Do you really *want* to make converts? Why?

[jansob]

It really would be fascinating to know how many B&B members are still wetshaving. Several things come to mind:

1-Not everyone drops the carts, even among active members. I would think that many add brushes, creams and technique to their regimes, but keep using carts.

2-Some may have begun wetshaving, found their comfortable combinations and kept with them...but have no deeper interest and are no longer active, athough they may still be using a DE. I know one guy who uses a Vision. But it's not a hobby for him, it's just a better way to shave and get on with life. He finds B&B to be a useful site for beginners, but he never got the ADs and thinks of it as largely a hobbyists' site with some good teaching.

3-Some undoubtedly joined all the forums they found as novices, settled on one of the others but are still members here, just inactive.

4- And a bunch joined, read, asked questions, tried it and went back to the more convenient carts and cans because it worked well enough for them at a price they could live with. If I had been getting a good shave for the price, I'd likely never have changed over.

 

[Hank21]

Shave Messiah sama:

 

[phen]

1-Not everyone drops the carts, even among active members. I would think that many add brushes, creams and technique to their regimes, but keep using carts.

I have a pack of Mach3 blades in the bedroom, myself. I'm very near-sighted, and sometimes I'll miss a patch in an out-of-the-way area during my shave. It's very frustrating, but it happens once in a while. When it does, I just snatch up that M3, dry-shave the tiny patch, and check it an extra time tomorrow.

 

[gaj90027]

The only other discussions I've had with other friends and family members came from my interest in looking for razors and shaving things at antique stores and flea markets...

This is how I have converted people as well. Two of my girlfriends brothers were visiting with us after we had returned from an antique store. I had scored a few razors and the conversation took off from there. It turns out both of them hated shaving and hated the cost of cartridges, I didn't have to ask them twice if they wanted to try it. One now uses a Weishi and VDH Boar Brush, the other uses a GEM 1912 and a restored Ever-Ready Silver Tip. Not sure what either of them use for soaps or blades these days but I know they are both still wet shaving. My girlfriends step-father uses a Mach 3 with Burma Shave soap and boar brush so I hooked him up with a puck of Tabac and he fell in love instantly. A few months later I hooked him up with an Irisch Moos shave stick as well and he was in heaven.

Co-workers have also asked me why I go to the post office so often. I explained that I buy and sell "antiques" online sometimes and discussion came around to the fact they are antique razors and that I actually use them myself as well. Only 1 coworker took the bait but he is now hooked using a GEM 1912, Ted Pella blades, VDH Boar Brush, Ogallala Bay Rum shave soap and Dominica Bay Rum aftershave. Even though my co-worker shaves the old school way we still don't discuss it very often unless one of us shows up with an obvious cut on our nose or ears

 

[proxymoron]

Only to manscaping.

 

[Beerman]

I can't say I've converted anyone, but I'd like to. I look at is as a good hedge that products that I like will still be available in 20 years. I DO NOT want to see the boutique products wither and die on the vine, which is what I fear would happen if this wasn't an expanding hobby. More wetshavers = more options down the road.

Just look at craft beer. I'm not a lush or an expert, but as you might guess from my usename, I'm into beer-better quality beer and not Bud/Miller/Coors. To most people into beer, Bud/Miller/Coors are the enemy. Why? Because they dominate the market with a thoroughly mediocre product, often times keeping the quality products out of the market, or putting them out of business entirely. Craft beer has EXPLODED in the last 20 years or so. Have they put a dent in the Bud/Miller/Coors juggernaut? Yes, to some extent. It used to be that the only imported beer you could find at the C store might be Corona or Heinekin. Now most have at least Sam Adams, plus others to choose from. I'd like to see this happen with wetshaving.

Instead of buying Proraso via mail, I'd like to be able to pick it up locally at Wally World. And converting numbers of people to this hobby of ours I feel is the main way to get there.


Beerman

 

[SkipH]

OK. This is IMHO, so please take it as such. There are not very many things that men can really do to "pamper" themselves. Women, on the other hand, have quite a few; facials, spas, etc. Shaving is one of the few things that men can do, and learn to do for themselves. Wet shaving, in addition to being a better shave (again IMHO), is one of them. I have friends that use electric razors and carts. Carts give a better shave than electrics, but are not nearly as satisfying as a good DE (have not tried a straight yet, so can't say). The problem with that is probably what I had, a father that did not really know how to use a DE razor.

Anyway. It's not just a matter of a better shave, but also something that is easy (relatively) to learn, and lets you start your day with a bit of pampering that just sets day off on a good note.

That is why I would like to "convert" people.

 

[Go West Young Man]

DE shaving is dying out slowly, and once carts take off in the third world I think we're going to see a sudden and precipitous drop-off in availability of blades and razors. Probably still a few decades off, mind you.

OTOH, wetshaving with high quality products is a growing market. Like Skip said, men are learning to pamper themselves with soaps, creams, balms and lotions. I see that market continuing to grow in both the boutique and mainstream sectors.

 

[wulfgar1976]

DE shaving is dying out slowly, and once carts take off in the third world I think we're going to see a sudden and precipitous drop-off in availability of blades and razors. Probably still a few decades off, mind you.

I have been thinking about this recently and I have started slowly stockpiling blades. Whenever I have a spare £15 or £20 or so, I buy another hundred of a type of blade that I like. I only have around 400 blades at the moment but maybe once I have collected all the razors that I want, I can get that number up to around 40,000 or so