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Charles Roberts Method Shaving: Pioneer or Over-thinker?

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I agree @naughtilus. I don’t begrudge anyone with a passion for something trying to spread it. And from what i gather, he left his career as a teacher to start his store so i hardly think he ranks with car salesmen and the like. As i said i’m no fan of his method but i think if nothing else he’s an interesting character. And it’s also interesting matic59 is his protégée so to speak.
mantic59 don't you mean? just as irrelevant and annoying as the original nut.

Lots of "one way" and "one twue way" to shave people on the forums. Some do it from pure delusion of grandeur. The just like the attention and attempt to get fame and fans by converting suckers, er new to de shaving folks,, to their specific way of shaving.

So much is "gots to hold the razor my way", hold the brush my way, create lather by swirling the brush in clockwise motion for 20 seconds, 20 seconds counter clockwise.... and such like bull**** nonsense.

Others do it from pure greed, ie they own a business that they link to a shaving "method".. One American shaving forum is done that way completely, not only is it tied to a business that sells melt and pour shaving soap, but the forum is devoted to a bizarre method of shaving. Just cant remember the name.

Then you have something like bullgoose shaving. and its website forum. Completely created to promote everything sold by the shaving goods store, and to promote every item in "over stock" quantities as the greatest thing for shaving exactly 2 weeks before it goes on "special sale price".
 
I think the process was way over thought. A good shave can happen just by experimenting on your own. It can be self taught. The guy meant well but honestly he also wanted to sell his products.
 
Sorry, I have to chime in again. I spent an hour or so in his store, and he never steered me to his products. An overwhelming portion of his store inventory was third party, unrelated to his method shaving, and we never discussed his products. Yet I enjoyed all my time with him, greatly. And even spent some money.

He introduced me to one of my favorite EdT/EdPs, Midnight Oud by Juliette Has a Gun. It's a fragrance marketed to women, but he convinced me that gender classifications are meaningless. He was right. I'm wearing Midnight Oud tonight.
 
Sorry, I have to chime in again. I spent an hour or so in his store, and he never steered me to his products. An overwhelming portion of his store inventory was third party, unrelated to his method shaving, and we never discussed his products. Yet I enjoyed all my time with him, greatly. And even spent some money.

He introduced me to one of my favorite EdT/EdPs, Midnight Oud by Juliette Has a Gun. It's a fragrance marketed to women, but he convinced me that gender classifications are meaningless. He was right. I'm wearing Midnight Oud tonight.
considering 90% of commercially made "male" fragrances are actually DESIGNED for WOMEN.... it doesn't matter
 
My original question was whether he was a major influence in modern DE shaving and after everyone’s answers, i think the verdict (for me) is that he was a polarizing figure, a nice guy, obviously passionate about his beliefs and did have some impact on the way DE shaving is today. One thing i’ve noticed is that initially he was a big advocate for the large knot brushes and perhaps had some influence in knots growing in size in the “modern” era. It’s hard to tell. But my takeaway is that he certainly is an interesting character and i think whatever hobby or interest you have is always made better by the characters in it.
 
IMO 99% of shaving culture is created by companies marketing departments, sales and promotion people who own shaving resale businesses, and hired copywriters in men style mags. We were very much passive recipients of this relationship, at least until the internet gave us the ability to create our own memes. But it's still very much sell-buy driven culture.

What a regular shaver does is to perch up his phone on the bathroom mirror and shave. Businessmen like 'Doug' and Matt hire a producer and make a whole TV show - I'd lather be shaving. Bullgoose, Geo Fatboy and Mantic59 make detailed tutorials and gear reviews, podcasts, blogs, trivia etc. IMO it's win-win for us since they do all the work and I decide where to spend my money.
 
IMO 99% of shaving culture is created by companies marketing departments, sales and promotion people who own shaving resale businesses, and hired copywriters in men style mags. We were very much passive recipients of this relationship, at least until the internet gave us the ability to create our own memes. But it's still very much sell-buy driven culture.

What a regular shaver does is to perch up his phone on the bathroom mirror and shave. Businessmen like 'Doug' and Matt hire a producer and make a whole TV show - I'd lather be shaving. Bullgoose, Geo Fatboy and Mantic59 make detailed tutorials and gear reviews, podcasts, blogs, trivia etc. IMO it's win-win for us since they do all the work and I decide where to spend my money.
Who can actually trust the stuff made by anyone who is reselling product... I sure cant and don't.

Bullgoose is a rather crafty SOB.. everything that stops selling instantly becomes a "cannot be discussed item" on his shaving forum site. Anything he has in massive levels is automatically the "best product ever" and the idiots on his shaving forum lap it up like good little lap dogs.

You actually get banned for simply asking the question "why is every on sale product suddenly the best shaving product ever the week before it goes on sale"
 
Who can actually trust the stuff made by anyone who is reselling product... I sure cant and don't.

Bullgoose is a rather crafty SOB.. everything that stops selling instantly becomes a "cannot be discussed item" on his shaving forum site. Anything he has in massive levels is automatically the "best product ever" and the idiots on his shaving forum lap it up like good little lap dogs.

You actually get banned for simply asking the question "why is every on sale product suddenly the best shaving product ever the week before it goes on sale"

We aren't in disagreement, but I'm simply more entertained rather than pissed about it. I remind myself caveat emptor, and don't forget the popcorn.
 
I, like some others, had not heard of Roberts until this thread. I enjoy the Mantic59 posts because he seems to get a lot of inside information and gets to test razors long before they hit the market. I also am a sucker of lists (like Mojo and Taste of Cinema) which he does ranking the best razors or creams or brushes. As with any talking head, I always listen with a grain of salt. I'm old enough to know that just because someone says it's so, even if they are an "expert," doesn't always make it so, particularly in something so subjective as grooming. I got this from my dad, who is now deceased, a dermatologist. We would watch a commercial for a "hydrocortisone cream" or "vitamin e" lotion and he would pop off comments like, "the hydrocortisone level is too low to be therapeutic, and the vitamin e cannot be absorbed through the skin."
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
I, like some others, had not heard of Roberts until this thread. I enjoy the Mantic59 posts because he seems to get a lot of inside information and gets to test razors long before they hit the market. I also am a sucker of lists (like Mojo and Taste of Cinema) which he does ranking the best razors or creams or brushes. As with any talking head, I always listen with a grain of salt. I'm old enough to know that just because someone says it's so, even if they are an "expert," doesn't always make it so, particularly in something so subjective as grooming. I got this from my dad, who is now deceased, a dermatologist. We would watch a commercial for a "hydrocortisone cream" or "vitamin e" lotion and he would pop off comments like, "the hydrocortisone level is too low to be therapeutic, and the vitamin e cannot be absorbed through the skin."
Your dad was a smart man!
 
Charles was an interesting man. I visited with him numerous times in his store. He had some interesting ideas about shaving but his products were really good but expensive. However he wouldn’t push his products and knew and said that his stuff wasn’t for everyone. He would give people shaving lessons in his store for free. He also started in the late 90s by importing a lot of DE stuff to the states when there was almost no market. It was typically Merkur razors and English creams. He also started one of the first wet shaving forums. I also watched one of his shaving exhibitions in person and can attest to the fact that there was a blade in his razor. Very passionate and kind. I didn’t believe all of his claims but his products worked. And this was before most of the artisans were around.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
Thank you, he was.
I'm a REALLY old Cosmetologist, and a kind of old RN. Did your dad ever refer to "hot water eczema" ? I heard lots of old timer Barbers call it that from washing their hands so often in the winter.

I'll bet your dad had issues in the winter what with being a Dermatologist. In my experience, the only doctors that I ever dealt with that actually washed their hands often enough were surgeons and Dermatologists and infection control docs, lol.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
Charles was an interesting man. I visited with him numerous times in his store. He had some interesting ideas about shaving but his products were really good but expensive. However he wouldn’t push his products and knew and said that his stuff wasn’t for everyone. He would give people shaving lessons in his store for free. He also started in the late 90s by importing a lot of DE stuff to the states when there was almost no market. It was typically Merkur razors and English creams. He also started one of the first wet shaving forums. I also watched one of his shaving exhibitions in person and can attest to the fact that there was a blade in his razor. Very passionate and kind. I didn’t believe all of his claims but his products worked. And this was before most of the artisans were around.
He kinda sounds like he was just a little bit ahead of his time, sadly.

Like a Ron Popiel of wet shaving.
 
I'm a REALLY old Cosmetologist, and a kind of old RN. Did your dad ever refer to "hot water eczema" ? I heard lots of old timer Barbers call it that from washing their hands so often in the winter.

I'll bet your dad had issues in the winter what with being a Dermatologist. In my experience, the only doctors that I ever dealt with that actually washed their hands often enough were surgeons and Dermatologists and infection control docs, lol.
I don't recall that term. He and mom met in med school (my mom was an RN), so we did a lot of handwashing in our home. The big thing that dad dealt with was skin cancer from all the farmers in the area.
 
I'm a REALLY old Cosmetologist, and a kind of old RN. Did your dad ever refer to "hot water eczema" ? I heard lots of old timer Barbers call it that from washing their hands so often in the winter.

I'll bet your dad had issues in the winter what with being a Dermatologist. In my experience, the only doctors that I ever dealt with that actually washed their hands often enough were surgeons and Dermatologists and infection control docs, lol.
I am now a Pediatric Infectious Disease doctor, but for the first 3 years after residency I was a busy primary care pediatrician seeing about 35-45 patients a day, and washing my hands with soap and water (this was pre-Purell) between every patient.

I found a product back then that I rubbed into the skin at the beginning of the day, then "set" under cold running water, then reapplied and set a second time. This stuff blocked water from even getting to your skin. It made water bead up on the hands like it does on a freshly waxed car. It was amazing!

It would wash off by around lunchtime, and I would reapply before beginning the afternoon clinic.


Without this magical "cream" (really a protectant of some sort), my hands would be red, itchy, rashy, and bleeding. I went through multiple tubes of the stuff. For the life of me I can't remember what it was called.
 
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