Thread: Straight razor popularity vs being a small elite group, poll

Hey guys, let me start off by saying...I don't want to sound selfish, or cruel but there is a big part of me who doesn't want the straight razor community to grow too large. It probably wont become too " hip" but I personally like the feeling of being part of an elite few, a small community of peeps who understand and enjoy the benefits of sr shaving. With all the articles lately basically saying it's the new hip thing on college campuses etc, it makes me feel like it's becoming a fad or something. There is an annoying ring to it, I don't know why. Let me reiterate, I do not mean to sound harsh, I love the press that Lynn is getting these days and I LOVE sr shaving, I just want it to be respected for what it is, not some stupid fad because it makes you cool. Share your thoughts and be sure to vote!

"pfft. stupid noobs. I liked straight shaving back in the day, before it was cool."

guess that makes you a shaving scenester, eh? j/k

the only benefit I see from big (unsustainable) growth numbers in our community is alot of nice second hand razors on ebay when the noobs give up out of frustration

Originally Posted by jockeys

"pfft. stupid noobs. I liked straight shaving back in the day, before it was cool."

guess that makes you a shaving scenester, eh? j/k

the only benefit I see from big (unsustainable) growth numbers in our community is alot of nice second hand razors on ebay when the noobs give up out of frustration

Lol, I guess with a join date of Jan '09 I would be a hipster huh? Hehe, I do admit, it did look cool when I started out, but mainly I wanted to do something that was efficient. different and enjoyable vs my old trusty neck grater, I mean electric razor. I also have major issues with the whole "gauging your ears thing". I cannot stand it! Those are cool gauges man, I want huge guages man...These emo peesps drive me nuts with their tryng to be cool ear "guaging". I was a body piercer back in the late 90's when stretching was really becoming popular, not a fad. I've got 2g eyelets in my ears but it is because I enjoy pushing my mind, body to the limit, and enjoy body art and I think is is asthetically pleasing, NOT because everyone else thinks it's cool or not. Wow, I just realized my ranting and hijacking my own thread. Carry on peeps!

whatever makes razors cheaper.....

I voted to have the SR community grow dramatically. IMO those who take it up as a fad will either love it and stay with it or be turned off by the learning curve and move on to the next big thing. Having a large community of SR shavers will keep the commercial side going so that we have great razors and strops etcetera still being made and the vendors doing well enough to make those things available to the community. It will keep the forum interesting too.

Originally Posted by jockeys

the only benefit I see from big (unsustainable) growth numbers in our community is alot of nice second hand razors on ebay when the noobs give up out of frustration

Yes, they'd be unsuspecting lackeys combing the globe for the extremely finite number of vintage blades still in existence. I have no problem with that.

Given our fast track culture, IMO straight razor shaving, by design has a cap on potential widespread interest. There is no way the majority of men and women would adopt this shaving method. Certainly we could see an increase, but not a runaway explosion of new users.

Either way is really OK with me. IF there were a runaway explosion of an exponential number of interested straight razor users across the planet, many of us experienced users would be able to quit our day jobs, open online web stores to sell razors, supplies, honing, etc and have PUH-LENTY of customers to draw from for all of us to be happy. Oh yeah.

This shows how much I daydream about razor stuff (way way way too much):

During the 19th century in the U.S.A. there were probably upwards of 20 different types of whetstones mined across the country. Some finer than others. Some fine enough to be sold and used for straight razor honing. Albeit, none were probably as fine as a coticule, but some as described were aesthetically pleasing and were considered "polishing stones".

If there was an exponential growth in straight razors across the globe, in my daydream I would locate one of the best defunct mines or areas where the best whetstones were mined, buy the land and start whetstone mining. There would be enough HADdicts to want to buy the stones even if they weren't to the level of a Nakayama Asagi, Coticule, Thuringian stone.

Ah, to dream.

Chris L


Chris L

I would like to see straight user use grow dramatically. This would create more demand for "quality razors" and we will probably see enhanced quality of razors... (imagine a zeepk thats good). And as for college campuses, its not really as big as ppl make it out to be shaving isnt really even something that is thought of.
+1 jockeys lol

I don't much care either way. It isn't like parachute pants or mullets. If you pick this up because it is hip you still have to learn how to use it and stick with it. I doubt anyone will unless they like it. I think it will be a self correcting trend.

I think this is a bit like another hobby of mine, motorcycles. That is, in order to get involved, you have to really want to. For that reason, I don't think the community will grow as rapidly as say, the DE market will.

I have nothing against growth, until it starts having a negative impact on the products available. I think it is interesting that people seem to think that greater demand leads to higher quality, I think the exact opposite is true.

I do think that it will grow still though, and I think prices will keep going up as well.

I can't really think of a wrong reason