We have become spoiled.

When I started shaving in the mid-1970s, there was no internet, no eBay, no Amazon, no YouTube. You got whatever the local drug store had, a Rexal in my case. Choices were one, two, or maybe three Gillettes; Super Adjustable, Black Handle Super Speed, and the new Trac II. Shick only had an injector at the time (holidays would find the stick shift and other knick-knack type handles) and sometimes there was a push-button GEM hanging in there. Might get Schick or Gillette or Wilkie blades, usually only one brand hanging on the wall (I always grabbed the Schick if there was a choice, they were cheaper). Soaps were represented by Williams, sometimes Old Spice. A cheap Eveready or no-name brush and a few brands of canned goo rounded your options. Since Williams was half the cost of canned, once you paid off the $1.25 for the brush it was money in the gas tank to a teenager ($0.55 / gallon) so Williams was it, and I discovered I liked it better than the canned.

Since you use a wet washrag and wet soap to wash, I figured wet soap and brush made lather. And boy does it. Drop the soap in a cup and fill it with water, toss in the brush to soak for good measure. After a bit start swirling it all around, turn the cup on its side to pour out the water, holding the puck in the cup with the brush. Soggy puck, soggy brush and start to swirl it around. Tip the cup to drain excess water once or twice. Moments later mounds of glorious lather is exploding out of the cup. You learn to keep at it another minute to make it a bit denser so it shaves better. Once I found the B&B I have seen many a thread saying dry puck, dry brush, add water a drop at a time. Huh? I've tried it and it does make a nice lather, takes twice as long though. Marco seems to be the other lone voice in the wilderness about using LOTSA WATER to make lather.

Now we go on and on and on about the selection of razors, which is best, what is the best material, plating, new/vintage, DE/SE/Injector/Straight, etc. Well over 100 different soaps and creams, numerous brush manufactures. Folks do 70 blade tests and can't decide on a favorite, while others go so far as to work out a specific blade/razor/soap combo. We obsess over minutia, over spend on the latest greatest stuff and forget not too long ago you made what your local store had on the shelf work for you. And it worked quite well.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, my own overflowing den is testament to this. But then I see someone who has one razor/blade/brush and favorite soap and wonder If they have found the way back to a simpler time.

Gotta go, eagerly awaiting the post today, I am expecting some new soaps, oh and some ink and a pen and a...

Great observations, Bill.

I found my soap, razor, blade, and brush combo early and I only kept buying because of all the hype. Since then I have stopped buying soaps and so on until there is something I find in person I really want to try(living in NY is good for this) but I agree, some people take it too far but then again this is a hobby to some people. I said it before, the only thing traditional about these "traditional wet shavers" is the water and occasionally the razor. I find nothing wrong with people who have a massive amount of gear, only when they try and make other feel less important unless they have tried the top of the line products. A good example is on any Williams mug or Bowl lathering post you will always see those guys respond to a question like "how do I get a good bowl lather out Williams mug shaving soap" to where they respond "you take out the Williams and replace it with anything else and start to face lather".

Yet another great post from a man shave vet. I was just commenting on another post about how vets have their tried and trusted gear natter the name or quality . Cause they always say back then things were made to last . Not saying the gear made today isn't made to last or of same or better quality. It's just nice to hear that ( real shaving) isn't going anywhere and it's making its comeback in the younger crowd. I wonder if you still go back to the Williams soap every now and again .

thechin30 said:

Yet another great post from a man shave vet. I was just commenting on another post about how vets have their tried and trusted gear natter the name or quality . Cause they always say back then things were made to last . Not saying the gear made today isn't made to last or of same or better quality. It's just nice to hear that ( real shaving) isn't going anywhere and it's making its comeback in the younger crowd. I wonder if you still go back to the Williams soap every now and again .

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Williams this morning, and it was very good. Makes it to the mug a couple times a month.

Thanks for the perspective!! Enjoy your shaves!

I too remember the lean times of yesteryear. I'm just glad that the situation has improved as much as it has. A tip of the hat to the artisan soap makers.

Great post! But isn't it the same with everyday life? Cell phones, cars, coffee, clothes etc.... I suspect most people live one or two things outlandish but keep certain things traditional...lol

Great post! The internet has changed so much of our daily lives. Restaurants for example are so much better now that there are instant reviews, bad restaurants close down faster and less customers have to suffer through their overpriced food.
Bad shave soap suffers the same fate whether it is cheap or overpriced. I love how I can jump on amazon and see over 1,000 reviews from people like me before I spend my hard earned money on something.
Same with handguns and rifles, shoes, cars, etc. Capitalism is an amazing thing!

And your grandfather thinks you were terribly spoiled by all your choices in the 70's. In the 50's half the population didn't graduate from high school and we were all seemingly fine with that. Today everyone (for some inexplicable reason) is expected to go to college. Our expectations constantly climb.

You want to talk about spoiled: my car has 8 gears and the wipers turn themselves on! I don't even chop wood to keep the house warm.

But don't think for one second that I'm giving up my Wolfman. Progress is fine with me.

I'm a couple of months into wet shaving and I've considered this as well. I'm not sure how past generations made it work with so few options. Makes me grateful for all the choices we have today.

Being 27 and Australian if I where to rely on what was available when I was just starting out as a younger man;
-Mach 3 or fusion (without the pivoty ball thing)
-nivia sensitive canned goo
- discomfort due to razor bumps and ingrowns
-petrol at $1/L
Yes the times where good..

bberg100 said:

When I started shaving in the mid-1970s, there was no internet, no eBay, no Amazon, no YouTube. You got whatever the local drug store had, a Rexal in my case.

Now we go on and on and on about the selection of razors, which is best, what is the best material, plating, new/vintage, DE/SE/Injector/Straight, etc. Well over 100 different soaps and creams, numerous brush manufactures. Folks do 70 blade tests and can't decide on a favorite, while others go so far as to work out a specific blade/razor/soap combo. We obsess over minutia, over spend on the latest greatest stuff and forget not too long ago you made what your local store had on the shelf work for you. And it worked quite well.

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Even if you had had access to the internet (and eBay and Amazon) back in the 70s, you probably would have only purchased what was available at your local store. I believe that the reason we go nuts with products is that we now visit various forums which fuel our interests (or create those interests out of nowhere). No forums, no problem. But what fun would that be?

Sure, thanks to this forum I now have a ton of shaving supplies I don't need. On the other hand, thanks to this forum I now actually enjoy my shaves (I used to hate shaving with a passion).

We ARE lucky to be living in the age of the internet. There are so many choices with which to indulge ourselves. I try to be a minimalist in my approach to wetshaving. My weakness is soaps. So many flavors! I fight to keep my stock low, but temptation is everywhere. Luxury problems, to be sure.

Yes we were without a lot of things back then, but mostly what we thought of was what we had compared to decades before.
It appears that traditional shaving died out partly because after Gillette succeeded in moving everyone to new "shaving systems", the stores stopped carrying older and cheaper supplies. If you wanted something that the stores did not offer, you had to find some specialty mail-order in just the right publication. It was usually more trouble than it was worth. Enter the Internet and its marketing behemoths. Now better and cheaper goods abound from everywhere, right to the door.

You are so right! We are spoiled. I grew up without the internet and cell phones and we all did fine. Too many soaps&creams to choose from including hardware...I still use Williams...Great write up..

6Cuda6 said:

Great post! But isn't it the same with everyday life? Cell phones, cars, coffee, clothes etc.... I suspect most people live one or two things outlandish but keep certain things traditional...lol

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Speaking of cell phones:

I couldn't agree more. It's not just shaving though. The internet combined with expedited shipping has watered down almost every market from shoes to jewelry. I sell cars for example. I don't just compete with the dealerships in my market, I compete with everyone online and if someone knows they are getting the deal they want, they are more than willing to drive well over a few hours to pick it up. I can't say that the internet has ruined our society (we wouldn't have B&B otherwise) but it has certainly changed our culture forever. With cell phones now serving as tiny computers that we take with us everywhere we go, the world is being more connected, more intertwined and small community is becoming obsolete.

Excellent post, Bill. One of my favorite posts so far this year.

I agree that we're spoiled for choice, but....
Without the internet and especially forums like B&B, I'd never have known about the increasing popularity of DE razors
Shopping locally, I'd have been able to pay €2,35 for just 10 Personna DE blades, but there are no DE razors available anywhere locally to use them in
eBay opened up a whole new world for me- all of my DE razors, virtually all of my DE blades, all of my shaving soaps, most of my shaving sticks, all of my soft soaps, most of my shaving creams, all 3 of my shaving brushes, my alum block and styptic pencil and a lot of my aftershaves all came from various sellers from Spain, France, England, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Russia, China, India, Malaysia and USA - all trading on eBay

The only items in my rotation available to buy locally are Bea, Lea and La Toja shaving sticks, Lea, Gillette Regular, La Toja and La Toja Sensitive, Williams Expert Ice Blue and Nivea Mild shaving creams, Williams Expert Aqua Velva, Floid Vigaroso, Varon Dandy Cologne, Old Spice Swagger, La Toja Aftershave Lotion, Varon Dandy Aftershave and Tabac Original Aftershave, and a pack of 10x Personna blades, just to try them

Without my DE razors and blades from eBay, most of the locally available items listed above wouldn't be much use to me anyway