In The Melting Pot That Is NYC.

I get around the city a lot, and into many neighborhood with different ethnic backgrounds. Something that I have been find interesting is how some of the shaving products that people post about aren't in certain neighborhoods.

For instance, there are a couple areas in NYC (East 20's in Manhattan & Jackson Heights, Queens) that have many different Indian based stores...but none of them have any of the shaving creams (Shulton Old Spice & others) or blades (none of the Gillette) that are raved about here & manufacture in India. The Russian neighborhoods in Brooklyn have none of the Russian blades...even Chinatown stores do not carry the Chinese made D/E razors that are all over Ebay & Amazon.

However, they all seem to have Gillette Fusion razors & Wilkinson Sword Classic blades, if any D/E blades.

Other then the places listed on here on the site (Pasteur's, et al.)...has anyone run into anywhere within the city where they have picked up wet shaving supplies? Would like to be able to try some things without having to order from the Internet.

That's been my experience too for the most part, Slats.

In August, I conducted a massive search for Indian creams. I went to Curry Hill in the East 20s. One store had a couple of Pakistani creams and that was all. I went to Jackson Heights, and the big Patel Bros. supermarket had Dettol and Park Avenue creams, but nothing else. I came up empty in Jersey City.

Fellow New Yorkers...I too would appreciate any tips.

Went looking for Indian Creams in Curry Hill with no luck as well. The high end English brands are all over NY (Bigelows, Min Apotehcary, Z Chemists - good possibly mismarked prices on Trumpers, Pasteurs, Zitomers, New London, Clyde's, Cambridge). Could not find the Eastern European stuff in Greenpoint either. Lots of EE skincare but no shave stuff.

There are people who complain that certain products aren't available in their entire state, or even their country. In NYC, we complain that certain products aren't available on our block. Why just yesterday I had to cross the street to get some Castle Forbes.

So nice they had to name it twice.

Interesting observation. You would think that there would be more of the products that folks are accustomed to in their neighborhoods in a city as big as NYC.

The most logical thing I heard was from one of the Jersey City shopkeepers. He said that the shipping costs were too high.

Maybe that's why the big chain supermarket, Patel's, could carry at least a handful of items while the mom-and-pops do not.

ouch said:

There are people who complain that certain products aren't available in their entire state, or even their country. In NYC, we complain that certain products aren't available on our block. Why just yesterday I had to cross the street to get some Castle Forbes.

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Not complaining at all...but you would think that if, say a product like Old Spice Shaving Lather, something that we find being shipped from India through Ebay, or Rapira Blades from Russia that are easily found in Pasteur's, would be products that could be found within those communities that have an Indian or Russian population within a larger city. Those products aren't being created for the American market itself, and it seems that they don't have a following from people who have immigrated here, or maybe men of those ethnic backgrounds are willing to use what it more commonly found here. I'm a little surprised that Pasteur's doesn't carry the Old Spice, but even it has limitations of what they can stock because of shelf space.

What I have noticed is more barbershops popping up with a retro style, displaying classic shaving kit in vitrines and windows, and selling it. I've had NYC barbers tell me, though, that using shaving brushes and classic straight razors (not shavettes) is against NYC health code -- ?!

BarbaGnosa said:

What I have noticed is more barbershops popping up with a retro style, displaying classic shaving kit in vitrines and windows, and selling it. I've had NYC barbers tell me, though, that using shaving brushes and classic straight razors (not shavettes) is against NYC health code -- ?!

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Hell no, my barber has only ever shaved me with his straight .

Slats6NYR said:

Hell no, my barber has only ever shaved me with his straight .

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Did he shave you with a straight (which he honed & stropped) or a shavette (into which he popped a disposable blade)?

Also did he use a shaving brush?

Slats6NYR said:

Not complaining at all...but you would think that if, say a product like Old Spice Shaving Lather, something that we find being shipped from India through Ebay, or Rapira Blades from Russia that are easily found in Pasteur's, would be products that could be found within those communities that have an Indian or Russian population within a larger city. Those products aren't being created for the American market itself, and it seems that they don't have a following from people who have immigrated here, or maybe men of those ethnic backgrounds are willing to use what it more commonly found here. I'm a little surprised that Pasteur's doesn't carry the Old Spice, but even it has limitations of what they can stock because of shelf space.

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My observation is that those people from India or Russia most able to immigrate to the US are the ones who run away fastest from DE shaving since it's associated with poor people. Certainly that was true of Moscow where everyone I met seemed unaware that Russia still made a dozen different shaving creams or that they were major producers of DE blades. One said, "You can afford Gillette cartridges! Why waste your money on this old stuff?"

vickywally said:

Did he shave you with a straight (which he honed & stropped) or a shavette (into which he popped a disposable blade)?

Also did he use a shaving brush?

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Always a straight that's honed & stropped first. He used a hot lather dispenser, and his hands which he always washes first.

coase said:

My observation is that those people from India or Russia most able to immigrate to the US are the ones who run away fastest from DE shaving since it's associated with poor people. Certainly that was true of Moscow where everyone I met seemed unaware that Russia still made a dozen different shaving creams or that they were major producers of DE blades. One said, "You can afford Gillette cartridges! Why waste your money on this old stuff?"

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I guess that he didn't know that Fusion Razors Suck...

coase said:

My observation is that those people from India or Russia most able to immigrate to the US are the ones who run away fastest from DE shaving since it's associated with poor people. Certainly that was true of Moscow where everyone I met seemed unaware that Russia still made a dozen different shaving creams or that they were major producers of DE blades. One said, "You can afford Gillette cartridges! Why waste your money on this old stuff?"

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That's it exactly. Those folks from the rest of the world didn't leave their families and comfort of the familiar to take a leap of faith on America so that they could continue to use their domestic "cheap, inferior" products. They came here with the aspiration of Fusions and Edge Menthol.

The products that we shaving nerds seek out in the US are still in wide use in India, and marginal use in Russia because of economic necessity. If your shaving budget is less than 5 cents a day, the ATT slant and Chubby 3 Super are not on the wish list. The Quattro and Mach 3 are the aspiration.

A lot of very poor people in Asia but in Eastern Europe, the carts and cans are dominant. For the most part, only the very old and poor use DEs and creams. Not too many shaving nerds in Russia, since these products carry a stigma of needyness, so the affluent don't want to be seen using them.

When we were moving to the US in 1979, from the USSR, one of the first things my father did, was trade in his DE for Good News disposables in Italy. His first paycheck resulted in an Atra, and he hasn't looked back since. He was actually using canned foam even before we left the Ukraine. It was impossible to obtain and prohibitively expensive, but it was a status symbol of the west and Gillette and so it was obviously "superior." Those Astra and Rapira blades are made in Russia, but primarily for the Asian market and the 17 of us shave nerds get the benefit.

I do wish my dad kept his Red Star DE razor. It was a quality (yes in the 1970s the Soviets could do quality, just not in great volume) knockoff of superspeed, practically brand new, in a nice display case, and now is rarer than hen's teeth and would be quite the conversation piece. But he wanted to be a modern American and that razor was tossed long ago. He does make fun of me for taking shaving back 100 years and spending lots of money to do it. Asks when a horse and carriage will replace the truck since he's fairly sure it would be more expensive and give me the opportunity to shovel manure.

Have to agree w/Dubber. DE shaving is old school and the overwhelming majority of immigrants ditched the razors after they got here (my father included). You can pick up a 48 pack of double swivel head disposable razors for $25. That's a little more than .50 and it lasts you 4-5 shaves. That's what my father did.

I grew up in Astoria and you would think with all the cultural stores in that neighborhood ARKO & such would be in ample supply. But it's not.