interesting to see that this trend holds relatively constant across experience levels (look at the % listed in each section of the bars). I always have thought in the back of my mind that shavers with more experience tend to face lather more than newer members. Based on these results, it seems like that is actually not strongly the case. Also of note: no members who had been shaving for more than 10 years liked to face and bowl lather equally. Clearly a preference for face or bowl lathering tends to develop over time.
Product Preference:
Interestingly, soaps have somewhat of a cult-like following, with 68% of B&B members preferring this form of product. Very surprisingly, we see virtually no difference in preference between the option of creams only or creams and soaps equally (see % above bars). This is not what I expected it seems as though there is strong loyalty for soaps among B&B members, but cream users are less likely to strongly prefer one product over the other. Again, these trends are relatively consistent between each experience level. But if anything, in the higher experience levels, we see that people are more likely to prefer soaps and creams equally than just creams alone! All together, this gives us an interesting indication that soap performance might indeed exceed the performance of creams.
Method and Product Preference:
Whats most interesting to me in this chart is that lathering method is split equally within cream users, however the very strong majority of soap users prefer to face lather. Combo product users dont seem to have nearly as strong preferences. This is an interesting result it suggests that perhaps creams are equally effective when bowl or face lathered, but that soaps work much more effectively when used for face lathering (instead of bowl lathering).
Takeaways:
Overall, Ive found this study to be very interesting. I hope you have too! Its clear that we have a strong preference at B&B for face lathering with soaps, and that this trend holds true across experience levels. Is this because the soap and face lathering combo provides the best comfort and/or performance? Or is there some other reason behind this trend? I dont know, but Id certainly love to hear your thoughts!
I hope youve found this study enjoyable. Its certainly got me thinking hopefully the same holds true for you.
- Badger Bill
