It was known the Mab razor, a person could shave 5 men in 4 minutes 42secs.
"Don't Live in the Past" Gillette
- Thread starter Twelvefret
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Last week I did a single pass in no more than five minutes and a second pass would not have been required. I wasn’t in a hurry and I wasn’t trying to go fast. It just came out that way. It was with a particularly good razor perfectly honed. In any case four minutes isn’t all that surprising.
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- #63
Very interesting ad. As several have said, in marketing nothing is by chance. I also agree that there is a resurgence to wet shaving in SE/DE/SR shaving, I and many others are a perfect example. I switched due to cost of a cartridge and wanting a better result and experience. I drank the kool-aid and I love it. With the trend of things of the past becoming popular again Gillette maybe trying to get ahead of the curve of loosing revenue. There are many grooming shops (barbers etc) that are using a DE or SR in their regiment along with a nice hot lather. Hell the hot lather is a major selling point. Even higher end tattoo artists are embracing the trend and are using a DE razor to shave the clients instead of a disposable Bic or Gillette razor. This trend is growing with the younger population.
I interpreted this statement indirectly. Trying to tell the newbie consumer that he will need to buy a high-quality blade (meaning expensive) without explaining why. Sort of a hidden comparison against some cheap manufactured blade that is difficult to sharpen, does not hold an edge, easy to rust, etc. so it will not be sharp enough to shave without irritation.
Overall I did not have a critical opinion of that article as there are another pages where they mention the history or evolution of razors in an effort to show their involvement and gain credibility. As a way to sell the consumer on their expertise and focus on improving the state of the art. So mentioning straights is just covering that base IMO to the person who is already curious enough to start reading.
The Safety Razor Evolution | Gillette USA
Shaving history: razor science & technology | Gillette
Gillette Our History | Gillette
This. The straight razor is antithetical to planned obsolescence.
Gillette as a brand is about as popular as blood diamond miners are. Go and ask every adult male you encounter about shaving in general and I guarantee you will not find one happy and satisfied Gillette customer. They all either 'hate shaving' and shell out for Gillette's latest gizmo anyway or are using some budget dispoable or subscription service.
Note how Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet) sold Gillette (which included Duracell batteries at the time) to Procter & Gamble in 2005 (getting some PG stock as part of the transaction). Then later in 2014, Berkshire exchanged its shares in PG back to Procter in order to get Duracell in return. Effectively unloading Gillette onto PG.
I remember reading or seeing a video clip of Buffet say how he really liked the razor business because of how men need to shave regularly and continually buy razor blades. But he is also famous for talking about businesses which have strong moats. So maybe Warren recognized that trying to increase the price of a commodity product (blades) above the rate of inflation was not a good long term business model. I never read anything about why he decided to get out of Gillette.
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- #69
I know you are one of these younger men using a SR and have an interest is getting a better shave. There was a Gillette shaving commercial shown last night during a football game showing a young man in his teens shaving as a part of growing up. As always the "the best a man can get" was the ending caption. We all know the using these expensive plastic shavers are not the best.
If you look at ads from magazines in Google Books, marketing then would never work today. Telling this generation what is best is going to be tested and not just accepted.
This reminds me of something that I've been pondering since reading the Gillette SR comparison. A key part of Gillette's marketing (and of the shaving industry as a whole) is that the absolute goal of shaving is the BBS shave. Moreover, having such a shave is directly linked to success in life and in love. Gillette ads going back to at least the era of the New present the image of a wife needing to buy her husband a New razor because he is unable to land a job because of a bad shave. Much later, Gem would feature an ad for the Featherweight where Mickey Mantle strikes out with a woman because of 5 o'Clock shadow from a shave that wasn't close enough.
One of Gillette's points in the comparison was how their thin, sharp, closely-spaced blades easily allowed for a close shave while the SR would require additional care and effort. In other words, 100 years of shaving innovation distilled down to a razor which will let a man achieve that Holy Grail of a BBS by doing little more than smacking himself with the razor.
The odd thing is that this goal of being clean shaven has been thrown by the wayside in recent years. Now, we see men actively cultivating stubble and routinely sporting mustaches and beards, often in styles last seen previously in silent movies. Even women seem to be starting to dump the idea of shaved armpits and legs which were pushed on them in the early 20th Century.
It starting to sound like the argument of an unsustainable company trying to justify its existence.
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- #71
Great read and thanks for posting. Men my son's age do sport stubble and he has a vp job title....LOL!! It has become the fashion. Men hear post they shave every other day or three times a week.
Maybe this is kind of like us thinking a car needs and oil change every 3000 miles.
It would be interesting to know how much of the stubble and bearded fashion look is a direct result of high blade prices associated with modern blade systems. Charging so much that people stretch their blades or skip shaves.
When Gillette released the Fusion I never wanted to try it, even after receiving a free promotional one in the mail. It was partly responsible for motivating me to look for alternatives...and discovering B&B.
When Gillette released the Fusion I never wanted to try it, even after receiving a free promotional one in the mail. It was partly responsible for motivating me to look for alternatives...and discovering B&B.
Something is certainly going on in the market.
Apparently Muhle opened a bricks and mortar shop in London last month :
Google Maps
Apparently Muhle opened a bricks and mortar shop in London last month :
Google Maps
The stubble look got really popular about 4 or 5 years ago and is beginning to fade out a little. I hate it. Makes people look like they are homeless (I know I'm old-fashioned about this). I shave every day and have for decades. My wife much prefers the clean-shaven face and despises the stubble look, as well.
I do believe that an impetus for the stubble resurgence was the cost of the cartridges and the mundane nature of the chore of shaving with modern cartridge razors.
I also agree with an earlier poster who stated that the straight is often the ultimate destination for traditional wetshavers, and that it is not very many steps from the MMOC to the straight razor. I was slow. Started shaving with DEs back in 2009 and just moved to the straight razor in February of this year. Interestingly, and probably not coincidentally, I bought an MMOC in July of 2017. So I stuck with DEs for 9 years without even thinking about straights. Then I got an MMOC, and within 9 MONHTS I was experimenting with a straight razor.
I do believe that an impetus for the stubble resurgence was the cost of the cartridges and the mundane nature of the chore of shaving with modern cartridge razors.
I also agree with an earlier poster who stated that the straight is often the ultimate destination for traditional wetshavers, and that it is not very many steps from the MMOC to the straight razor. I was slow. Started shaving with DEs back in 2009 and just moved to the straight razor in February of this year. Interestingly, and probably not coincidentally, I bought an MMOC in July of 2017. So I stuck with DEs for 9 years without even thinking about straights. Then I got an MMOC, and within 9 MONHTS I was experimenting with a straight razor.
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- #75
The stubble is a sign of male maturity. Some cultures encourage some facial hair so the male does not appear feminine.
Death to the cart. Death to the homeless look. Perhaps Gillette will market disposable straights next.
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- #77
Death to conformity and group think. 
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought and think that Gillette is worried that they may have passed a threshold where they are pricing themselves out of the market and now there are more reasonable alternatives to their overpriced carts. DE’s are getting more popular - even advertised on TV, straight razors appear to be in a rebirth, Harry’s type competition. They may realize they have put themselves in a really bad market situation. They could be the modern day buggy whip maker.
I wouldn't go so far as buggy whip territory, but I do agree with your thinking. That they realize adding more blades is a dead end, and back tracking from that marketing message and innovation path will be difficult while protecting profit margins.
https://gizmodo.com/gillettes-latest-innovation-is-removing-blades-from-raz-1830288715
I have been expecting Unilever to start competing for grooming shelf space after they bought Dollar Shave Club, or for another company such as Church and Dwight to enter. Even though Gillette commands the lion share of store shelf space they must realize big trouble lies ahead. Most people switching to DE or twin blades are not ever going back to Fusion.
https://gizmodo.com/gillettes-latest-innovation-is-removing-blades-from-raz-1830288715
I have been expecting Unilever to start competing for grooming shelf space after they bought Dollar Shave Club, or for another company such as Church and Dwight to enter. Even though Gillette commands the lion share of store shelf space they must realize big trouble lies ahead. Most people switching to DE or twin blades are not ever going back to Fusion.
I watched the gizmodo video - never heard of this new shaving device. Looks like Gillette is fresh out of ideas. I believe I'll pass on it.
