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Does anyone have some kind of handle on how many in the US use straights?
It's got to be very low in percentage terms because I've never met one, in-person, in 25 years.:shrug:
This has probably been discussed before, but I can't think of a good search string to get a good result.
Thanks!
Good question. I would venture to guess under 10,000 nationwide.:shrug:
Chris L
Maybe you have met them without knowing. ;) In my experience with other "lost arts," there are many more people who practice than are on internet forums for the art. And given how many sites/pages there are dedicated to straight razors, I'd guess there are quite a few of us. I'm going to guess more than 10K. It would be nice to find some research on the subject, though.
I would say there are no where Near enough people using them!!!
I suspect there are many more than we realize or would guess. I thing there are many who have been using them for many years and don't know about these sites and are like closet straight users. Many probably would never admit it if you asked them unless they knew you did too.
I can say that ever since I wandered into the Straight Razor Place one day, there's been one more straight user in the states! :D
I have known two such people for several years and only found out recently they have been shaving with straights off and on for a long time
I took up shaving before I found this site, so there are bound to be others.
I know of one friend who owns a straight razor, but doesn't know how to use it properly, nor does he care. To each his own.
I look at E-Bay and the number of people on this site and I think it is a larger community that most people realize.
R
Besides the people I have met online and myself, I don't know anyone that uses a safety razor, let alone a straight razor.
It turns out a longtime friend took up straights a few years before I did, and one of my wife's former coworkers also used one. I suspect there are more of us out there than you'd think.
I first started when I was about 16, I had purchased a Feathered Str8 and went to town tearing my face up:rolleyes: and then I lost the razor and well 16 years later I picked it up, but it was not without an influence. I had watched Sweeny Todd and well aside from the mass murder portions of the film, the feeling started to come back, however I was still on the fence. Then I was watching Battlestar Galactica and saw Giaus Baltar using one. It was like a sign from above. The next day I did a internet search and well here I am.
Bottom line is that I think there are far more people that use str8's in one form or another (feathered etc . . .) Far more than 10k in the US alone. Sure I'm going on a hunch, but with all the youtube videos and sites dedicated to Str8's and its cousins; well you get the picture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrisl
I think this is way low Chris. Hell there are 5000 members here on SRP alone and as others have said, I started with a straight many moons before SRP even existed. I have no reason for saying this but I'd bet there are at least half a million.
I would think the question can be posed to the sellers of razors and strops. They would have some sort of database on which an educated guess might be based.
I have met many people who have had a straight razor shave while on holiday, but never met someone in person who uses a straight razor.
I like it that way in some ways, as you can pick up razors for very small outlay. To most people straight razors are out-moded junk.
The downside to this exclusivity(spelling?again??) is there are verry few new reasonable priced razors out there.:tu
I've found when talking to co-workers and the like that many foreign-born people in the U.S. have at least seen a family member shave with a straight or feather. I would tend to agree with the poster who said closer to half a million, assuming some of those family members reside here and many may not even have internet access or may not browse in english, I'd say there are definitely far more than most would think at first. Income and internet access could be a factor as well... By the way, I think everyone knows this thread is about numbers and not ethnicity, but in case it needs to be said, there it is.:nono:
:OTAlso, slightly off-topic, can anyone who's been here since before the theatrical release of Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp, not stage, obviously) guesstimate how much this site has grown? It seems to me that we gain at least two or three and often more new members a day and, mathematically speaking, it can not have always been this constant.
Quizzically,
Adam
There are only 11 straight shavers but we each have like 40 user names. :)
This is the second site Lynn has created (maybe third?) and about 1/2 the members changed over from the old "Yahoo" site. So what your seeing here is a portion of the total people.
The site has grown slightly faster than normal over the last year but not too much I don't think. I don't think it was the movie that brought people here, but it could have been I suppose.
Since I'm sort of chartered to read every post in every thread, I can tell you my job gets harder every month. It used to be easier to do the same thing. Now I can barely keep up.
Maybe a poll that reveals "how many members know of a non-member straight shaver or more?"
Just an afterthought
I gave a speech one evening to a smallish group of Toastmasters a year ago. To start the speech I held up a straight and asked who knew what it was. Half (10-15 ) of the hands went up. I asked who had used one. All hands but one were hastily withdrawn. So, out of the 25-30 people in our room, one was a current user and one was either current or former. Statistically speaking that's not nearly a large enough sample to form a conclusion.
However, a friend at work is leaving to re-join the ministry, and we had discussed shaving from time to time. He was curious about straights, and I gave him a W&B as a kind of going-away gift. I figure the Lord will watch over him since he'll be back doing the Lord's work. I think the number is significant and growing.
I'm almost embarrassed to say that Sweeny Todd played a part in my decision to join this board and get into straight razor shaving. It's always been something I was interested in, but in a sort of abstract way. When my sweetie and I saw Sweeny Todd, we drooled over the razors and the holster, and shortly after that my sweetie got his first razor and asked if I'd be interested in shaving him. At that point my abstract interest in straights became tangible and I started doing some research, finally ending up here. (And soon my straights will outnumber his!)Quote:
Originally Posted by CDpyroNme
So I'm sure the movie influenced a bunch of folks here, but I couldn't guess at how many.
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Originally Posted by icedog
That's one in 600, could be, my guess is 100,000 users or 1 in 3,000. I think the true number is closer to that.
Sellers of strops could be illuminating, for with a few exceptions, :w you can't easily shave without one and most vintage strops rotted away while contemporary razors can soldier on.
I certainly hope there are more than 10,000, don't get me wrong. 500,000 in the U.S. alone? I've got to get to work on starting my own straight razor related product website!;);):D
Chris L
How about looking at it this way: There are still only two major producers of straight razors remaining in the world, both in Europe. All of the US producers, except for a few custom makers, are long gone.
There must be enough worldwide business to keep both Dovo and Thierrs in business, but how much is U.S only?
I'm guessing that if the U.S. straight razor market was that big, some entrepeneur (maybe even Gillette or Schick) would put out some type of product to capture that market. The fact that it hasn't happened, yet, tells me that the U.S. market is probably very, very small.
Scott
I would guess that there are more than we think, I knew a member here (Lou aka Scarface) for the past 4 years talked to him at least twice a week at the Gym, about various subjects, and not once did straights, ever come up...
Until Tony's "What do you look like thread" and we realized that we knew each other .....
...or a sign from God, as the series philosophy goes. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackhawk
I know that a few of my friends who watch BG have gotten interested in wet shaving because of the series; at least one has expressed interest in straights. I wonder what percentage of wet shavers go to DEs or straights, following the same logic that I did when I started wet shaving with my grandfather's mug and brush after his death -- that if the old-school lather is so much better than the gunk that we're expected to use, what about old-school shaving tools?
To finish the story, I found his old straight razor, but the scales were broken and there was a chip in the edge that made me think that it wasn't such a good idea to use it, so I kept on with wet shaving and disposables until the brush cracked and I was unable (read: didn't know how) to get a replacement. So it was creams and an M3 until I read an article in a local weekly rag which rekindled my interest, whereupon I searched the Tubes for Straight Razors... and here I am.
One of my other interests is watch collecting and not long ago a watch manufacturer did a survey in the U.S. His question was do you own a watch valued at $500 or more. Most collectors would hardly consider that an expensive watch and the answer they got was 1% of the U.S poulation has a watch at that value. So if you exclude kids what do you have about 1% of less than 200 million. Still at least 200,000 people. So would you start a business to cater to a product used by way less than 1% of the total population? If the question had been do you own a watch valued at say a grand or more the number would probably have been a fraction of that. So even if a tiny percentage of guys use a straight that could still add up to quite a number.
I suspect that there are more closet straight users than people like us who admit to it. Many have probably been shaving with a straight for many many years and have 1 or 2 vintage razors they inherited and maybe a hone or two to maintain and an old strop and a basic brush and use a basic soap they find in wally world or walgreens.
Also remember that when you talk about site memberships as an indicator of interest and this is the case with all sites not just here, many join out of curiosity or a fleeting interest or think its just cool at the time and never again return. Of the 5000 members we have even including lurkers who do not post how many active members do we really have? The admins could answer that but my guess and its only a guess would be no more than 1000. That would still be a very respectible number. I remember when the membership number on the yahoo groups site passed 1000 and we thought that was a momentus occassion.
Ha! that's what got me thinking about doing it as well! I've been toying with the idea for a while, and this one brought it to the front of my mind. Pretty meh movie, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackhawk
I've got to go with Scott on this one. The American entrepreneurial spirit simply would not let an opportunity like this pass if there were a significant market for the product. Again, world-wide there are only two producers. I think that tells you about all you need to know.
In addition, except for those with serious RAD, which I know is most on this site, the simple fact that one razor could last a lifetime limits the economic viability of production.
stats
Working with tiny segments of a population is a demographer's nightmare.Quote:
Originally Posted by thebigspendur
bigspendur's analogy to expensive watches argues for the being far fewer than my guesstament of 100,000 as we've all known a number of people with expensive watches.
Maybe we should ask some of the Grey Beards what they think about this?