January 27th, 2011 — General shaving chat
Kate Somerville is a famous brand in women’s skincare. She has a range of skin products, has a clinic in Los Angeles and looks after the skin of many Hollywood stars. Recently she has caused a bit of a stir by telling the world that Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor were wet shavers, just like the readers of this blog.
The big difference though is that we are shaving off quick growing, coarse Androgenic hair, the growth of which is stimulated by our male hormones. Whereas the female film stars were shaving off the very fine and slow growing Vellus hair. In normal life they would not need to do this as it would not be noticeable, however on big screen close ups with harsh studio lighting even these fine hairs would be seen and thus need to be removed lest they be considered a blemish.
There are many ways that hair can be removed; shaving, threading, waxing, lasering, tweezing, sugaring and exfoliating creams. Of these you would expect shaving to be the least popular because of the false wives tale that it encourages stronger future growth. Obviously the Hollywood beauty experts know better than this and realise, as we men do, that wet shaving is the best solution.
January 26th, 2011 — Shaving soaps and creams
Waitrose shaving department
Here on the interwebs there are very many reviews of shaving products by consumers, in fact some websites actively encourage this by having dedicated areas for such content. You would think that these would be really useful, but experience has taught me that they are often pretty useless as a source of information. The first problem is that many reviewers are glowing in the ownership of some shiny new kit, so all you read is this glow. The second problem is that many of the reviewers are writing about their only razor or only brush, they lack the subjective and objective knowledge to write anything meaningful that bears any context. It doesn’t stop them though.
Against this background came a trip to the upmarket British supermarket Waitrose, where there was a variety of stuff on display including Durance L’ome Bol & Savon A Barbe A l’extrait d’Argousier. This has received some very mixed reviews and as it was only £5 it was worth the risk to find out. The product is beautifully presented in a brown cardboard box containing the white ceramic bowl within which is the very white hard soap.
On the box it says “This traditional shaving soap was created to make shaving easier thanks to a fine and unctuous foam. It protects epidermis and prepares it to shaving.” The main listed ingredients are Potassium Palmate, Sodium Palmate, Potassium Stearate, Potassium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Palm Kernelate and Glycerine. Which seems a lot of potassium fatty acids to me.
To give it the best possible chance and having experienced other hard soaps that can sometimes be temperamental a few drops of water were put on the puck a few minutes before starting to shave. Then to further help it perform well the Turkish horse hair brush was selected. In the shower the brush loaded nicely with lots of product which then worked up into a fine Father Christmas lather on my face. I then turned to put the brush on the rack and when I turned back the lather had gone! Just totally collapsed. After struggling through the first pass it was time to massively load the brush with more soap only to get the same result. And again for the third pass. Not good.
Day 2 it was time to get extreme and the puck was left to soak in the sink for five minutes or so before being put into its nice bowl, which was then filled up with water, to be drained just before use. The brush this time was the Semogue Owner’s Club, another brush that should make any hard soap perform well. Once again, for the first pass, the brush was heavily loaded and created a fine Father Christmas that promptly collapsed. Time for drastic measures. For the second and third passes the slimy puck was directly rubbed on my face till it was white with the soap, this was then made into a very thick creamy lather with the brush, which again promptly collapsed as far as it could.
All this wouldn’t matter if it lubricated the shave. But it didn’t. My superb razors felt decidedly average and afterwards I felt like I have sensitive skin, which I don’t. And the shave wasn’t very good either.
Overall this product is like some artisan soap makers create, just add bentic clay to an ordinary soap and call it a shaving soap, even though the lather collapses. The Durance is like this but without the bentic clay to give it lubrication. In my opinion it is easily the worst shaving soap or cream that I have ever used, totally unsuited for the job of shaving, it will now be used for washing my hands, let’s hope it can at least do that. All IMHO and YMMV of course.
What makes this very sad is that there is a brilliant French shaving soap, Monsavon Bol A Raser, that Waitrose could and should sell in Britain as it is totally unavailable here. And it is a lot cheaper than the Durance.
And I had a narrow escape, Waitrose also were selling a Durance badger shaving brush for £10. If the shaving soap is anything to go by I could have wasted three times as much money.
January 25th, 2011 — Razor History
Here is the third in this fascinating series of articles by Matt Pisarcik of Razor Emporium:
1920’s: The New Improved
The 1920’s brought with it the first major change to the original “Old Type” razor design, dubbed “The New Improved.” Not only did this razor address some of the design and performance concerns of the first series of razors Gillette put out, but it also created the first complete “line-up” of razors available. No longer were owners presented with one choice of a Gillette razor, but now had the option of selecting between differently styled models such as “The Richwood”, “The Bostonian” and even “The Big Fellow.” And with each name came a different styled case and brand persona that was created. Some of these names went on to incarnate themselves throughout several more decades and razor lines, most notable “The Aristocrat.” As simple as this seemed, this model would continue throughout Gillette’s history: offering the same product in different styles to better capture customers with the gimmick of packaging and persona. Just another marketing strategy that later automobile, telephone and wrist-watch companies caught-onto.
1930’s: The Goodwill
Towards the end of the 1920’s the stock market crash affected the entire world over. And whilst still manufacturing razors, Gillette had to change their approach when entering the next decade. They even scrapped many luxurious and high-end models such as the “De Luxe Edition” in favor of budget razors for the first few years after the crash. In an effort to stay current with the nation’s climate, Gillette launched the NEW razor, in line with President Roosevelt’s social recovery plan the New Deal.
Again, these promised even further revisions and improvements to the razors that had just came out years earlier. The real secret behind the ongoing razor improvements was expiring patents and keeping third-party blade makers behind the curve as they started to encroach on Gillette’s bread-and-butter business model. With this model of razor, notice that a new style of blade is again issued to be used in conjunction with the new shaver—a model that Gillette continues to use even today.
Advert images from Razor Archive.
January 24th, 2011 — General shaving chat
Several times on this blog I have commented on the tenuous relationship between quality and price in traditional shaving. There are shaving soaps and creams with fancy names on them that cost a fortune and are pretty useless, yet one of the very best shaving soaps in the world can be had for less than 50 pence. So I thought I would try and bring some of the best value together in one article.
Amazing, unbelievable bargains.
This first category has three entrants. Firstly the Turkish horse hair shaving brush that costs just $2.45. OK the handle looks like it was made by an 11 year old at his first woodworking class, but this is not about cosmetics. This is about an absolutely brilliant brush that works amazingly well. So well that I am frightened to buy the more expensive brushes that this vendor offers because there is no way they can offer the same ratio of ability to price.
Second up is the Palmolive shave stick which can easily be bought in British supermarkets for less than 50 pence. This tallow based (despite the name) shaving soap is one of the best that you can buy, regardless of price. And it is going to cost you about half of one penny per shave. It just amazes me that there are people in the world who are so misinformed that they spend many times this to use that awful aerosol rubbish.
Thirdly comes the black delrin Wilkinson Sword Classic razor which costs about £4. Don’t get me wrong this is not a first pass, stubble destroying uber razor. This is much more subtle, the Classic comes into its own after most of the stubble has been removed. This is a second or, preferably, a third pass razor for when you are striving for that perfect shave. And it delivers, it is so benign that you can confidently buff and polish away with gay abandon knowing that it will not bite. This is the razor for those who want absolute smoothness.
Amazing believable bargains.
Anyone involved in traditional shaving will know that first up must be the Frank Shaving badger brushes from China as supplied by Ian Tang on eBay. By buying direct from source and cutting out the middleman you get a brush that you would have to spend about five times more in the West to equal. Ian has built a reputation for customer service and has also built a range of brushes to cover a variety of tastes. Go for the Finest hair and avoid the wooden handles and you will get an outstanding brush.
Lord razors. These are available from Connaught now and on Amazon if you watch out for the different models, the L5 (in the L122 packaging) is a less mild Tech copy with a long handle for £6.90 at Connaught. The L6 Premium (in the LP.1822 packaging) for £7.90 is a Merkur copy head with the same long handle. Both these razors are simple and straightforward and work very well indeed.
Shaving soaps and creams from Godrej in India and Arko in Turkey. Brilliant products, they cost a lot less than £1 each on their native soil. In the West we must pay more for the shipping and the profit of intermediaries than we do for the product. However judicious ferreting round the web can reveal some very good deals if you are prepared to buy a few soaps or creams in one go.
Then blades. Once again the developing world delivers. Super Max blades from India and the various Lord brands from Egypt. Some suit some shavers and some others. YMMV so firstly only buy a few to try them out. If they work for you then look to spend about £5 per 100 blades, which is about a penny per shave. Used together with a Palmolive shave stick you are going to get luxurious shaves for one and a half pennies each. Don’t tell anyone who uses multibladed cartridge razors and aerosol lathers, they will have a heart attack.
Extremely good value.
Monsavon Bol à Raser is a soft French saving soap that you can buy in every supermarket in France for less than two Euros. And it is utterly fabulous. And almost impossible to get hold of outside France. If you can get your hands on some of this then jump at the opportunity, you will not regret it.
Edwin Jagger razors. These start at about £20 and are both better and less expensive than the equivalent new razors from the German brands. However they often pitch up on Amazon for about £15, which is faintly ridiculous for something so well made that works so superbly well.
The Vulfix 404 badger boar brush is one of the very best shaving brushes you can buy at any price, yet it is just £10. From its perfect, hand turned handle to its perfect, versatile knot there is nothing about this brush that can be faulted. A total absolute classic.
Good value.
Taylors of Bond Street shaving creams are lush and luxurious and come in many fantastic flavours yet they are less than £7 for a big tub. This is far cheaper than the other St James’s men’s grooming companies and is very little to pay for a top draw, world class, grooming product.
Petersburg Products International razor blades. Probably the best currently made on planet earth, they will probably cost somewhere around twice what a Super Max or Lord blade does. But in the overall scheme of things they are still very inexpensive at around two pence per shave.
Simpson’s smaller shaving brushes in pure badger. The Case, Beaufort, Berkeley and Special. Less than £20 for one of the world’s best brand of shaving brushes. The smaller sizes are perfect for face lathering and perform as well as bigger brushes from some other manufacturers. And Simpson’s pure grade of badger hair, whilst not as soft as their more expensive grades, is not rough or coarse in any way and in fact give a pleasing level of exfoliation.
iKon razors. Yes these are pretty expensive, but they cost a lot less than the solid stainless steel razors from other manufacturers. Not only that, they are rated as one of the very best razors you can buy at any price. And they will pretty much last for ever.
So there we have it, how to get the most for your hard earned money. Obviously there is much more that could be added, but this is a pretty fair look at some of the amazing, through to good, value that is out there for traditional shavers.
January 21st, 2011 — Shaving brushes
In part one we dealt with the boar, horse and synthetic brushes. Now it is time to deal with the badgers. As you can see I am a victim of the hype and the marketing with a disproportionate number of these brushes compared with, say, the excellent horse hair brushes. In my defence I would say that these brushes were each bought with a reason. And the sad thing is that I can think of good reasons to buy plenty more!
Frank Shaving:
The brushes that shocked the traditional shaving world. High quality build and performance direct from Ian Tang in China for a fraction of the price of more traditional offerings. From the top a white then a black handled finest, then a silvertip, a short lofted best and a short lofted silvertip. These are fantastic to use and set the benchmark for low cost badger brushes.
Meet the Simpson’s:
Widely regarded as the best shaving brushes in the world I am amazed that I have got away with only having five. Some people have vast collections. They work just as good as they look, if not better. Simpson’s have a fantastic range of brushes that are often very different to one another. Here is a Duke 3 in best, a Milk Churn MC2 in best with a strangely asymmetrical knot, a Commodore X1 in best, a Beaufort B1 in pure and a Wee Scot (an amazing brush) in best.
Some English shaving brushes:
Firstly two Trumper brushes, a super badger and a pure badger, that have seen considerable use and which are still excellent, then my very favourite brush a Morris & Forndran blonde badger. Then an Edwin Jagger best in faux marble, a Taylor’s of Old Bond Street pure and a New Forest 2201 in 2 band best badger.
Custom brushes:
Regular readers will have met all of these before. Firstly a Penworks with a cream handle and an immense finest badger knot, also a Malachite handled Penchetta with a super badger knot. Then two prototype Rooneys, candy stripe and metal based, both in super badger. Next come two beejay restorations, a Boots catalin butterscotch with a Frank Shaving finest knot and a Rubberset with an iKon silvertip knot. Finally we have a total beejay creation, his hand made Yew handle with a Golden Knib silvertip knot in it.
Odds and Ends:
Firstly a Tweezerman which is popular in America where it sells for $15, which is good value, but nothing compared to Frank Shaving brushes. Next is a Shea Moisture which sells for $9 and which works. Then a LiJüN & 1980 pure badger which cost me £0.99 (but £6 P&P) in pure badger which is easily the worst brush in these articles, however the more expensive offerings from this vendor have a good reputation.Finally we have the Plisson European grey badger in an olive wood handle, an eye wateringly expensive brush with a cosmetically beautiful knot which is more than a bit floppy.
As you can see this is an eclectic collection and by posting it up you can see the amazing variety that there is out there.
January 20th, 2011 — Blades
Lord is an ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 company based in Egypt’s second city, the port of Alexandria. Their 2,200 employees make several billion razor blades a year (and lots of the razors to put them in) using 8 of their own brand names and also the brand names of many supermarkets and other businesses around the world that they manufacture for. They export to 75 countries.
From a traditional shaving point of view they seem to have a very good cost/performance balance in that they make very good blades (but not the very best) at very attractive prices (though not the cheapest).
Their 8 brands are:
Lord. Platinum, Super Chrome and Super Stainless.
Big Ben. Super Stainless.
Shark. Super Stainless.
Crown. Super Stainless.
Asco. Super Stainless.
Racer. Super Stainless.
Silver Star. Super Stainless.
Rainbow. Super Stainless.
Just as with Petersburg Products International I refuse to believe that these are 10 different razor blades. In fact it is more likely that there are three different razor blades (the three different Lord models) and that everything else is just packaging.
Currently the Shark brand is finding favour with the traditional shaving community (I am using one at the moment). Presumably this is because they have the nicest packaging of the 8 brands!
January 19th, 2011 — Razor History
Here is the second in this fascinating series of articles by Matt Pisarcik of Razor Emporium:
1910’s: Wartime Sales & Ladies Shaving
As the company moved forward with early success in the 1900’s, a new decade was upon them and with it came the need to keep current. With products being sold in 145,000 retail stores throughout the lands, Gillette was truly beginning to be “Known The World Over,” a slogan that they also incorporated into their Diamond & Arrow logo which appeared around the end of the previous decade. One great milestone of the ‘teens for the razor company was the contract with the United States Army to furnish razors for soldiers fighting overseas. Not only did the company capitalize from the contract itself, but also on the prominence of their shaving system being selected for war-time usage.
Advertisements like these were prevalent in newspapers, evening posts and journals, talking about the reliability and performance that soldiers trusted the Gillette razor to give. All the while, this endorsement marketing technique built the reputation and house-hold name of the Gillette Safety Razor Company. Models that never even went to battle were still marketed to the general buying public as if they had. And better still to the war-time production, soldiers returning from overseas came home to become life-long buyers of Gillette blades for their Uncle-Sam issued razors!
Another highlight of the teens was the capturing of an entire buying segment that up to this point remained seriously un-tapped: female shaving needs. Initially titled The Milady Décolleté, the original offering to women was a “safe and sanitary way to the smooth underarms demanded by both good grooming and good dressing.” In essence, Gillette capitalized off reaching a new segment of the shaving population by popularizing the practice in itself. In other words, they made women want to shave their arms, and also want to buy a Gillette to do the shaving. Simply brilliant. Later on, Gillette went a step further to convince European women to do the same thing, and even added in the popularity of clean-shaven female legs. What a concept!
Advert images from Razor Archive.
January 18th, 2011 — Shaving brushes
I have written here before about Acquisition Disorders (ADs) and for me the biggest is Shaving Brush Acquisition Disorder (SBAD). This is because there is more variety amongst brushes than there is amongst any other element of the shave.
There are brushes made from horsehair, boar, badger and synthetic fibres. Plus mixtures of these. All these have totally different characteristics. Then there are the variations within each hair type and the variations in the construction of the brush, both handle and knot. Just getting to grips with the Simpson’s range would involve buying dozens of brushes and spending a fortune. And of course you can have brushes custom built, which then introduces infinite possible variation.
Each brush I have was bought for a reason. Mostly just curiosity. There were some big surprises along the way, an exceedingly cheap Turkish horse hair brush works better than just about everything else, for instance. A concept that some have trouble getting their head round.
In this first article I will deal with the synthetics, the horse and the boar brushes.
Here we have the Body Shop and the Men-U synthetics, as you can see they have pretty similar knots, the main difference is the handle. So in use they are also pretty much the same, which is interesting as you can buy several of the Body Shop brushes for the price of one Me-U. These brushes work quite well and you could live with one, as vegans must. But they do not come anywhere near a good natural bristle brush. Their big advantage is that they dry almost instantly and the fibres can’t rot, so they are perfect for travelling.
I only have these two horse hair brushes and they are brilliant. I wish I had more. The top one is a “Barber Brush” from Spain which cost just ten Euros, it is from a retailer who specialise in Vie Long brushes so it is probably made by them. The bottom one I have written about before, a fantastic brush from Turkey for just two and a half dollars. This really is a must have for any traditional shaver.
There are two sorts of boar brushes. Those that have had their tips trimmed and those that haven’t. If the tips are trimmed then the ends won’t split and the brush will never break in and become soft on the face. All this and more is in an authoritative article that was published on here.
So, the Disco, on top, is a unique brush but very different to use because of it’s height. Next the Omega 49, a design classic and a very good brush for just £8. The Semogue Owner’s Club is a lot more expensive and is a good brush. The Wilkinson Sword is less than £4 in most British supermarkets and works just fine. The Vulfix VS5 is about £5 and also does the job. The Vulfix 404 Grosvenor below it is included here because it is mostly boar with some badger added. It is a totally brilliant brush in every way and is a great bargain for £10. The Jaguar is a top notch brush with poor QC on the handle, the knot on this is right up there with the best bristle knots so I am amazed that they are not more accepted in the traditional shaving community. Next is the green handled Omega 10018 with Arabic script that I bought in Egypt, a good smaller boar brush. And finally an old model Body Shop brush with clipped tips which have not split in hundreds of shaves.
The super stars on this page are the Turkish horse brush and the Vulfix 404. Obviously other will disagree but this is my experience.
January 17th, 2011 — Shaving soaps and creams
January 14th, 2011 — Razor History
We are very lucky indeed that Matt Pisarcik of Razor Emporium, an expert on the subject, has agreed to write these articles that give us some fantastic background and context when looking at traditional shaving today and our continuing use of great classic razors:
Company Origins
When most people think of the Gillette Safety Razor Company, they most likely immediately picture their safety razors of yesteryear or perhaps the modern plastic shaving systems of today. And if you thought a bit harder, you may even conjure up an image of company founder King C. Gillette’s face plastered on all early safety razor blades, boxes, instructions and so forth; or your father using one of their razors to shave with. However, it would take a while before you may come to think of them as a very leading advertising agency, which is precisely what Gillette was throughout most of their history.
Around the turn of the century, safety razors were already in existence and gaining mild popularity. Companies like Kampfe Brothers (the inventor of the Safety Razor), GEM and even J.A. Henckles of Germany were popularizing the new trend to own a shaving razor. While these shaving devices merely put a miniaturized straight razor blade upon a handle, they certainly did start the ball rolling away from the traditional cut-throat style razor popular in barber shops.
This was the market climate that a middle-aged King Gillette found himself in—where even a safety razor blade still was a life-long tool that needed upkeep and care; requiring the owner to hone and strop the blade with regular usage. An idea was born for a disposable safety razor blade utilizing thin sheet-metal sharpened on both sides; made cheap enough to throw away but good enough for several acceptable and comfortable shaves. King had his patentable invention, and along with it, a customer who would need a life time supply of these blades with the onetime purchase of his fancy handle.
This set the stage for what we now know as “Freebie Marketing”, in which the customer receives what is perceived as the product for next to nothing in cost, yet has to upkeep or furnish this device with replacement parts that actually are the revenue-driving component of the business model. Other examples include computer printers and ink/toner, automobile parts and even gaming consoles and software.
1900’s
Another common method of marketing that Gillette used pervasively and came to perfect was Printed Advertisement. In these high-quality scans from Razor Archive, one can clearly see the early push that Gillette employed to get men to stop using straight razors or visiting barbershops all together. They constantly talked about the hassle of upkeep on a traditional straight razor, saving time and of course “No Honing, No Stropping” that they even incorporated into their logo. Gillette even ran attack ads against barbershops; spreading fear of infections and disease that can be spread by visiting one, and that all together they were dirty and unclean places.
Not only was there a product to be sold in these adverts, but more importantly a message and a promise from King himself—urging the public to try his razor for a 30 day trial or guaranteeing it will be more comfortable than other methods of shaving. Again, such common advertisement techniques that we know of today were not so common in an era where manufacturing companies rarely interfaced so directly with their target market of consumers and instead relied heavily on retail stores to drive sales.
to be continued……
