Well said, Neal. A very compelling argument that I can't dispute. In some ways, I'm slightly (and I mean
slightly) envious of the guys who use "our stuff" and don't make it a hobby. Without a doubt, they do save a fair amount of money. On the flip side of that, I'm glad shaving has become a hobby for me. Even buying things I don't need, it's still a cheap hobby in comparison to many others...like Harleys, boats, muscle cars, etc. When my wife rolls her eyes and questions why I need so much shaving stuff, I always remind her of that. It could be much, much worse. Added bonus - I smell good.

Our supervisor at work started off as a teenager using a DE razor. At one point in the past he tried switching to carts, and hated it. He's been back to DE ever since. He still hates shaving, however he hates it less using a DE. For the life of him, he can't imagine why anyone would consider it a hobby. He uses Barbasol and a Gillette Slim, and said his entire shave takes 1 1/2 minutes, tops. He even uses the same blade for the better part of a month. But, hey - he's still "one of us".
Should you ever run across any "data" on how many traditional shavers there are, please do share. Naturally, you'd have to take the info with a grain of salt. It's not as if someone is going to go door to door, nationwide, with survey forms. There are certainly many older folks who have used traditional gear their entire lives, and continue to do so - yet, we'll never see them on a forum about shaving. My guess is, like most "surveys", someone would ask about 50 people, in the same area, what they use - then write a half-baked report based on that. In other words, there are most likely many folks who kick it old-school that we'll never know about. And probably many more who switch as a cost saving measure that we'll never know about, since they aren't hobby shavers and won't be posting about their shaves.
In a worldwide sense, there must be many, many people who use DE razors. Ever watch the video on how DE blades are made? If memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure I've seen that in one minute, they can produce enough blades to supply a person with 10+ years of blades. That's a lot of blades!
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