New York Times on Safety Razors

Haven't seen any posts on this NYT article yet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/style/safety-razors-regain-popularity-for-men.html

I didn't realize that the Art of Shaving's sales were up 1000% in the last 5 years.

This must make DE shaving an official trend now.

Thanks for the link. The selection of sources is a bit curious: none of those companies would be the first places I'd go for insights into the DE market. (Well, AOS I get, since it's Gillette)

TheDeadlyBulb said:

Thanks for the link. The selection of sources is a bit curious: none of those companies would be the first places I'd go for insights into the DE market. (Well, AOS I get, since it's Gillette)

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I don't even associate my experience with AOS with DE shaving. I have only been to one AOS store and it was nothing but $100+ cartridge handles.

I actually got my haircut today and mentioned that I was learning to use straights and DE's. The lady told me she really needs to learn because people come in all the time asking if she knows how to use them on her clients. Very interesting conversation. I was quite surprised to hear it.

Like Sfeile, I don't attribute mine to AoS either. Actually, they originally turned me off to wet shaving because it was so expensive there for even starter sets!

I was scared of AOS, seemed to be high pressure. But it was a nice experience when I finally went to one.

AOS with its "4 elements of the perfect shave" gets the idea of brush lather out there, and then people look deeper and see that there are DE razors too.

It along with MTO are the gateway drugs of wet shaving. And honestly I don't think there is another chain out there that can show DE's to newbies.

In my view AOS is our best chance of getting Gillette to reissue a high end version of an Old type, or NEW or even an adjustable. They would never reissue one at a reasonable price. But a limited edition (say at 1000 units only) that's really costly, and made to be sold at AOS would allow them to price discriminate without hurting in any way their mass market cartridge sales. It would also sell out fast I bet.

Interesting article. Thanks for the link.

Like seriously, if they came out with a new all metal adjustable DE I would prob buy it

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. Wick Edge gets a shoutout, but not B&B? What's up with that?

Art of Shaving? No. I got into this because of Art of Manliness.

AoS actually got my attention and got me researching wetshaving about a year ago, but I have yet to buy anything from their store. They are a good marketing tool for DE, and their reps are knowledgeable, but even walking into the store, I knew their prices were severely inflated. If I woulda started feeding my AD there, I'd be broke today.
Still, I would pay Above The Tie prices for a "brand new" Gillette DE razor if they were to reissue them!

Ha! Almost all the comments prefer the earlier DE models and denounce the shave quality and hypocrisy of multi-blade cartridges.

TheChariot said:

Art of Shaving? No. I got into this because of Art of Manliness.

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+1 That is how I started also.

tankerjohn said:

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. Wick Edge gets a shoutout, but not B&B? What's up with that?

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B&B 55,000 users, Reddit 174 Million. Its where the too cool for B&B kids hang out. That's what's up!

Reddit has a strong culture of free speech and very few rules about the types of content that may be posted which I would surmise is a 180 to B&B's culture.

BRITD said:

B&B 55,000 users, Reddit 174 Million. Its where the too cool for B&B kids hang out. That's what's up!

Reddit has a strong culture of free speech and very few rules about the types of content that may be posted which I would surmise is a 180 to B&B's culture.

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^Nail on head.

Art of Shaving is how I got into DE. I received a starter travel pack with the cream, balm, oil, and brush as a gift in 2009. Brush was awful, but the rest of the kit was an eye-opener. The quality of the product, quality of the shave, and quality of the scent was just on a different level than the Neutrongena I'd been using (which wasn't bad at all). I used that kit with a mach 3 for a while, then tried some Baxter of CA stuff, and then took the plunge and ordered an EJ and some Feathers from Amazon and never looked back. And now here I am posting in a shaving forum. What are the odds.

In a similar vein to the NY Times article, did you guys catch the backlash to this pic Gillette posted on their Facebook page? I can't link it properly b/c I'm on Tapatalk but you can find your way there if you haven't already seen it.

Edit: just saw the thread about it: http://www.badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=432406