I use magnificent goo just to take a "respite" from wet shaving. Doesn't last long, then I'm right back to soap&brush.
Williams never worked for me. (Surprise!) I still see the soaps listed on the VDH website. I also see they're now selling $60 - $140 3-piece razors with EJ/MUHLE/King C. Gillette type heads! They claim all stainless steel made in Germany, so I assume made by MUHLE. I liked VDH soap, but not the over-priced "Luxury" version. A couple of years ago, I bought some of the less expensive ones online from Walgreens, which I still have, since they only sold "Luxury" ones in stores and not the less expensive version. Then I read somewhere that they changed the formula of the less expensive version. I'm still using an old puck with the green packaging, so I don't know if the rumors are true or not about the formula change.
Maybe because a lot of men (most?) wear beards now? Pricey items have been in locked cabinets for much longer even that that. Now it is different, at least out here in California. The shoplifting problem has become much worse over the last three years or so. Part of the reason is that stealing up to $950 worth of merchandise is now only a misdemeanor (it used to be something like $600). In some places, such as San Francisco, even if a shoplifter was apprehended, the DA's office often would not prosecute the crime. https://www.hoover.org/research/why-shoplifting-now-de-facto-legal-california https://sfstandard.com/criminal-jus...theft-laws-amid-rampant-shoplifting-concerns/ Now, nearly all razor cartridges, razor handles, toothpaste, and many other items are in locked cabinets in all of the CVS stores in the area. But not safety razors and double-edge blades! I don't really care, though, as I have ordered nearly all of my shaving gear online for over a decade. It costs less than in the stores, and there is a million times more selection, all at the click of a mouse.
I guess those larger retailers (grocery stores, big box places) make an analysis of how much actually sells and then dedicate their shelf space on higher volume. Us traditional wet shavers are simply not a very large market.
Yup. 'Bout all I'm seeing these days are carts and cans (as in goo). No blades, no soaps, and if the do have tubes of cream, they don't lather.
I don't notice any difference from 2, 5, 10, 20 or more years ago. Even if you have facial hair, don't you wanna smell nice? They haven't listed it on the Old Spice site in a looong time. To me (and maybe just me), Old Spice is a cologne and after shave. It is not a body wash. It is not a deodorant. It is not a shampoo. Sure, the company may make those products, but to me, the definition of Old Spice is cologne and after shave.
Thus the Old Spice cologne. Maybe they did not want product confusion between the cologne and aftershave? I was surprised to see the aftershave missing from their website, too. Men with beards don't use aftershave much, at least not that I have ever heard of. A lot of guys may have had beards 20 years ago, but in the past 5-10 years, the beard styles moved towards full on beards, sometimes even Bigfoot-esque. Those folks are going to use beard balm and beard conditioner, not aftershave. But to many other people Old Spice is body wash, anti-perspirant, shampoo, hair conditioner. They have many kinds of each product, and it is likely that this is now from where they get the great majority of their revenue. These products and their advertising will also help sell the aftershave. When guys are mostly clean shaven again, then the Old Spice sailor is likely to make a return. The same applies to other drugstore aftershaves.
For those who still think traditional shaving might be on the decline, just look at Reddit /r/wicked_edge/. It now has well over one-quarter million members. That is three times the number of all the other wetshaving forums combined. Google on "double edge razor blades" and a huge number of online stores are found. The same for safety razors, aftershaves, shaving soap, and everything else traditional wetshaving. There is a vast number of traditional shaving products of all sorts to be had now, from all over the world. Traditional wetshaving on the decline? It sure doesn't look that way. It's just that most of the retail business is online, and that the online discussion has moved from old-school message board forums to Reddit and other social media venues.
Right but they still sell the after shave and cologne in stores. Would it kill them to list the after shave on their website? The other old school after shaves are still on the shelves. I like to buy in brick-and-mortars, but if the brick-and-mortars are going to charge stick-up prices, I will buy even more things on-line than I currently do. 2x the price for Old Spice in-store (at least at RiteAide)? Gimme a break. And I'm tired of driving to drugstores to find that the item I drove there for is out-of-stock (but not discontinued.) In the past I've used Walgreen's buy-online and pick up in store. I did that when I discovered they were playing games and charging more in-store than the online price. But then when I would get a notice that the item was ready for pickup, the guy in the store would claim he didn't have it. "You sure they said it's ready?" I was asked. He looked again. Nothing. Then the manager asked me "Are you sure". Then she looked. Lo and behold, it was found. I got the excuse, "Well, they printed your name really small." Is that my fault? Walgreens themselves sent the package. Then I found out they are a pick-up location for FedEx, so they get annoyed thinking FedEx or someone else said it was ready for pickup. No, it's all Walgreens, dummies. I haven't used that service in about 2 years. Sheesh! Another time, I openened the package right away. Some items were missing. I showed them. Then I got "That's not our problem. Contact them online." Them = You, dummies. Wonderful customer service. No wonder that particular Walgreens store closed shortly thereafter.
The more the merrier, right? But many others are. Like it or not, that is the way things are shifting. It is kind of like wetshaving gear moving from online and brick-and-mortar to mostly online, or cars moving into electric vehicles. The large forums that tended to dominate hobbyist scenes became sources of conflict and negativity. IMHO, it is good that those places are fading away. There will still be smaller satellite forums, like this one, around for the foreseeable future. They still serve a purpose, even if that purpose has changed over time. Well, it is not as good as the old school type forum layout. On the other hand, messages can get downvoted on Reddit. That way if someone acts like a jackass, their posts vanish into oblivion. That prevents things from going off the rails, and is likely very appealing to the masses.
And here we have moderators that do the same thing, except with more prudence. As for jackassery, there's always the ignore button. If they persist in their behavior, they get banned, eventually. Our way might not be as viscerally satisfying as hitting the downvote button, but it works well enough.
I only read reddit posts about anything, shaving related or not, if a google search takes me there. What I don't like about the interface is that you have to keep clicking "more comments" to go further down another branch of the tree (sub-comments, so to speak), and sometimes even to stay at the same level as the current branch of the tree. Plus, on a given page, you see totally unrelated topics taking up the real-estate of the page. I'm not sure about the large forums like reddit fading away. They still seem to be around in all their glory. This thread is a perfect example of why I like this forum. It went 2 weeks without a reply, but then it gets revived with comments worth reading. On other forums, the page count would be about 30 now, with everyone putting there 2 cents in just to be noticed.
hmmm....low sales at Above The Tie - they're closing. Low sales at Dr. Jon's - they're closing. Williams discontinued. Noticed Proraso is no longer available at Wegmans (local grocery). Just sayin'
Cream, after-shave, or both? That's where I bought the cream and A/S to try them out. They charge top dollar, but sometimes I just like to buy from a b&m. I found neither product life-changing. The A/S in particular I found way over-rated. For both, I got the green, which is all they sold. BTW, I saw these in my local Macy's a few weeks ago in Paramus Park Mall, in New Jersey. Looked like a full-line of Proraso products, both green and red. Top dollar, though,
Above the Tie closing is no one's fault but their own. As one of the first makers of stainless razors, they could have invested their profits to manufacture larger runs of razors, thereby dropping the price. They could have, by this point, been one of the largest and (domestically) cheapest manufacturers of stainless razors. Instead, they rested on their laurels, and continued to produce expensive and generic (conservative) designs, even as the market got more and more saturated. Dr. Jon's closed for personal reasons, not low sales. Williams was a very low profit margin item. The wonder of it is that it stayed around as long as it did, as crappy a soap as it was. The vast majority of wet shavers don't buy wet shaving products from brick-and-morter retailers anymore. None of these things is an indication that wet shaving is on the decline. Rather the opposite in fact. It shows that the market has become competitive, and those who fail to adapt to the changing times are doomed. If you don't aggressively market and advertise your products, you will be left behind. When PAA, Maggard's, and Connought close up shop, then I'll think wet shaving is on the decline.
It's been about 2 years since I've been there, but Barber Depot in Hackensack, NJ, is the only local b&m near me that caters to wet shaving. They carry a lot, and their prices are comparable to online, especially when you consider you don't have to pay for shipping. They carry Astra, Dorco, and Personna blades (DE and AC), and a few others. Plus, the full line of Clubman/Lustray after shaves, among others. Why haven't I been there more often? Well, the last time there, I bought a 100 pack of Astra blades, and a few Clubman after-shaves. They both last so darn long, and I also have other blades and after-shaves I'm working through. BTW, I like how the latest technology has made old-school shaving so popular again. What's old is new.
Yes, that is true here at The Shave Den, thanks to excellent moderation and administration, and to Sparky for setting up and hosting the forum. Not all forums are so lucky, though, and some are suffering the consequences. Two places closing, but hundreds, perhaps thousands, still selling wetshaving gear online. Williams was long ago reformulated into very cost-effective mediocrity, so its disappearance is no surprise. Especially true given the very large number of excellent soaps and creams out there now. I just googled "Proraso" and "price" and got over 2.5 million results. Ho. Lee. Fook. Wow! You can buy it all over the place with just a couple of mouse clicks. Barring a nuclear war or asteroid strike, the "shavepocalypse" isn't going to happen. It's just insane how many products and retailers are out there now. That indicates a massive increase in traditional shaving. IMHO, it is important to look at the overall picture rather than just a few stores or websites.
over saturation is the issue.. look at the last 10 years on shaving forums. particularly badger and blade. if you didnt get the latest release of a razor or soap or splash.. you were treated like a turd on the shoe. j But with the fact that almost everyone is purchasing a 20 kilo block of melt and pour shave soap base, and selling it for 10$/50 grams on etsy... yes the market is over killed. Look at how many vendors sold on west coast shaving admitted that they were reselling a discontinued soap base by someone else being sold on west coast shaving. But it is a cyclic thing. sort of like new fads in clothing or music or mixed drinks. Smart people learn in say year 21 they like plain johnny walker black with no ice, and stay there happily. While the not so smart keep chasing what ever fad drink they saw in a hit tv show.
