Thread: The Straight Razor's Future

What a great question Obie. This is what I would hope for. I have three sons and six grandsons, so far. I would like all of them to discover what we have become passionate about, Lord knows I have enough razors to last a few more generations than that. For the general population it will be a fad that will come and go, but there will always be that hard core group of collectors and users who will never quit. Let's face it, this is something you need time and patience to master, something that seems to be lacking in our fast forward society.

Hi All.

My first post here at Straight Razor Place. I figured that this thread is good as any to kick it off. I have noticed an ever increasing trend in the wet shaving community as can be reflected in the items down at Walmart shifting from carrying the basic Vanderhagen set to the Luxury & Traditional sets, which IMHO is just clever marketing to get more $$ for the same stuff. I personally started on my own with a basic Vanderhagen set and almost gave it up because the products were of such poor quality (again personal opinion). It was forums like this one and others that enlightened me to better products, which turned into addiction disorders, and which are now settling down to what I really enjoy. I also feel that the interest in straight razors has followed this trend and will continue to do so. I probably would have never started my journey into straights had I not first ventured into DE. I think that the largest setback to straight razor growth is the perceived cost and maintenance associated with straight shaving. I think that Dovo shortage has more to do with the increase in vendors that desire to carry the Dovo products as "beginner" straights coupled with the fact that a lot of people prefer purchasing a "new" blade over a vintage one (think new car mentality). I personally do not desire any more shave stuff save one shaving brush, which I think will be the end of that search. I am content with what I have for now, although I still would like to find a nice straight "in the wild".

Straight shaving will continue to remain a small corner of a niche market due to:

#1 the impression that there is some sort of mystical art to honing and maintaining (stropping, touch-up, etc) a shave ready edge.
#2 upfront cost and future costs are pricey if compared to most DE and carts.
#3 microwave mentality. People want to just pick something up and be instant pros, but that just simply isn't the case when it comes to straights. it takes time and patience and focus and desire to become proficient and even then on an off day mistakes can get expensive and/or embarrassing.
#4 straight shaving is the most YMMV of all wet shaving. There are hundreds of methods to achieve the same result and everyone has the next best piece of advice. Mine is : Find what works for you and leave it alone.

Ok. Enough rambling. Thanks for having me here. I look forward to checking in from time to time and learning more from the seasoned straight veterans of this forum.

Cheers!

I believe that shaving with a straight razor will become mainstream and that there will be a site called Cartridgerazorplace.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Snip,,,,

The image of a young man shaving with a Wade & Butcher, then headed to work with his Toyota hybrid, with a mocha lotte in his hand,,,,,,well,,,,,something is just wrong,,,,IMO,,,,

Sorry guys if any of you fit the above,,,, just my feelings,,,,& Lord knows I got my issues,,,,,

Hey now!
Young ish, check, Prius, check, W&B, check and check again!

Joking aside, I agree that the environmental aspect of straight razor shaving will never be what drives in the hoards thru our door.
If anything, I'd say we are heading towards the dark ages again.
Meaning that more and more people will grow facial hair.
This is driven by fashion, but to some extent it is also a reflection on our day and age.
And a dissatisfaction on the current shaving regimes that most people know of.

Our biggest hope is with Paris and Hollywood imho.
Once they get the models and actors to actually care about grooming (well, that area, and not all the other candidates) again, we will see an upswing in the straight razor scene.

DE's will take the most of the growth though.
Most men are mice, easily swayed by opinion, wifes/girlfriends and some irrational fear of a naked blade.

All the above does not mean things are dire for our passion though.
Hundreds of thousands around the world still uses a straight, and the numbers are on a slow rise it feels like.

What we can do though to help more people find out about it is simple enough.
Continue to grow this community, arrange and partake in meetups and gatherings and sport our BBS chin proudly every day

Obie, Thank You for this timely subject

The "old ways" have a lot to recommend, and I think (not just shaving technology) if we can just take a step back,
we will see a return to some traditional ways of "doing things" is not a retrograde step.

I enjoy my straight razors, I enjoy honing them, and I enjoy using them.
Time is a commodity that (these days) is marketed to us as something that we must save, save, save,
and anything that is "convenient" should be worshipped....I disagree !!

This might be slightly off the subject that you intended, but I hope you will forgive my ramblings.

Bongo.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I'm with you on this one Obie.

We see all the folks wanting to start and certainly the shortage of stock is another indicator however what we don't see are the folks who start and quit. That is the unknown. I have a feeling the number is very high.

Actually, that information is far from unknown, and we can easily see how many folks there are "who start and quit". That information is available to all of us under the 'community' tab in the Members List.

In spite of the obvious bias in this forum, the forum's proprietary nature, and the bad reputation rather unfairly attributed to cartridge razors (used without complaint by millions of shavers) and the aversion to the dreaded "Canned Goo", what we find in the Members List is quite revealing.

For every member who fights through the steep learning curve, the expense of equipment and either purchasing hones or repeatedly sending their razors out to "pro honers", there are many who don't last very long at all. In fact, most of the members by far who announce that they are joining the forum, make known their distaste for the expensive cartridges and "Canned Goo" never make it past the 10 post mark and most haven't been heard of in years.

While this information is amenable to statistical analysis, all that is required is a cursory review of any of the initials under which the members are listed and a review of what can be found there. For every member who learns to straight shave, proclaims his RAD, HAD and other ongoing experiences with straight shaving, there are anywhere from 10 to 20 or more who post once to ten times and are gone. We cannot know what they do after they quit the forum, but assuming that they are happily straight shaving is quite a stretch. It is much more likely that they returned to the dreaded cartridges that they had claimed to have left behind and are daily applying the hated "Canned Goo" to their faces.

Even more telling is that this is a database not of average shavers but of shavers who proclaimed their hatred of cartridges and commitment to move on to DEs and Straight Razors. Thus it is an extremely biased sample and yet it shows that joining this forum is far more likely to result in a return to old ways of shaving than continuing with wet shaving.

Originally Posted by easyace

I believe that shaving with a straight razor will become mainstream and that there will be a site called Cartridgerazorplace.

Thanks for the morning chuckle.

Bob

I think the straight razor has almost re-entered the mainstream - or at least a side-stream . I say almost because it's hard to measure these things, but the fact that you can walk into a mall-based chain (Shaver Shop in this country) and walk out with a new Dovo says something. You couldn't do that ten years ago. Internet sellers of DEs can't keep up with demand, and as others have observed, the keen DE user sooner or later hears about the straight or cut-throat razor.

I think the future is bright, provided people like Dovo, TI and the other smaller scale makers continue to train grinders - that's crucial; we won't have any straight razors on sale in mainstream shops without that expertise being preserved.

Another thing, I'm really impressed that the products of firms like Mastro Livi are becoming prestige items - I know they're out of the financial reach of most of us but it's great publicity for the art and craft of SR shaving.

Ooh wow what an interesting topic!!

I also believe that the current straight razor marketing is almost at it’s top, or just before the top.
And it might be due to the current fast moving society, where everything has to be fast and always available. So for the people to escape this fastness they will pick something to relax or slow down.
Also the growing number of barbershops (as for here in the Netherlands) is for me a sign this is growing.

During my education we had this graph: innovators and laggards.
Where it is believed that there are people who are innovators who buy all the new stuff before it becomes mainstream. And there people who are laggard who like the way it is, and only buy it if everyone has one and there are no flaws in the product. The current state is think about the point of early majority.



As for future of the straight razor I am a bit afraid of the companies who have to grow really fast this days to keep up with the demand. Because they start to invest in improving the capacity of their factory and perhaps bite off more than one can handle. And when the market starts to decrease they are no longer able the fund all the investments.
I think Dovo is a company which might not be around in couple of years, because of this. But perhaps it this a bit harsh to say.
I am not familiar with the product before the growth of this market. But I have read some reviews (shave ready or not, aesthetic quality flaws, lose pins) of the product and they vary quite a bit form positive to not so good, for me these are sign the company has problem with the speed it is growing. I hope they will stay, because I like their affordable products.

I also believe for a product to stay interesting innovation is needed. This may not be the product where innovation is applicable. I don’t know which direction the product should grow towards??

As others already mentioned , most of the people will eventually leave the straight and perhaps move towards the DE. But I might be wrong the history has show us then already a large population have left the straight and eventually the DE. So I think the large cartridge razor company will try to bring back their customers with some new product, and history will repeat itself in some sorts.

For me I think I always stay using the quality soaps and brush, and probably will end up with the DE razor for during the week. And once in a while treat myself with a straight razor shave.

Just saw the post above, well said!

Originally Posted by Maladroit

..snip...
I think the future is bright, provided people like Dovo, TI and the other smaller scale makers continue to train grinders - that's crucial; we won't have any straight razors on sale in mainstream shops without that expertise being preserved.

Another thing, I'm really impressed that the products of firms like Mastro Livi are becoming prestige items - I know they're out of the financial reach of most of us but it's great publicity for the art and craft of SR shaving.

As I see the difficulty is not training the grinders, It is training them properly instead of a week on the job and a heavy production schedule from there till they quit. Please understand that all the big names were bought out by Big Business, and the quality is seen as less important than quantity. There are signs of that in the $100 dollar razor supply.
I have seen this in the Espresso machine industry where a large conglomerate bought out a little highly regarded companies and some others and the quality and parts replacement problems are now huge.

Just my take.
Since the average person is not going to shave daily with a straight, those production type companies easily survive with the buy, try, and give up set. That was not the norm a hundred years back! If a maker got the rep for bad blades they were quickly out of business. Each area had their own favored blade just like farm equipment. So that blade was sold in that area for generations. If the company went bad, it was known soon and the loyalty shifted quickly to another brand. As one who spends time around antique stores, that is very apparent. Some areas have only on manufacturer, and others early and late have two. Barbers were really persnickety about blades and warned all who they could about a bad batch of blades from some manufacturer.

So it is left up to us, as interested parties, to help the movement along with well thought out answers and help to those that are starting and continuing. Not only for straights but any wet shaving method. Straights may come later to some, or not at all.

The products made for wet shaving benefit us all. How many new quality products are on the market in just the last four years...one year? We all benefit thereby. Also, the forums quickly separate the good from the bad!
Just my take upon a subject.
~Richard